Customer Reviews

Heavy Juice

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What do you do when you know the hottest Roomful sound was heard at their home club in the early 1970s as recorded on their first two albums? Simple, get the old line-up, add the new horn players, and make the tightest, hottest, most sophisticated, wildest, tasty, Roomful All-Star release of all time. Greg Piccolo pulls this off, though this release mostly highlights his solo sax work, by letting Duke Robillard take the lead on several guitar cuts and includes "It's Obdacious", their vocal duo standard from the early days; and in "Hawk's Barrelhouse" each player gets their chance with a pair of eights.

"Mushmouth" is the cut that got airply because it is just so tight it wails. This is something that just happens, a living organism, and is hard to explain. A group of players knowing exactly when and how to anticipate each other. Wow.

"Plaid Laces" with a back beat you can't lose it. "High Ballin' Daddy" showcases Piccolo's Jump Blues vocal finesse.

The down & dirty "Bolo Blues" and heart wrenching "Count Your Blessings" are still part of his play list in his current small trio called, you guessed it, "Heavy Juice".

Why this 1990 release didn't create a bigger sensation is totally lost on me. The blues world just can't go wild over heavy sax even if it does have that juice. Check out his latest release "Homage". Now that's Jazz.

Greg Piccolo, the former band leader for the Roomful of Blues scores a very generous 3 star rating with this debut release. The songs on the release lean heavily toward a swing sound, which was going through bit of a retro revival during the time of this release. There are two or three tunes that do not follow the swing, big band formula and are really quite good. Most notably, "Bolo Blues", and "Pic's Gospel Groove" which have more of a time lasting jazz feel to them. If you like swing, you will find that the three stars are appropriate and maybe even a little understated. However, traditional blues fans, and even Roomful of Blues fans will probable find a 3 star rating very generous.