Jazz / Blues, Soul-Blues, Modern Electric Blues, Jazz Blues, Contemporary Blues
Pyeng Threadgill - Liner Notes, Stylist, Vocals, Producer, Art Direction, Arranger, Handclapping
Bill Coleman Sequencing
Dana Leong Cello, Handclapping, Trombone, Horn Arrangements, Bass (Electric), Guitar (Bass), Producer, Arranger
Ian Jeffreys Vocal Arrangement, Vocals (Background)
Jacob Silver Arranger
Laura Johnson Vocals (Background), Vocal Arrangement
Luz Fleming Fender Rhodes
Rick Congress Executive Producer
Ryan Scott Slide Guitar, Guitar (Electric), Handclapping, Sampling, Arranger, Vocals (Background), Producer, Guitar (Acoustic)
Sachal Vasandani Vocal Arrangement, Vocals (Background)
Scott Cresswell Mixing
The Dave Pier Quartet Piano
Tim Conklin Engineer, Mixing, Mastering
First there's the edgy, swinging jazz read of "Love in Vain," followed by the lean, ragged funk of "Phonograph Blues." The swampy acoustic guitar-and-brass blues of "Milk Cow Calf's Blues" is a nod to earlier times, but feels more like it's being performed in busker style on the lawn of Thompkins Square Park. The lone cello accompaniment (played elegantly by Dana Leong) on "If You've Got a Good Friend" evokes the dignified spirit, if not the timbre, of Nina Simone's ghost, and the jazzed-out, near scatted take on "Dust My Broom," where Threadgill is accompanied only by a double bass and a trap kit, offers the startling--and sometimes hair-raisin-- originality of her approach. Likewise the tension between second-line New Orleans rhythms at the heart of "Sweet Home Chicago," where jagged jazz-rock guitar fills are held expertly in the tense grain of Threadgill's voice is jarring, perhaps, but far from unwelcome. She croons, swoons, shouts, growls, whoops, and moans to get these blues across proving in the process that in the current era, these tunes that are enduring to be sure, but they continue to hold a cryptic mystique; they are still alluring because they can be articulated in so many different contexts and retain their seductive power and jagged grace. Threadgill's recorded debut is an auspicious one. She paints her blues shiny black and pushes them headlong into a future where tradition and history are processes of evolution, not quaint curiosities. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide |
