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Chuck Carbo: The Barber's Blues |
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New Orleans
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Friday, 13 January 2006 19:14 |
Chuck Carbo
The Barber's Blues
Rounder Records
By John Sinclair
A new Chuck Carbo album is a music lover's delight. What Dr. John calls his "hip, mellow voice," his wonderfully soulful delivery, his unfailing sense of swing and impeccable taste always make for a thrilling musical experience. And what's more, Chuck has a special knack for creating the kind of hard-driving good-time anthems that New Orleans is known for.
By the time Fat Tuesday 1996 has rolled around, for example, "Hey Mardi Gras! (Here I Am)" should take its place with "Jockamo," "Mardi Gras Mambo," "Go to the Mardi Gras" and other perennial Carnival favorites on the all-time party-record hit parade, joining Chuck's own timeless recordings of "Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On," "Second Line on Monday" and "Meet Me at the Station" (from his first Rounder album, Drawers Trouble.)
The rollicking medley Chuck makes of Jay McShann's "Hootie Blues" and Memphis Slim's "Everyday (I Have the Blues)" likewise sports the idiosyncratic Crescent City sound perfected by the city's master music makers, like the band led by Edward Frank and featured on this album: drummer Bunchy Johnson, bassist Erving Charles Jr., the young Davell Crawford on Hammond B-3 organ, Eugene Ross on guitar, the perfect piano of Mr. Frank and the fluently expressive horns of Leroy Jones, Fred Kemp and Craig Klein.
Chuck and the band also continue here to have their way with the otherwise fairly obscure Jimmy & Jeannie Cheatham tune portfolio, dressing up another "Black Drawers" opus Big Easy style and turning in a classy reading of their fine "Too Many Goodbyes."
Chuck's smooth, churchy baritone is tellingly showcased in a disparate pair of ballads, lifting Ray Noble's lovely song, "The Very Thought of You," to new levels of soulfulness, and filling the confessional "I'd Rather Beg" with all the passion and pain required by the brilliant Dan Penn lyric.
Like Chuck's last album, The Barber's Blues also features several compositions by his long-time pal Mac Rebennack, including a spooky "Black Widow Spider," the poignant "Promises," and the two Dr. John/Doc Pomus collaborations: "A World I Never Made" (from the Johnny Adams songbook) and the salacious title track, which Chuck dedicates to the wig-shaping specialists at Luke's Tonsorial Parlor by Magazine Street & Napoleon Avenue.
"Mac and I have been together off and on since 1958," Chuck says, "ever since he produced my little singles for Ace Records. He sends me songs he thinks I might like, and I've always enjoyed working with Mac. He did a lot of nice things for me on my first Rounder album."
While that record was made in 1993, Chuck Carbo has been a force on the New Orleans rhythm & blues scene since 1953, when his singing group The Spiders began to cut a series of minor masterpieces for Imperial Records under the aegis of producer Dave Batholomew.
The Spiders' first smash single, the eternally fresh "I Didn't Wanna Do It," rose to Number 3 on the national R&B charts in 1954-55, propelling Chuck, his brother Chick and the fellows onto the world stage and landing the group a spot on touring package shows with artists like Sonny Til & The Orioles, Buddy & Ella Johnson, Roy Hamilton, comedian Pigmeat Markham, and the Charlie Barnett Orchestra.
They played the Apollo Theatre in New York City, the 5-4 Ballroom in Los Angeles, the Howard Theatre in the nation's capitol, and similarly prestigious venues in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Atlanta and other major cities while their recordings continued to garner airplay on R&B stations across the country.
The Spiders' star began to fade after their double-sided 1956 hit, "Witchcraft" b/w "You're The One," fell off the charts. Chuck tried a solo recording career with Imperial but soon made his retreat from the national music scene and returned to New Orleans to help raise what became a family of 10 children. He cut a handful of singles for Johnny Vincent's Ace Records and Cosimo Matassa's Rex Records--produced by the young Mac Rebennack--and made some sides for several small New Orleans labels before giving up on the life of a professional entertainer as the 1960s came to an end.
Chuck came out of retirement in 1983 to perform as a featured artist on the legendary "Show That New Orleans Demanded" at the Municipal Auditorium, the first of many major benefit concerts staged by radio station WWOZ, and he has continued to respond to the demand for his exhilarating performances ever since.
In 1989 Carbo teamed wth Edward Frank and an all-star cast to cut a comeback album, Life's Ups and Downs, for 504 Records (still not available on CD), which contained Chuck's Crescent City classic "Second Line On Monday" and a brilliant version of the Jimmy & Jeannie Cheatham opus "Meet Me with Your Black Drawers On," which has become sort of Chuck's signature tune of the 90s.
Chuck's collaboration with pianist/composer/arranger Edward Frank also stretches back to 1953 and the early days of the Spiders. Mr. Frank-- probably the most criminally under-acknowledged giant of New Orleans rhythm & blues still living--shared the piano bench in Dave Bartholomew's legendary studio orchestra with Fats Domino, Tuts Washington and Salvador Doucette, combining with Alvin "Red" Tyler, Lee Allen, Justin Adams, Frank "Dude" Fields and the great Earl Palmer to form what was arguably the finest band in rock & roll history.
Later in the 1950s Mr. Frank moved his base of operations to Houston and served as a key pianist, arranger and producer for Don Robey's Duke/Peacock Records operation, backing artists like Bobby "Blue" Bland and Junior Parker.
Back in New Orleans Ed Frank has thrived musically for many years as one of the most creative members of the vast Crescent City music community, playing everything from down-in-the-alley blues to the most sparkling bebop piano and contributing a wealth of wonderful compositions and beautiful arrangements to countless recording sessions and live dates by the cream of the city's performing artists.
Forty years after his first collaboration with Chuck Carbo, Ed Frank arranged and led the band on Chuck's Drawers Trouble album, which featured such great Frank/Carbo/Ruth Durand compositions as "Meet Me at the Station," "Hurt Coming On," "Can't Straighten Your Mind" and "Changing Scenes."
Here Mr. Frank is given co-producer credit for his indispensible contribution to the success of this album, and his bouyant, masterfully swinging piano work is a special treat throughout.
As a matter of fact, this whole record is indeed a very special treat from beginning to end--a tasty musical gift from one of the sweetest guys you'd ever want to meet, still singing and performing at the very top of his form.
Ladies & gentlemen, back by popular demand, Rounder Records proudly presents: Mr. Chuck Carbo and his stellar orchestra, in a program of music you may enjoy forever.
--Visiting Boston
September 1995
(c) 1995, 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
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