Pat Donohue 2011 Nobody's Fault

Willis Jackson was a tough-toned tenor who came to fame as a honker and screamer with Cootie Williams's big band in the late '40s. Although he calmed down his style a bit through the years, he always has a passionate sound and an accessible style best heard on blues, ballads and standards. This is a CD reissue of a 1978 session that features Jackson with guitarist Pat Martino, organist Carl Wilson and a supportive rhythm section. Although the Barbara Streisand-associated "Evergreen" (heard in two versions) and "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" may not seem like the best material for the tenor, he uplifts the songs…

The name Young Guns seems ironically amiss until one learns that this recording dates from 1968-69 when organist Gene Ludwig was thirty years old, guitarist Pat Martino twenty-three and drummer Randy Gelispie somewhere in that neighborhood, long before he became fondly known as "Uncle G." The organ trio was in its heyday then, and this one was caught on tape during an exciting live date at Club 118 in Louisville, KY. How many other such performances have been lost forever owing to the absence of a tape recorder or the failure to turn it on is anyone's guess. But this one, thank goodness, has been preserved for present-day ears to appreciate.
Ludwig, an admirer of Jimmy Smith and forerunner of Joey DeFrancesco and other Hammond masters, sprays bluesy notes and ideas all over the landscape, while Martino, a lyrical machine, has the proper phrase for every occasion…

Although early in the year Martino had fiddled around with many styles, and that nothing truly relevant come out of those experiments, he eventually found a path that suited him fine late that summer of 1976;Fusion was hardly a novelty but all over the world many were the enthusiastic musicians and audiences passionately driven by the possibilities it opened up and by how an excellent mirror for outstanding playing, a renewal of songwriting instincts and rules and chops display it was; this latter issue led to many abuses and unashamed revelations of mere self-indulgent overplaying but the exceptions that justified its existence were enough to keep the genre alive; this album is one of those.
Our shy Italo-American enlisted the help of a trio of Funk oriented and astoundingly reliable in spite of their youth Afro-Americans (Delmar Brown keyboards, Mark Leonard electric bass and Kenwood Dennard drums and percussion)…

Toronto born Pat Travers has delivered one tasty release after another. From the powerhouse, rockin 70s sounds that launched his career to a classy melodic 80s rock period to a blues phase in the 90s. In 2013, Pat isn t looking to the past for his musical future. As the second decade of the millennium dawned, Pat and his Band showed no sign of letting up. The proof of this is in the eight hands of Mr. Travers, second Guitarist Kirk McKim, Bassist Rodney O Quinn and longtime sticksman, Sandy Gennaro. There is an energy in the new album that is tangible, an enjoyment that is infectious, and, quite frankly, you owe it to yourself to catch this band live whenever and wherever you can.