A dip into the cassette cut-out bin at a local (non-chain) music store just resulted in pay dirt.  This 1994 album was completely unknown to me, but the subject artist was familiar.  The Ottawa Citizen has called Al Kooper "the sane person's Phil Spector" and that just might do him justice.  Among other contributions and arrangements, recall that this is the man responsible for the organ part on "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan, which Kooper both arranged and performed.  This alone protects Kooper's reputation, but perhaps in a more folk-rock sense than is proper.  In arranging and in talent, he shines most often with blues numbers (recall his albums with Mike Bloomfield).

   And this album is mostly a blues instrumental.  Although there are some fairly clever covers, such as a wordless rendition of Clarence Reid and Willie Clark's "Clean Up Woman", plus a strange but fun Robert Palmer song called "Lookin' For Clues" (which has a few 80's-type synthesizer lines that sound like a Japanese game show theme played back at the wrong speed), the cassette's Side Two slides into Kooper's comfort zone.  The first thing there is the standard "Honky Tonk" by Bill Doggett, a sax-based 12-bar number (Arno Hecht on tenor) that hands the melody off to other principal musicians in time-honored cycles, as with lead guitar (Jimmy Vivino) and keyboards (Kooper on the Hammond).  And it sneaks up on you, beginning in deceptively simple riffs but by the first sax jam feels as right as a baseball glove you've had for fifteen years.  This cut featured the best musicianship I've heard since the last time Steely Dan was through town, which was about a year ago.   It reminded me of the slinky Chuck Berry song ("You Never Can Tell") that Uma Thurman and John Travolta danced to in "Pulp Fiction".  That was a film I didn't quite go for, except where that scene is concerned.  

     So this one's recommended.  It may not be Mozart, but it's a faithful continuation of basic popular blues traditions centering on the late 1950's American south, with frequent references to Chicago and New Orleans dialects.  Several widely known session musicians showed up for the blocks Kooper booked in NYC, such as trumpet pro Randy Brecker and drummer Anton Fig of David Letterman's band.  If you see this album in any form, particularly at cut-out prices, grab it.  

6/14/2008