Hands of Healin

Hands of time’ is the band’s 21st album consisting of 13 original tracks, plus a bonus unreleased track with the late Colin Cooper. Hands of Time is the 21st album by Climax Blues Band, consisting of 13 new original songs, plus a bonus unreleased track ‘Getting There’ with the late Colin Cooper. It was recorded at Silk Mill Studios in Staffordshire, UK and is a mixture of bluesy funk, soul and jazz rock, all of the ingredients that have kept the band working for over 50 years. The album has a fresher more modern feel to it than on previous releases and is being well received by the industry. You can hear a selection of the new songs played live by the band when they embark on their major UK & European tour staring in 2019 to promote the album’s release.

For this modern straight-ahead set, Rick Margitza (heard on both tenor and soprano) performs six of his challenging originals plus "Embraceable You." The latter, whose melody is given some altered notes that do not help and make things sound sour, is a low point. However, Margitza sounds much stronger on his originals, particularly the boogaloo "Hip Bop," the medium-tempo blues "Forty Five Pound Hound," and the joyful "At Long Last." His rhythm section is excellent (bassist George Mraz is particularly responsive to the saxophonist's playing), and Margitza sounds in prime form, showing individuality on both of his horns.

The enormous success of Andrea Bocelli has ensured that no matter how fallow the ground might be for the major classical labels, there is always enough fertile soil left in the garden to cultivate a new pop tenor. The single-named Vittorio, short for Vittorio Grigolo, is Decca's new flavor of the month among tenors. Decca's one-time advocacy of Juan Diego Flórez was something to applaud, as this tenor is a truly fabulous singer, if not entirely suitable for the legions of soap opera fans who also love Bocelli.

As the most endearingly loony of the first wave of British rock stars, Screaming Lord Sutch was far closer to the glorious mania of early rockers such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent and the Phantom than anyone else in the U.K. in the late 1950s and early '60s, and his band was a training ground for some notable rock & roll gunslingers, including Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Nicky Hopkins and lots more…