Bluesology s back at the start of 2021 with sizzling blues!
2020 comes to an end and its last few months brought the sizzling blues of Johnny Iguana, Andy Watts, Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters and others!
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After playing in the bands of Junior Wells, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy and James Cotton,
Johnny Iguana, the Philadelphia-born blues pianist, musically-raised in The Windy City, finally has his solo debut out:
Johnny Iguana’s Chicago Spectacular (Delmark Records) is just that. With great classic songs by the likes of Roosevelt “The Honeydripper” Sykes [1906-1983], Willie Dixon [1915-1992], Sonny Boy Williamson [1914-1948], Otis Spann [1924-1970], Elmore James [1918-1963] and Big Bill Broonzy [1903-1958], he sets the bar on high what with his plethora of amazingly assembled talents. Suffice it to say he’s got the best of the best surrounding him on material by those aforementioned legends, his own compositions and a left-field pick by Gil Scott Heron [1949-2011] celeb
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• Dec 14, 2020
Despite a global pandemic, there continued to be a steady stream of global sounds throughout 2020. And if we couldn’t travel literally, perhaps more of us will be inclined to do so musically and discover some of the great work that musicians from all around the world have to offer.
This year you could travel the Silk Road from one end with the Chinese band Manhu and Mongolian ensemble Khusugtun to the other with Turkish oud player Mehmet Polat or explore the whole route with 3,14 (whose 2020 release takes its title from the scientific name for the silk worm.)
It’s hard to resist almost any Afrobeat, and there were quite a number of choices this year, but especially so if you go to the source (Nigeria’s Bantu) or one of its more unlikely outposts (Lithuania’s Ojibo Afrobeat).