Lil’ Red & The Rooster with Bobby Floyd – 7
Lil’ Red Records
7 songs time – 33:44
Columbus, Ohio based Jen “Lil’ Red” Milligan & The Rooster (guitarist Pascal Fouquet), along with organist-pianist Bobby Floyd present their latest effort of jazz-tinged Americana music with a hint of blues. Pascal has enlisted fellow Frenchmen Jean-Marc Despeignes on bass and Pascal Mucci on drums as the rhythm section. Pascal Fouqet’s guitar and Bobby Floyd’s organ light up the music to a great degree. A few extra players are used along the way. Six of the seven songs were jointly written by Lil’ Red and Pascal Fouquet. Lil’ Red’s vocals tend to be light and airy, giving off a cabaret vibe.
Gospel chanting and a spoken-word intro by Lil’ Red lead into the gospel inflected song “wild’s rising”, complete with backing from gospel-like backing vocalists. The gist of the song is her ex-significant other leaving that gives her freedom. She talk-sings against Pascal’s sublime jazzy guitar on “stack ’em up baby”. The dude really has a grasp on his guitar technique. Bobby Floyd’s cocktail hour piano lends just the perfect touch. They bring in ‘da’ funk with “is this heart taken” as the guitar enters the blues zone. Bobby brings the jazz with his smoking organ. A long instrumental intro kicks off the mellow “melancholy mood” as Lil’ Red offers up a cool vocal. The organ is way too cool as well!
The instrumental “midnight on the rocks” shows off the band in a nice and jazzy way. The Governor on bongos along with Mister Floyd’s piano and the as usual tasty guitar make it a true keeper. A similar vibe is carried on with “between the lines”, this time with vocals. A spy movie soundtrack atmosphere is created for “mr saboteur (aka do the donut). Jeff Morrow adds additional deep vocals to Red’s. More amazing organ here as well. A bit of quirky-ness on this number.
Some interesting Americana music from the Midwest with a Parisian flair. It is all here-mellow vocals, jazzy-bluesy guitar, jazzed-up organ, jazz piano percussion, backing vocals and a sturdy rhythm section. A mellow jazz-blues excursion. A neat change of pace this one.
