‘Roomful Of Blues’ Pleases Roomful Of Dancing Music Fans
Roomful of Blues Thursday, Feb. 8, at Bolo’s
It truly was a Roomful of Blues Thursday night at Bolo’s in the Valley as the Rhode Island jump blues outfit rocked a packed house.
Two years ago, Roomful released a CD called “Dance All Night,” a credo taken to heart by a floor jammed with dance-happy blues lovers.
Behind the marvelous baritone of Sugar Ray Norcia, the seven-piece outfit slashed and burned through a diverse set of dance tunes.
You could trace a road map of the mid-century Midwest, and farther south, through Roomful’s musical travels. At Bolo’s, the band touched down on Count Basie’s Kansas City, New Orleans’ Beale Street and the South Side of Chicago. Add a fiddle, and at times you might have sworn you were in East Texas.
Jazz and the blues were close partners in that wild era, which lasted from the ‘30s to the ‘50s, and Roomful of Blues deftly negotiated the territory. Drummer John Rossi kept a tasteful but pulsing pocket while Bob Enos on trumpet excited the crowd repeatedly but most dramatically with a Louis Armstrong solo on a tune called “Pink Champagne.”
The Roomful horn section is anchored by trombonist Carl Queforth and baritone saxman Doug James. Queforth nailed the second-line Dixieland sound on “Slidin’ Home” and Basie’s big-band cool on “I Left My Baby.” Queforth’s gravelly sax added that bottom-end grind that bumps up the music’s sexuality.
All this instrumentation helps distinguish Roomful from the usual guitar-and-harp business, making Chris Vachon’s guitar and Ray Norcia’s harp all the more welcome when their turns came.
Roomful of Blues is a seasoned road outfit, and it shows in the tightly stitched ensemble work. These guys swing with gusto and with a discipline that puts them in the top ranks of working blues bands.
Unfortunately the room’s boomy acoustics buried the bottom end, including much of Norcia’s vocal work, in a muddy stew. But the band was so good that, in the end, nothing but the music mattered.
, DataTimes