Harold Battiste is a warm, knowledgeable human being, with extensive recording, playing, producing and teaching experience. He was perfectly suited to guide a small interested audience through the vagaries of the New Orleans/West Coast music business. Battiste’s receptiveness to new music, his openness, and his upbeat attitudes are welcome in a field where one typically [...]
Ellis’ fans will no doubt welcome his new album on Columbia. Produced by son Delfeayo, it features Ray Brown on bass and Herlin Riley, Billy Higgins, and Jason Marsalis as a line supporting crew on drums. “Have You Met Miss Jones?” is a straight-ahead, light, swinging reading with no surprises. But on “Never Let Me [...]
“I built my own prison, my mind must find the key, and nobody, nobody can open this cell but me.” Gatemouth’s hip, mature ’90s urban blues style confronts isolation, infidelity, abandonment and drugs. His strong dark humor converts contemporary preoccupation with self into wonderfully satisfying adult entertainment. The real surprise for listeners unfamiliar with the [...]
