JOHNNY TUCKER * 75 AND ALIVE *

 

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Johnny Tucker is seventy-five and, for sixty-five of them, has been singing his heart out on stages around the world, most notably as drummer and vocalist with bluesman Phillip Walker. Strangely, it wasn’t until 1997 that he recorded as a ‘named’ artist when he released an album with fellow singer James “Broadway” Thomas called Stranded. Since then, he’s had a couple of very strong releases: Why You Lookin’ At Me? in 2002 and 2018’s Seven Day Blues (reviewed here on Bluesdoodles).

His story (his history) is similar to many of the original blues artists, as he explains: “We picked cotton and cut grapes. We did everything we were supposed to do out in the field.” From humble beginnings he drank in the music of the family and began, as many drummers did, knocking seven bells out of pots and pans, graduating to a full kit and then joining Walker and embracing the touring and performing schedules.

This album is a natural development as, with the help of genius guitar man Kid Ramos and the Allstars band, Johnny’s unique approach to writing and recording worked so well with Kid’s instinctive playing. Kid explains:

“I just started calling out these different grooves, and we just went through them and let the tape roll, and Johnny was in his booth and he started making up words,” says Kid. “Everything was pretty much first or second take, and I just had all these grooves in my mind. And the band was a great band, so they were just able to follow my lead.”

So, in essence, they jammed while Johnny made up the words and melodies as they went along.

That approach has led to ten tracks of improvisation and inspiration where the protagonists seem to use ESP as they keep tight and original…there’s a bonus too: an extra two tracks are ‘tribute’ instrumentals by Kid Ramos. The album is called 75 & Alive because it was recorded on October 17, 2020, which was Johnny’s 75th birthday. His wife, Georgia May Tucker was in the studio with him and has since sadly passed away, so the record is dedicated to her.

Johnny’s voice has matured like a fine malt whisky and you’d never guess his age as you listen to his tone and inflections: backed such a good band, this is a solid record and a fitting way to show his love for Georgia.

It opens with a party atmosphere and T-Bone style guitar from Kid as All Night Long, All Night Wrong draws you in…the sax, the bass, the guitar all hit the precise tone for the era as Johnny declares his love and whoops about it and the bonus of a clear paint solo tops it off nicely. There’s A Time For Love moves to slow blues and an evocative vocal all backed by Kid’s neat guitar phrasing and an impassioned and subtle solo of real invention.

If You Ever Love Me hits the R ’n’ B via Fats Domino button as the piano-led blues, backed by some lovely phased guitar and subtle harp work, builds with another class vocal performance. I can’t work out how the guitar ‘phased’ sound is achieved, but it’s effective. A geographical shift to Chicago next as Can’t You See opens with guitar, piano and harp and a great drum shuffle combining to ensure the “have a good time” lyrics are spot on. The harp and piano solos are a delight. What’s The Matter takes us dancing rumba style as the sax parps, the guitar lightens and Johnny has a ball…pun intended. Kid serves up another inventive, paced and clever solo to strengthen the song still further.

Another change of mood as Treat Me Good has that phasing/vibrato treatment again on the guitar backing a slower paced blues, although the runs Kid fits in are rapid and classy…as is the solo and all the while Johnny lays down a great vocal. The first of two instrumentals is next: Snowplow (or Snowplough) is a tasty if short tribute to Albert Collins where Kid captures the style perfectly whilst still adding his own touches including some clever hammers. The sax solo fits well and it is a great little tune that you can’t help but tap along to. Slotted in between the instrumentals is the barrelling piano blues of What’s On My Mind with the harp and piano firing up and matching the vocal. Hookline is the second of Kid’s tributes; not to John Lee, but the other Hooker…Earl Hooker or to give him his full name, Earl Zebedee Hooker. A hugely influential player with his slide driven Chicago blues, he performed with blues giants such as Sonny Boy Williamson II, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker as well as his own bands. If you don’t know him, listen to his single Blue Guitar, slide-guitar instrumental which was later overdubbed with vocals by Muddy Waters and became popular You Shook Me…which has since been appropriated! Dance Like I Should has some gorgeous slide and harp overlaying the mid-paced beat as the whole band team up with Johnny on a familiarly new Texas blues song. The piano solo is a particular delight as it traverses the keyboard.

Have A Good Time Tonight – Play Your Soul, Johnny brings the great Buddy Guy to mind as Kid plays some true blues runs on the intro and burns brightly on the solo. The final track moves cities to Memphis and a soulful, horn-driven Gotta Do It One Time. The blues are kept front and centre however by the great pain solo and the guitar chord work and picked solo.

A hugely enjoyable album of blues that reflect the various eras of the blues while retaining a freshness…yes, the old tropes are all there, but they all get a professional polish from Kid and the Allstars while Johnny sings from the heart.

Bluesdoodles rating: 3 Doodle Paws – a great listen for classic blues delivered by true craftsmen who take the familiar and weave new life around the traditional frameworks.

Johnny Tucker 75 & Alive with Kid Ramos and the Allstars

Track listing:

All Night Long, All Night Wrong

There’s A Time For Love

If You Ever Love Me

Can’t You See

What’s The Matter

Treat Me Good

Snowplow

What’s On My Mind

Hookline

Dance Like I Should

Have A Good Time Tonight – Play Your Soul, Johnny

Gotta Do It One Time

Musicians:

Johnny Tucker: vocals

Kid Ramos: guitar

Carl Sunny Leyland: keyboards

John Bazz: bass, upright bass

Jason Lozano: drums

Ron Dziubla: saxophone

Bob Corritore: harmonica

75 & Alive is out now on Blue Heart/Highjohn Records.

Connect with Johnny Tucker across SOCIAL MEDIA

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Voices like Johnny Tucker’s barely exist anymore in today’s guitar-dominated blues world.

His powerful pipes testify to a lifetime proudly spent singing and living the blues in ways that are no longer possible. If Johnny’s a rare commodity as an electrifying vocalist, his songwriting technique is even more unusual. He puts together lyrics inside the recording studio, listening to the band and coming up with words to fit their grooves.

That’s the way he did it throughout Johnny Tucker 75 and Alive. “It just flowed in my head,” says the Fresno, California-based singer. “I didn’t know what I was going to say until I said it. So it came out beautiful, man. Everything was right on time, like I’ve been doing the same songs for a long time, and that’s the first time I ever did it.

“I listen to the song one time, and then I be putting it together.”

 Bob Auerbach, Johnny’s manager, owns the HighJohn label, previously the source for Tucker’s acclaimed CDs Why You Lookin’ At Me? in 2002 and 2018’s Seven Day Blues.  Bob recruited Los Angeles guitar mainstay Kid Ramos as his producer this time, Ramos assembling his Allstars, featuring ace pianist Carl Sonny Leyland, to handle the swinging backing. “That’s my man!” says Johnny of Kid. “We go way back.” The combination meshed from the get-go.

 “I just started calling out these different grooves, and we just went through them and let the tape roll, and Johnny was in his booth and he started making up words,” says Kid. “Everything was pretty much first or second take, and I just had all these grooves in my mind. And the band was a great band, so they were just able to follow my lead.”

So tightly constructed are Johnny’s ten numbers that you’d never suspect their improvisatory origins. The Allstars give each song its own special sound, Ramos’ crisp T-Bone Walker-influenced picking driving the jumping “All Night Long, All Night Wrong” and a sumptuous downbeat “There’s A Time For Love.” Johnny roars the swamp poppish “If You Ever Love Me” and a Magic Sam-styled “Treat Me Good” with Kid hooked up to a shimmery Magnatone amp. “It’s got that true vibrato,” notes Ramos.

 Special guest Bob Corritore’s wailing harp spices the Windy City shuffle “Can’t You See” and a hurtling “What’s On My Mind,” the latter stoked by Leyland’s two-fisted boogie 88s. “Man, I laughed for two days doing that song, ‘What’s On My Mind,’” says Johnny. “But it worked!” “What’s The Matter” has Kid conjuring up Albert King’s fret fire as Tucker rides the rhumba-tinged rhythm; his crashing slide powers an Elmore James-patterned “Dance Like I Should.”

 Tucker’s vocal exuberance is a delight on the slashing “Have A Good Time Tonight” and a funky “Gotta Do It One Time.” “I just kind of started playing that groove, and he came up with that,” says Ramos of the latter. “I put the horns on it, and it came out really good.” Kid’s two instrumentals pay fiery tribute to Albert Collins (“Snowplow”) and Earl Hooker (“Hookline”). 

 Fresno-born Johnny hailed from a huge sharecropping family. “We picked cotton and cut grapes,” he says. “We did everything we were supposed to do out in the field.” Johnny’s father encouraged his sons to pursue musical careers. “Daddy played a lot of guitar,” he says. “Everybody had to shut up because Daddy sang low. He always sang real low like he was talking. And he never was no loud person. But he talked them words out. And I sung ‘em out. So that’s how I got to singing alongside of him, because he was singing words to a song that I never heard before.”

 The youngster was drawn to percussion. “I got a lot of sound out of them pots and pans!” he says. “I got with a band and I was playing my pots and pans, and they said, ‘Oh, man, we’re gonna get you some congas!’” Pretty soon he graduated to a real drum kit. “He and his brothers would go to the local roadhouse and they would let them play, and they were pretty good,” says Auerbach. “They had to bring money home to the family, and five of the boys, I think, chose music.” James Brown exerted a heavy influence: “I’d try to sing everything he put out!”

 In 1964, Johnny relocated to L.A. “There was more people playing music in Los Angeles than there was in Fresno,” he reasons. Tucker’s big break came when veteran blues guitarist Phillip Walker brought him into his band as his drummer. “That’s my favorite, Phillip. He taught me a lot about the music game,” he says. “He hired me because I could sing. I could sing the background for him.” Johnny remained an integral member of Walker’s band for decades, touring the world with him and playing drums and singing harmony on Phillip’s acclaimed album, The Bottom of the Top.

 Tucker made his recording debut as a front man in cahoots with fellow singer James “Broadway” Thomas with the 1997 disc Stranded for producer Bruce Bromberg. Then he met Auerbach, a restaurateur whose father ran San Francisco’s Jazz Workshop during the ‘50s and ‘60s, at the Long Beach Blues Festival. “It was 103 degrees, and Johnny was in a three-piece felt suit, fedora and all,” says Bob, “electric blue, on a blanket, listening to the music. And I tripped on him!” It was the start of a business partnership that’s still going strong.

 This album was recorded on October 17, 2020, which just happened to be Johnny’s 75th birthday. “His wife was in the studio with him. Her name was Georgia May Tucker,” says Auerbach. “Georgia has since passed, so the record is in tribute to her.”

 Johnny Tucker is bravely carrying on without his beloved spouse. He still has the pipes, plenty of fresh songs, and now the splendid 75 and Alive—all testifying to the inherent truth of his new album’s title.

                                                                           

 - Bill Dahl, Music Journalist in https://www.nola-blue.com/johnnytucker

Como curiosidad os dejamos los datos de su actuación en el FESTIVAL DE JAZZ de Terrassa . 

Data: 

dissabte, 10 març, 1984 - 22:30

Espai: 

Centre Cultural (Rbla.d'Egara 340)

Estil: 

Blues

LOWELL FULSON / PHILLIP WALKER BLUES FESTIVAL

Lowell Fulson

Guitarra

Lowell Fulson

Veu

Phillip Walker

Guitarra

Phillip Walker

Veu

Ollis W. Gillmore

Saxo tenor

Artie Larry

piano

Dennis Walker

baix elèctric

Johnny Tucker

Bateria