Lots'a Blues

Saw B.B.King in concert last weekend at the Red Robinson Show Theatre [great venue].  I had seen B.B.King in concert once before, about ten years back, on his 75th birthday.  So here he is now at 85, still doing 250 shows a year.  That's stamina!  The show was good.  The band was decent, and Mr. King's voice is still incredibly strong.  I even managed to stay awake for the whole show, despite having flown home from Italy that afternoon.

I recently bought Eric Clapton's newest album, Clapton.  Initially I liked it a lot.  It's kind of gentle... a mature sort of blues that's not rushed.  I'm less sure it's going to become a favourite for me.  It's very solid, but perhaps short of great.  I'll keep playing it and see if it grows on me more.  So far I'd give it about 7/10.

Less bluesy, I also bought Joe Satriani's new one, Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards. It's actually quite a nice album.  I haven't previously owned one of his albums, though I did buy one track on iTunes last year.  I think this new album is nicely evolutionary, while staying pretty true to the feel of the Surfing with the Alien stuff. This one so far rates 8/10 for me.

The best deal of the year was my purchase of Django Reinhardt's Greatest Hits album.  71 tracks of really pleasant music for $5.99.  Much as everyone seems to refer to him as a guitar influence, I hadn't consciously heard his music up 'till now.  I was happy to see that some of the tracks also have Stéphane Grappelli on violin, who I quite like.

Not so much bluesy, but I purchased Marcus Miller's A Night in Monte Carlo, partly because it contained a couple of Miles Davis tunes I really like.  That then convinced me to finally pony up and buy Miles Davis' Tutu album as well.  The Marcus Miller live album is good.  Solid and enjoyable but not spectacular.  I think the guy's probably a genius in the studio... harder to bring others into the picture live -- 7/10.  The Miles Davis album is really really good, and makes me kick myself for not buying it 20 years ago when I first wondered about it.  I have owned Miles' Amandla album since about 1989... didn't realize Marcus Miller was such a strong influence on that album at the time.  But I love that album and Tutu is similar enough to be absolutely great as well -- 10/10.

Finally, two more blues albums I bought earlier this year:

Steve Miller's newest album Bingo! is pretty solid.  It's enjoyable bluesfest in that fine tradition, and Miller (Steve) does a very good job in this genre.  Like most, I haven't followed his career and mostly know him from the great stuff in the 70s like Fly Like an Eagle.  This album is nice to listen to, contains some solid guitar playing, but I think it's overly memorable for me.  I'll give it 7/10.

Joe Bonamassa's Black Rock is one that's staying with me.  There are a couple of songs on there that are really great, and the rest is very solid and enjoyable.  Good blues-based stuff, but a little less predictable/standard than many blues albums, which increased my enjoyment.  I don't own any of Joe's earlier work, but this one is really great, and I'll be following him in the future.  I keep hoping he'll come to Vancouver for a show, but it doesn't look like he's heading this way soon.  I'll give Black Rock a 8/10.