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Les Getrex Plays the Classics |
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Friday, 27 January 2006 06:37 |
Les Getrex
Plays the Classics
Sound of New Orleans 1063
By John Sinclair
Les Getrex is one of New Orleans undiscovered musical treasures. A product of the culturally profuse 6th Ward, Les has backed up many of the Crescent City's most profound heavyweights, from Johnny Adams and Lee Dorsey to Ernie K-Doe, Walter Wolfman Washington, Barbara George and Marva Wright. He spent eight years in the guitar chair of the mighty Fats Domino orchestra and another five with the late Rockin Dopsie & his Zydeco Twisters, and he's authored one previous album, 300 Miles, that featured his own compositions and several originals by veteran Motown songwriters Greg Clark and Johnny Maxwell.
For his second outing as a leader, the versatile guitarist and powerfully persuasive singer weighs in with a set of blues, R$B and country standards that could easily be called Les Getrex Plays the Classics. The songs belong to an eye-popping spectrum which ranges from Les's terrific reading of the ancient Mardi Gras Indian anthem Indian Red to Kermit Ruffin's great 21st-century lament, I Can t Take My Baby Nowhere, complete with trumpet commentary from the composer and some salacious lyrical changes wrought by Getrex himself.
Les hits a lot of musical stops along the way, swinging stone country tunes like Tennessee Waltz and Hank Williams Jambalaya ; pumping up a pair of pop chestnuts with his groovy lounge-favorite arrangement on Misty and a hot 2nd-line romp on When My Dreamboat Comes Home ; paying devout homage to personal favorites like Bobby Blue Bland ( Farther On Up the Road ) and Otis Redding ( Mr. Pitiful ); digging deeper into the urban blues with John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Boom Boom and I Found A Love by the Falcons; striking another bawdy note with the irrepressible Chick Willis version of Stoop Down Mama ; and shining brightest on three outstanding selections from the Ray Charles mid-1950s Atlantic Records catalog: A Fool For You, Hallelujah I Love Her So and Mary Ann.
Getrex is in splendid form throughout, breathing new life into these well-established standards while stamping each song with the warmth and potency of his own personality. Les is ably and abundantly abetted by an all-star cast of Crescent City characters anchored by bassists Alonzo Johnson and Vitas Paukstatis and drummers Dwayne Nelson and Ken Thomas. Raymond Fletcher (organ), Bob Andrews and Nick Farkas (piano) and Keith Vinet take care of the keyboards; Earl Skip Thompson is on percussions; and the stellar horn section of trumpeter Tracy Griffin and saxophonists Tom Fitzpatrick and Jerry Jumonville is joined by Ruffins and trombonist Corey Henry for the final cut.
Thousands of music-seeking tourists have heard Les Getrex and his band play these numbers night after night on their endless Bourbon Street gigs in the French Quarter of New Orleans, but the good news is that the songs have translated so well to disc, The result is this fine recording, produced under the careful hand of Gary Edwards at his sumptuous Sound of New Orleans studios, and it amounts to a perfect showcase for the fully-matured talent and distinctive sound of Les Getrex. Properly introduced, Les's new legion of fans will surely join this writer in eager anticipation of a set of the guitarist's own songs but until we get it, this collection of classics will certainly provide many hours of well-rewarded listening.
--Boston
October 4, 2003
(c) 2003, 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
3.1.6116 |
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