BLUES REVIEWS momentarily left the planet— CONTINUED the hallmark of efficacious desert its Creole ear. Keeping fresh blues. and relevant is one of the keys DENNIS ROZANSKI to its longevity. More so than that is its incredible danceability. R.L. BOYCE And Houston-born accordion- Roll and Tumble ist Corey Ledet has been doing WAXPLOITATION his part to keep the Gulf Coast t’s just another day at the north dance going, be that from atop IMississippi office—which, in countless bandstands or inside R.L. Boyce’s case can be a juke, a recording studio seven times a house party, a folding chair out before this. The dividends paid Otis and Buddy. He’s an hon- MAMADOU KELLY on the dirt, wherever he and from going old-school a la Clif- orary Rolling Stone (that’s him Politiki an electric guitar set up shop. ton, Boozoo or Buckwheat tangled into “Hot Stuff” and CLERMONT Except, luckily, tape was running culminated in a Grammy nomi- “Memory Motel”). He’s been he riff is “on” in a major way, this time. And freely so—vacu- nation for 2013’s Nothin’ But the one of Mayall’s Bluesbreakers as Tturning guitars into snakes on uming up the entire dicey affair: Best . Yet the 35-year-old doesn’t well as a card-carrying member the slither. Their rhythmic pulse the bare-bulb ambiance bred by always look in the rearview mir- of Canned Heat (historically val- effortlessly trances out with the spontaneous outbursts and cack- ror to scope out his path forward. idated on the Woodstock stage). assist of native tongues driving led asides as much as the endless He’s been heard zydecanizing You know that two-handed tap- drones deeper still with every one-chord grooves that become everything from Prince’s “Pur- ping technique trademarked by passing cycle of incantatory call- drugs over the course of their ple Rain” to Michael Jackson’s Eddie Van Halen and Stanley and-response. All the while, the pulsating hypnosis. Music made “The Way You Make Me Feel.” Jordan? Harvey beat them to ancestral granddaddy of drums, a any looser would surely collapse That modernist bent reach- the punch on 1973’s pioneering calabash gourd, taps out the beat and disintegrate. es new heights on Standing on Shangrenade . Such is the life of with a percussive horse-hoofed And therein lies Roll and Faith . Not because the Gloved an undervalued guitar deity who clip-clop. The telltale signs of Tumble ’s magnificence. Because One receives another nod via an has been pushing the envelope desert blues are unmistakably Boyce has always been a dish instrumental run at “Love Never akin to Beck to Fripp to Hold- ever-present. best served raw. That goes for Felt So Good.” Nor because the sworth. Guitarist Mamadou Kelly back when he used to thunder funky, transistorized “Intro” to Snake Attack is the ultimate was naturally destined to lead as a fife-and-drummer in Otha this eight-song set invokes the expression of Mandel’s turbulent the genre. His top-shelf chops Turner’s squad and most certainly Purple One. But because Ledet innovation. Namely, he wrote, earned a spot in the late, great now when plugging the void left obviously enrolled in nu-school home-recorded, performed Ali Farka Tourè’s troupe: the in the hill country’s guitar legacy zydeco of the kind Chris Ardoin (yes, he’s synthsational on all Muddy Waters Band—or, even after R.L. Burnside died (who teaches over in Louisiana. Yes, instruments), mixed and mastered closer yet, the John Lee Hooker plugged after Fred McDowell, a riffing accordion still wheez- this entirely self-contained, Band—of the Sahara. The music’s who plugged after Sid Hemphill). es heavily through “Push Me self-created world. Complexly mystical grip stayed with him Astutely, co-producer/ Away,” and a steel-vested frot- patterned pyrotechnics overlay after breaking solo. Inevitably, co-guitarist Luther Dickinson toir scratches at the grateful title their textures. Those explorations Politiki is a real mesmerizer just (North Mississippi Allstars) track. But Ledet comes on like then get diced into 10 bite-sized like Kelly’s two prior albums recorded—not produced—this never before as an ultrasmooth instrumentals given names as for Clermont Music, a New session so as to safeguard against operator. Today’s R&B thor- intriguing as their personalities: York label with a West African any remote chance of calculation oughly informs “Street Light” as the hyper “Super Squid,” heartbeat. However, unlike the or predictability. In other words: much as “Take Me There,” which ominous “Exotic Predator,” hard-line traditionalism of 2013’s No polish, no disinfectant, no swabs its horizontal desires in a and industrial “Sinister” which Adibar and 2015’s progressively practice, practice, practice , no second synthy, lets-get-it-on sheen. By pumps its pistons down in an wider-screened Djamila , Politiki takes. No problem for an hour- reaching young and old, Ledet engine room. “A Luscious Life” now lets in the outside world. Yet long set meant to play like you’d keeps zydeco advancing. and “Criminal Intent” contrast does so without compromising just flung open the jukehouse DENNIS ROZANSKI with their symphonic majesty, the Malian quartet, as drums, door and the band is right until “Freak of Dawn” U-turns bass and the prominent sear from there, tumbling through “Don’t HARVEY MANDEL back into the fray. Mandel’s Cindy Cashdollar’s steel guitar Worry My Mind,” then heaving Snake Attack adventurous streak runs wild melt into the groove. “Shotgun” with a nasty, randy ROCK BEAT with testosterone leads, dense Into and out of the ether arvey “The Snake” Mandel is rhythmic hurricanes and proggy jams go. One after the next— Halso a lion on guitar. Always tendencies. It’s the sound of a “Nakaam” into “Politiki” into has been, starting back as early mad genius constructing the “Mahin Nime”—relay a real as 1966 when his serpentine exact album heard in his head, as sense of wide-open expanse lines first roared through Char- longstanding plans finally convert that comes from the miles lie Musselwhite’s Stand Back! into tangible licks and beats and, of elbowroom granted all before doing the same, two years ultimately, the recording of not eight tracks—sidewinders and later, on his own Cristo Redentor only Mandel’s dreams—but of spellbinders, each and every debut. Mandel’s advanced skills anyone who appreciates a good one. For 51 minutes, you’re earned playing time alongside envelope pushing. released, flying without wings, the likes of Muddy and Wolf, DENNIS ROZANSKI infused with a sense of having

30 | BLUESRAG | SUMMER 2017 | MOJOWORKIN.COM