Duke Robillard
" Stomp! The Blues Tonight"
Stoney Plain

Back on the Stomp!, (07/15/09)

Blues Wax 7
Reader: 7

With more than twenty recordings credited to Duke Robillard's name, he has explored multiple flavors of Blues and Jazz music. Stomp! The Blues Tonight is a welcome return to the Jump Blues style Robillard modernized and recreated during the early 1970s with Roomful of Blues and subsequently on his often stellar solo recordings. Duke's latest includes a horn section on several tracks with former Roomful saxophonists Doug James and Rich Lataille and cornet player Al Basile, all of whom eloquently display their talents. So do the rhythm section of Mark Teixeira on drums, Joe Ross and Marty Ballou on bass, and pianist Bruce Bears to complete this mostly grooving recording session

Stomp! The Blues Tonight features a bulging sixteen songs, three authored by Robillard, and the rest are covers written by the likes of Lowell Fulson, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Roy Milton, Wynonie Harris, Helen Humes, Jay McShann, Paul Gayten, Ike Turner, and other likely suspects that one would expect to find on a Robillard CD.

My favorite tracks include the title track that is authored by Robillard, which definitely starts Stomp off in the appropriate zone. The traditional instrumental "Frankie and Johnny," rearranged by Duke, is a complete joy where my only complaint is that I wish it ran longer than the 3:11 allotted time. Ike Turner and Ralph Bass' "Tore Up" is a killer tune that (pardon the association) stomps throughout! On the negative side, I was not enthralled with guest vocalist, Sunny Crownover, who either sings alone or side by side with Robillard.

Make no doubt about it, Robillard seems to have returned to what he does best, that being jumping Blues, a style Duke branded his own when that first classic Roomful album appeared, which interestingly was produced by Joel Dorn and Doc Pomus. Last but not least, the liner notes include track-by-track comments from Robillard which add interesting insight to this mostly cool disc.

Bob Putignano: www.SoundsofBlue.com