Double Standards

Double Standards is a celebration of the greatest blues songs, performed as duets with some of his musical friends. Mick’s love of many blues styles is well known, and this album brings the listener a wide range of blues, from down home to classic Chicago to jazzy to blues rock, Mick and his friends bring you the many faces of the blues. As with his previous albums, the proceeds from Double Standards will go to the Blues Foundation’s HART Fund and Generation Blues programs.

The two sides of Claudio Roditi are explored on this excellent CD. The underrated trumpeter is featured on Brazilian tunes using tenorman Andres Boiarsky, guitarist Marty Ashby and a Brazilian rhythm section, as well as more straight-ahead jazz with 21-year-old tenor Jimmy Greene, pianist Gil Goldstein, bassist David Finck and drummer Chip White. Despite the diversity, this is a consistently rewarding program, with the highlights including "A Felicidade," "Bye Bye Blackbird," "Desafinado" (which has a vocal by Roditi), Freddie Hubbard's "Bird Like" and "So What." Recommended.