By Marilyn Lester***By any other name… the concert was labeled a Blues Jam, but more to the point was an R&B jam with touches of soul jazz as well as funk. No matter, the end result was a rip-roaring two and a half-hour-plus rockin’ fiesta of sound in a packed Rose Hall (aka The House of Swing) in Jazz at Lincoln Center. Anchoring the evening was host,
Pete Fallico, whose credits on the West Coast are many, including as a DJ on KCSM Jazz 91 in San Mateo, CA. Crisp and succinct (that deep radio voice!), Fallico kept the acts coming, starting with organist Ronnie Foster, drummer Herlin Riley and alto saxophonist Sherman Irby on Foster’s “Swingin’,” a liberated jazz-based blues tune deepened by Irby, a founding member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Irby also contributed jazz licks in a shuffle tune, “The Way You Make Me Feel” (M. Jackson) with Herlin, organist DeShawn Alexander and the virtuoso of the steel lap guitar, Roosevelt Collier.
Essential to every number played during the concert was the Hammond B3 organ, played intermittently by Foster and Alexander, both with a tremendous set of chops. The electric organ, 
invented in 1935, became a staple in jazz organ trios with its pronounced built-in vibrato and chorus effects. Like the electric guitar, invented in 1932, these instruments became the heart and soul of R&B. Representing for the classic organ trio, guitarist Chris Bergson, straight out of the Erric Clapton school of performance, with Foster and Riley, offered a smoking Muddy Water’s “Mean Disposition.” Standing on the shoulders of one of the original adopters of the electric guitar, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ruthie Foster (sister of Ronnie Foster) played her own “That’s All Right Mama” with Foster and Riley, and then, with the addition of Collier, another of her compositions, a harmonically sophisticated “Runaway Soul.” Later in the program, Bergson was an inspired dervish with Ray Charles’ “Drown in My Own Tears.”
What are the blues or an R&B concert without vocals? To showcase that essential aspect of the genre, the concert included jazz singer Marion Cowings and singer-songwriter and Gramm-nominated R&B vocalist, Emily King (Cowing’s daughter). In exceptional voice, Cowings aced “I’m Tore Down” (Freddie King), with the backing of jazz stalwart
Irby added to the Foster-Riley rhythm duo. King followed with an R&B standard based on a traditional 12-bar blues, “”Messin’ with the Kid” (M. London). A father-daughter duet, “Goin’ Down” (F.King), with Irby in the musical mix, was full of beautiful familial chemistry and inspired vocalization. Even though an ensemble presentation of artists, the spotlight was definitively on Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, whose soulful blues/R&B guitar conjured up the greatness of forebear B.B. King. His own “That’s What You Do” immediately brought down the house. With vocals by King, a high point in the evening came with the B.B. King classic, “The Thrill Is Gone.” The slow groove was a crowd-pleaser in its excellence. Another dynamic duo, Kingfish and Collier, wailed on “Gangster of Love,” a tune written and recorded in 1957 as a blues, and since much recorded and arranged in various styles. Finally, ending an exhilarating and thrilling program (that was a tad too long, despite its riches), was the entire cast gathered on stage for a rousing “Every Day I Have the Blues” (Pinetop Sparks). This 1935 blues number has since been performed in many styles since, so what better way to end this feast of R&B than with a foundational classic.
Photos by Nathalie Schueller/Jazz at Lincoln Center.
