J.j. Grey

For many people, the word "Florida" conjures up images of sunshine, white-hot sands, and white-hot nightlife. That's not the Florida JJ Grey inhabits. Sounding forth from his ancestral home 40 miles outside of Jacksonville, Grey's Florida is inhabited by water moccasins, gators, and characters whose murky, besotted Southern Gothic pasts match the dreary, desolate landscape. On Country Ghetto, his third album and debut for Alligator Records (of course), Grey and his bandmates revisit the hallowed but largely forsaken musical environs of swamp rock. Taking their cues from early Creedence Clearwater Revival and Tony Joe White, Mofro play a slinky, sinuous brand of Louisiana soul-funk-blues, while Grey himself alternates between the good ol' boy debauchery of Ronnie Van Zant and Lynyrd Skynyrd and the classic soul entreaties of Otis Redding and Clarence Carter.

For many people, the word "Florida" conjures up images of sunshine, white-hot sands, and white-hot nightlife. That's not the Florida JJ Grey inhabits. Sounding forth from his ancestral home 40 miles outside of Jacksonville, Grey's Florida is inhabited by water moccasins, gators, and characters whose murky, besotted Southern Gothic pasts match the dreary, desolate landscape. On Country Ghetto, his third album and debut for Alligator Records (of course), Grey and his bandmates revisit the hallowed but largely forsaken musical environs of swamp rock. Taking their cues from early Creedence Clearwater Revival and Tony Joe White, Mofro play a slinky, sinuous brand of Louisiana soul-funk-blues, while Grey himself alternates between the good ol' boy debauchery of Ronnie Van Zant and Lynyrd Skynyrd and the classic soul entreaties of Otis Redding and Clarence Carter.

Veteran trombonist Al Grey leads an unusual quintet on this set from 1988 that, in addition to drummer Bobby Durham, features the sons of Al Cohn (guitarist Joe Cohn), Gerald Wiggins (bassist J.J. Wiggins), and his own Mike Grey on second trombone. The two trombonists have similar sounds, with the elder Grey getting the bulk of the solos. The repertoire mixes together swing standards with lesser-known jazz tunes by Thad Jones, Sonny Stitt, Hank Mobley, Al Cohn, Johnny Griffin, Art Farmer, and Al Grey himself. The relaxed straight-ahead music flows nicely and all of the musicians (other than Durham) have their opportunities to be featured. Worth searching for.

The Seminoles, Timuquans, Creeks and other native Floridians harvested and stewed the heart of the Sabal palm tree to create a rustic delicacy called swamp cabbage. Rarely served today save for in pine-paneled hunting lodges and fish camps, swamp cabbage still lingers as a vestige of the “real” Florida. As an inspirational archetype the name Swamp Cabbage was chosen to remind listeners where the music comes from and that it is a musical concoction of southern rock, blues, soul, Dixieland jazz and Appalachian. Swamp Cabbage extracts as much music as possible from the quintessential rock and roll format – a guitar, bass and drum trio. The songs are built around gnarly unique southern- rock sounding riffs yet the rhythms derive from blues, soul and funk.