Bloodest Saxophone feat. Jewel Brown “Roller Coaster Boogie”
(Mr. Daddy-O Records/Kadokawa Corporation 2014)
Jewel Brown—vocals
Eddie Stout—vocal chanting on “That’s A Pretty Good Love”
Koda “Young Corn” Shintaro 甲田‘ヤングコーン’伸太郎—tenor saxophone
Coh—trombone, percussion
Oshikawa Yukimasa ユキマサ—baritone saxophone, percussion
Shuji—guitar
THE TAKEO—upright bass
Kiminoriキミノリ—drums
Additional Musicians: Mikio Ito—piano, key
Kazz Tanaka—percussion
It’s hard to guess exactly what Bloodest Saxophone is up to—retro rave-up, postmodern pastiche, or genre-busting playing around—but it hardly matters. Bloodest Saxophone jumps into the beat and squeals and groans with so much pleasure it’s impossible not to be infected with their lust for a musical good time.
The latest in their unique series of CD’s is a tribute, of sorts, to good-time music. “Love Roller Coaster” is a gas, followed by the Japanese sung “Kaimono Boogie” (“Shopping Boogie” might be a decent enough translation). The hipster groove of “That’s a Pretty Good Love” is delivered straight on, with nary a notion of anything other than having a great time a la the 1950s jump jazz scene.
The saxophones are front and center, as with all their recordings, but here the voice of Jewel Brown really takes over. On tunes like “Walk that Walk Daddy-O” and “Bewitched,” she really delivers. Her singing is the real deal, honed in Houston from the late 40s through the early 60s. She well deserves to be out of retirement here!
What provokes these Japanese cats to dig into this 40s and 50s swing, jump and jive music is anyone’s guess, but they are devoted to not just copying the style, but the entire feel of the music. They have clearly listened to the old recordings, soaked in the small points, the slides and shouts, the finger positions and full-on tone of the music. They do it with sincerity and self-assurance, and a heavy dose of cool. While many of the tunes are well-known, others are less so, showing just how deeply steeped the Bloodest Saxophones are into the music.
This music swings on all levels, and is a marvelous blast of the past when jazz was open to having a great, big, big-city, swinging, jumping, dance-able time.