LOU RAWLS — Stormy Monday (review)

LOU RAWLS — Stormy Monday album cover Album · 1962 · Blues Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
js
This is Lou Rawl’s first LP and possibly one of his jazziest too. This is an interesting one time pairing with Lou’s modern RnB flavored vocals matched with Les McCann’s gospel flavored soul-jazz piano and a minimal accompaniment of stand-up bass and trap set. The tunes chosen for this outing are well known blues classics and have been played as everything from hard rock to retro jump blues. Lou and Les opt for a classic swing feel making this album a perfectly balnced and even blend of jazz and blues that was a purposeful anachronism at the time of its recording. Their goal was something similar to early 50’s RnB and to that end they succeeded, classic swing vocal crowd pleasing bar jazz also comes to mind when hearing this record. These are the blues tunes that the jazz band will break out when the crowd gets more aggressive late at night.

Lou’s vocals are great as always, and Les and his band are up for the occasion, but I can’t help but wonder what this recording date would have sounded like if they had approached this with a more contemporary sound. Rawls has a very powerful voice and I’m not sure if a mere acoustic trio is enough to provide the power to support that big vocal delivery of his. It would have been nice to hear this set with McCann on an electric piano plus electric bass with a stronger mix for the drums, now that would have really rocked.

If you like blues played with a classic swing jazz feel, this one is for you.
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