Guitarist and singer Doug Wamble attacks the blues in a very unique way with esteemed jazz cats and acclaimed co-producer Charley Drayton (Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Fiona Apple, Ivan Neville). Wamble is also a producer and educator who here fronts a quartet of progressive jazz musicians in longtime collaborators – acoustic bassist Eric Revis and drummer Jeff “Tain’ Watts, along with the expressive Prometheus Jenkins (aka Branford Marsalis) on tenor and soprano saxophones.
Wamble is anything but shy in addressing hate, hypocrisy, right-wing extremism, and the former President. Wamble’s voice is an acquired taste but it’s extraordinarily expressive. His guitar playing is even more unique, yet blues is in the Memphis-raised Wamble’s blood. His jazzy-blues tone is unprocessed as he plays on a subtly amplified Mule Resonator guitar built by Michigan-based luthier Matt Eich. The style is uniquely his own and lies somewhere between jazz, blues, and roots music. There are no clear reference points as it’s a mashup of many styles. His list of credits and biography is fascinating. We’ll leave that to you.
“Homesick” kicks it off with Wamble’s guitar playing single-line acoustic notes to the rhythms of Revis and Watts. Soon he begins rhythmic strumming, pushed by the rhythm tandem before returning to sing about how childhood memories inform our perspective as we get older. Jenkins then enters with a burning tenor solo as the rhythm continues to churn. This is an innocent enough beginning that doesn’t really prepare us for his blistering lyrics on hypocrisy in the slow but unconventional blues of “MAGA Brain” – “Don’t you tell me about your God/ Is he listening when you speak your fraud/ Don’t you linger round this earthly shelf /Point your finger at yourself.” We hear a stretched-out turn from Revis and more inspired tenor playing from Jenkins as well as Wamble’s stellar mix of fingerpicking and chording.
Wamble is writing from the point of view of those with whom he deeply disagrees. “No Worries” depicts the insular, racist white man who has no use for movements like Black Lives Matter. “Stop with your complaining/ Holding up your signs/ Always out there marching/ Why do you keep trying /I ain’t got no worries/ Things are looking fine.” Jenkins goes into beast mode on his tenor in this one as Watts pushes him, until he gets to the last crashing climax.“If I’m Evil” plies a similar theme. It’s about the close-minded righteous person who epitomizes the Christian right and scorns the rights of others who think differently. It couldn’t be more timely given recent Supreme Court decisions. Wamble’s solo and interplay with Revis here represent some of the disc’s deepest blues as does Jenkins who goes for a greasy, back-in-the-alley turn.
While songs like these were obviously written in the last few years, Wamble revisits “Along the Way” from his first album, Country Libations (Marsalis Music 2003), a tune which he penned on 9/11 while living in New York, where he still resides. This is the first time we hear Jenkins on a stirring soprano solo, and he plays the smaller horn through the remainder of the album. “Blues for the Praying Man” is a plea to stay honest and faithful (keeping our eye on the prize) during this time when democracy is threatened, wars rage, and divisiveness grows. Jenkins plays with unabashed fervor on soprano as if laying down an impassioned sermon in church. Wamble and his bandmates pick up on that energy as well with Wamble as deeply emotional and vocally as at any point on the disc as he ends in convicted pleading. The only non-vocal tune, “Blues to the Unfound” grew out of a solo guitar meditation on heartbreak and loss inspired by Duke Ellington and Kenny Kirkland but does feature the full quartet with Wamble and Jenkins engaging in expressive statements as the piece moves through sections.
This is one of the year’s strongest albums and it should appear on one or more of the Year’s Best lists in Jazz, Blues, and Roots categories.
