look: Johnny Nicholas & the Texas All-Stars - Big Band Bash - Topcat Records, 2006 - BUY

listen:

Broke Again

Before I Grow Too Old

Texas Flood

buy:

Wow, all I can say is it must have been a huge room they recorded this live CD in. Every player from Texas is here and then some. Johnny Nicholas has been on the blues scene for many years (I saw him a lot when he was playing in Ann Arbor in the early 1970s) Here Nicholas has assembled the Texas All-Stars in a tribute to the music he has played and been in love with since the beginning. Just a partial list (no offence to those I leave off) of musicians here are Johnny Nicholas, Greg Piccolo, Jimmy Vaughan, Stephen Bruton, "Frosty" Smith, Sarah Fox, Joel Guzman, and Joe "King" Carrasco. Then you add on the Texas Horns under the direction of Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff and it's like the frosting on the cake.

Recorded live at the 7th Annual Big Band Bash in Fredericksburg, Texas, Nicholas leads the band through the 16 tracks starting with his own Broke Again with Nicholas alternating solos with fiddle player Danny Levin. Track three brings in Texas Blues legend Jimmy Vaughan with his "less is more" guitar style and unmistakable vocals on The Ironic Twist. Johnny pays tribute to the late great Doug Sahm on the grinding Down in the Alley which features Greg Piccolo on a searing sax solo. On the instrumental Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, the band switches gears from traditional Texas swing to the big band sound of Duke Ellington, but it still has that Texas flavor thanks to a fiddle solo from Danny Levin.

The band performs a stunning version of Miles Davis's All Blues featuring the piano work of Floyd Domino and some great charts written by Mark Kazanoff. The Wynonie Harris penned Good Morning Judge gets the big band treatment as Nicholas begs forgiveness from the judge for everything from dating the judge's underage daughter to failing to pay his taxes. The CD comes to an end way too quickly with the classic Larry Davis penned Texas Flood.

For those of you that need to hear horns in your blues then this is the CD for you. The recording quality, thanks to Chet Himes and crew, is excellent throughout making this a CD that tops the pile of "must haves" for 2006.

(©) 2006, Tim Richards
BluesSource.com