Getting Back to Basics with J Place - Art Simas, BOSTON'S BLUES
There ain't nothing sauteed, simmered or stewed about J's blues.
It's served on the bone -- meaty, raw, and dripping in its natural juices.
Place's 1996 debut CD, 'High Temperature,' was released when he was fronting Nasty J & The Grinders. There's some cool blues on that self-produced album: chestnuts such as Willie Dixon's 'Mellow Down Easy,' 'I Wants to be Loved' and 'I Don't Play,' and Little Walter's seldom covered, 'Temperature' and 'Boogie,' as well as John Lee Hooker's 'Big Legs, Tight Skirt', Muddy Waters' 'Streamline Woman,' and Jimmy Reed's 'Ain't That Loving You Baby.'
J's vocals and harp lines intertwine with the guitar workmanship of Nick Adams; riffs churning inside-out, then back again like playful whitecaps whipped up by an Atlantic gale. One is never sure what course a particular song will take or where it will resurface -- only that it will be in a different place from where it all began. Todd Carson, on bass, and Maylo Keller, on drums, anchor the controlled tempest on the disc.
The band stays true to a traditional sound of a 50s blues combo, instead of crossing over into rock-based areas. Listening to their down and dirty roadhouse blues really gets under your skin and into your blood. You can feel it circulate and curdle. When it gets to your brain, your legs and hips start moving, and you don't even know it!
In 1997, Adams and Carlson joined The Racky Thomas Band, which won the Battle of the Blues Bands that same year, representing the Boston Blues Society at the International blues Talent Competition in Memphis. And Place was left searching for a whole new band.
In 1999, J formed a new band of venerable veteran players in guitarist Bobby Gus, upright bassist Jacques Raymond, and Larry Takki on drums. J released 'Bettin' On the Blues,' a compilation of his originals, including the title track, and a couple more covers of those good ole "B Side" blues chestnuts.
'For me it all comes down to conviction,' Place said. 'The best blues records are the ones, that when you hear them, you think you are right in the same room with a powerful presence - a force of nature such as Muddy or The Wolf. When the blues hits you like that, the force is undeniable!'