- Wake It Up Baby
- I'll Be Satisfied
- Big Girl
- You Upset Me Baby
- Let 'Em Roll
- Can't Get Enough
- Jump For Joy
- Tequila
- All Or Nothing
- Oh, Marie
- Roll With My Baby
- Goin' To California
- Walkin' Mr B
King Pleasure (vocals and baritone sax)
Bullmoose K Shirley (guitar)
Boysey Battrum (alto and tenor saxes)
Mighty Matt Foundling (piano, organ)
Shark Van Schtoop (double bass)
Gary `The Enforcer' Barber (drums)
I had the pleasure of reviewing KP and The BB's last album, called Hey Puerto Rico! (see review) - was it really four years ago? - and here is their long awaited follow-up; only their second live disc. It's a rocking, no-let up, high octane hour's worth of fun, excitement and vitality. If the influence of the Lucky Millinder band of the 1930s seems less obvious than usual, that of Louis Prima and shuffle beat seems more so.
Each track has something to entice. KP's gravel-and-Gitanes vocals, a compound of Witherspoon, Prima, and a dose of the King's own potent brew, is augmented by his pungent baritone work. Boysey Battrum, who should have been duelling on his tenor in basement dives back in the 40s, gets on down on a number of tracks. He can lighten the load when required, but when the veins are poppin' and the shirt collar squeals for mercy, BB comes on strong, as he does in I'll Be Satisfied. This of course is a band that sounds bigger than it is. When the muscular two sax front line pumps out their terse and biting lines, they're augmented by the splendid guitar - sample You Upset Me Baby - of Bullmoose K Shirley, the slick-suited maestro whose ringing lines are so important a feature of the band's individual and corporate sound. So too the ringing, vital bass playing of Shark Van Schtoop, an anchor man of repute. Note too that Mighty Matt Foundling plays the Hammond organ as well as piano, despite the latter only being listed in the documentation.
I really took to Can't Get Enough. It's atmospheric, has shifting percussion patterns wielded by the one new member of the band, experienced but scary-sounding Gary `The Enforcer' Barber. What he enforces here is rhythmic vitality. A heavy back beat launches the Joe Turner classic Jump For Joy where Foundling dishes out the boogie and Bullmoose takes a smoking solo; spunky Latino grooves permeate, as does the aura of Sam Butera, Prima's sax man, when BB starts to wail. All Or Nothing is principally a piano boogie outing and on the Ray Charles song Roll With My Baby we have a fine series of thoughtful solos. The band knows how to ratchet tension but also how to control it and this disc is constructed to show the hows and whys. But by the last track, a driving KP composition called Walkin' Mr B, the sinew is back, and highlights include the King's own strangulated vocal, the rich organ backing, and especially BB's grandstanding sax outing - and at over nine minutes the boys can stretch out and parade their considerably rocking wares.
Don't leave it so long next time, fellers.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
BIG BEAR RECORDS BEAR CD50
