Blues is the ancestral parent of jazz, so it’s appropriate that Jazz at Lincoln Center hosts an annual Blues Jam to showcase that music.
This year’s concerts on February 21 and 22 featured an all-star cast, including: blues torchbearer Christone “Kingfish” Ingram (guitar/vocals), Ruthie Foster (guitar/vocals), Roosevelt Collier (slide guitar), Chris Bergson (guitar/vocals), Emily King (vocals), Marion Cowings (vocals), Herlin Riley (drums), Sherman Irby (alto saxophone), Ronnie Foster (Hammond B3 organ), and Deshawn “D’Vibes” Alexander (Hammond B3 organ). Ledisi and Chester “C.T.” Thompson were late scratches.
It was an elite group of musicians. They took on standard blues tunes by Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Ray Charles, Elmore James, Johnny Hodges, B.B. King, Junior Wells, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and more. This year’s Contemporary Blues Album Grammy Award winner Ruthie Foster was a particular highlight. She performed Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right”, an original “Runaway Soul”, and a terrific “Walk On” (Terry/McGhee) with Collier adding slide licks on his custom eight-stringed guitar. She joked, “I’m going to mix some gospel with blues here. Is that legal?” Foster’s vocals stirred the spirits and raised the roof.
Ingram is the brightest star of just about any blues ensemble these days. The 26-year-old Grammy Award winner from Clarksdale, Mississippi started with two originals “That’s What You Do” and “Hard Times”. He would rejoin the fray several times for “The Thrill is Gone” with Emily King, Lou Donaldson’s “Midnight Creeper” with Bergson and Irby featured, and an unnamed funky instrumental (with Collier, Alexander, and Riley) that seemed like the only unscripted jam of the night. While rightly hailed for his guitar might, Ingram’s singing also lent a true-blue authenticity to the proceedings. It left one longing for more of him in the mix.
Both Hammond B3 organists, Ronnie Foster and Deshawn “D’Vibes” Alexander, starred on this night. MC Pete Fallico noted that Foster was a Blue Note recording star in the 1970’s and he rejoined the label in recent years for the album Reboot. Alexander’s jam with Collier, Irby, and Riley on an instrumental from his group Watermelon Funk turned up the heat. It was a curious choice to have a blues jam with no bass player, but both organists held down the bass with their pedals and it wasn’t really missed. Irby’s sax added a Kansas City/New Orleans feel throughout the night.
The entire cast gathered for the closing number, B.B. King’s “Every Day I Have The Blues”. It must be like herding cats to gather a group of busy musicians for an event like this, but they pulled off an enjoyable night of music at The House of Swing.
