Stevie Jones (ten); Andrew Murray (pno); Steve Pearce (bs); Otha Smith (gtr); Melvin Duffy (gtr); Frankie Tontoh (dms) + vocals by: Sam Tanner; Megan Henwood; Mike Davies; Ben Lee and John James Newman.
(Review by Lance).
You go along to an Elkie Brooks gig and you're knocked out! I always am. You know the tunes off by heart, the on stage moves, everything. You love it. Then you get around to thinking about the band. What a band! What a sax player!
At the conclusion of Elkie's recent (February!) Sage Gateshead gig I encountered Stevie Jones at the top of the stairs attempting to flog his own CD. He looked like an injured serviceman selling poppies on Armistice Day. Most of the departing audience only had eyes for the stall selling Elkie Merchandise. I got a disc from Stevie of his own band, Brother Strut. I listened to the disc. This was no injured serviceman! it was a Sherman Tank, an Avocet Missile, a Bouncing Bomb!
Stevie Jones is one helluva tenor player. He blows like as though he were walkin' the bar in N'Orlins or makin' music for the best party you ever had. You want to have a ball? Elkie don't answer your call?
Just send for Brother Strut - they deliver!
Away from the rhetoric this is a great dancy CD with funky solos and arrangements. The kind of music you might (I'm guessing) hear in present day Chicago, Detroit or New Orleans. It's bluesy, funky, rocky, soulful .
Blues and Soul Magazine gave it 10/10 and summed it up as "Bloody brilliant".
I ain't gonna argue
Lance.
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