Small Blues And Grooves
VizzTone, 2020
8/10
Listen to Small Blues And Grooves
An outfit whose inception goes way back to the early ‘80s, these days the 11 Guys Quartet are much less active, but recorded this instrumental album studio live way back in 2008 and are just releasing it now.
“Road Trippin’” gets the album started off right with spirited blues riffs and harmonica acrobatics on the feel good opener that tips its hat to Freddie King, and “Jackrabbit” follows with a swift pace of busy, tuneful instrumentation that finds grooves in spades.
At 14 tracks, there’s much to digest here, but it all goes down easy, including the introspective balladry of “Sleepless”, as well as the shuffling approach of the rhythmic “East Cambridge Cannonball”.
The back half of the listen shines, too, with the cautious and memorable “Down And Dirty”, as well as the harmonica focused and brushed percussion of “Swing Low”. “Midnight Streetcar”, one of the strongest tracks, then glides by with each instrument being showcased with much skill and precision.
At the end, “Rhumba Boogalo” is about as much fun as the title implies, where guitar and harp trade off, and “Swamp Ride” ends the listen with a similar approach of genuine, flowing blues rock.
Consisting of guitartist Paul Lenart, Bill ‘Coach’ Mather on bass, Chuck Purro handling drums and Richard Rosenblatt on harmonica (who is also the president of the legendary VizzTone label), though their heyday may have been decades ago, the quartet prove that they’ve still got the chops to pen a fine blues album that you won’t forget anytime soon.
Travels well with: Brody Buster’s One Man Band- Damn! I Spilled The Blues; Bob Margolin- This Guitar And Tonight