Duke Tumatoe – Have You Seen My Keys?
Tumatoe Tuff Tunes
10 Tracks – 35 minutes
William “Duke Tumatoe” Severn Fiorio was born in Chicago in June 1947. His father was a first-generation Italian whose family hailed from San Bonifacio, Italy. Growing up in Chicago, he frequently visited Maxell Street where many of the blues greats hung out. He first saw Muddy Waters when he was 13 and “knew all of the old guys. I’d see them every day”.
In 1965 he enrolled at the University of Illinois at Champaign – Urbana. He also started the short-lived psychedelic rock group Lothar and The Hand People, which gained much attention with the futuristic sound machine the theremin. That device had been used in 1950’s science fiction and horror movies and was used in The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations”. Lothar elevated the device to a feature element of their sound and had some success with the song, “Space Hymn”, which was a track on the album. While intriguing, the public was not ready for the synthesized sound.
In 1967, Duke became an original member of REO Speedwagon. But it quickly became clear that the band’s vision of moving up in the rock genre did not fit with his desire to play the blues. In 1969, he left REO and founded Duke Tumatoe & The All-Star Frogs. They toured for thirteen years and released three albums. In 1983, Duke moved to Indianapolis and disbanded the Frogs. He then formed The Power Trio which went though many personnel changes over the years and played an average of 200 dates per year and released thirteen albums. In 1985, it was suggested that Duke record a song for the new Indianapolis Colts football team. The song, “Lord help Our Colts” became a constantly changing version of the song that changed with the tides of the team and caused some occasional strife with him between the Colts players and fans. In 1987, John Fogerty stumbled onto a Duke Tumatoe concert, was fascinated by the crowd’s energy at the concert, and decided he would like to produce an album by Duke. That resulted in the 1988 live album, I Like My Job.
Throughout his musical journey, Duke has demonstrated a musical mastery mixed with lyrics that are frequently tongue-in-cheek or downright humorous. Duke promises “A good time, a lot of mischief, and a lot of great music”. That promise is kept with this current album.
Duke plays guitar and handles lead vocals, with Bill Ritter on bass and vocals, and Dawson Ouelette on drums completing the current trio. They are backed on this album by Dan Holmes on piano and organ, Jay Young on alto and tenor sax and bass clarinet, Mark Buselli on flugelhorn, Neil Broeker on baritone sax and alto flute, and Kent Hickey on trumpet and flugelhorn.
The album consists of eight original songs and two covers starting with “What A Damn Man Needs”. He says, ” I can’t get enough of your precious love”. The song rocks out with Duke dropping a solid guitar solo. He follows up with a declaration that “You Know I Love You”. My every thought is of you. With you by my side, my every dream comes true.” The first cover is Ray Sharpe’s 1959 “Linda Lou”. He declares “You never know what my Baby’s gonna do.” “If you ever leave me you gonna break my poor heart in two.”
On “I’m Selfish Baby” “I want your love for me alone. Things are so much better when I get home.” “Call all your lovers tell them to stay away” as he proceeds to run down a laundry list of names and tells her to “delete those photos from your phone”. “Baby’s got a dress on, and I “Can’t Find My Shoes” which concludes after a search with “Have you seen my keys?”. Things really get rocking again on this one. “When A Door Is Open” “does not mean you should go inside”. “Just because you can does not mean that you should.” “You come home late. I know that smell.”
“You Don’t Love Me Anymore” is propelled by a booming sax. “I believe things ain’t going right”. “I may have said something I shouldn’t have said, I didn’t mean you were fat. You know big girls can be real sexy.” He begs ” I believe we can start anew”. “Sonny B” is an instrumental giving each of the musicians an opportunity to stretch on their instruments. He then says, “No one wants you when you are down and out” and he exclaims “Baby, we are through. “Don’t Want You Back”. The album concludes with a cover of Rosco Gordon’s 1960 rock and roll classic “Just A Little Bit”. He begs her to “Turn your lights down low. Honey, slip me a kiss. I want a teeny-weeny bit of your love”.
Duke’s guitar playing continues to be the star of the show along with his unwavering vocals. The album title could be interpreted as an admission of getting older, but nothing in this album’s music indicates anything slowing him down. The album is another notch in Duke’s growing discography.
