Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:40
Size: 123,3 MB
Styles: Piano blues, jazzy blues, instrumental
Scans: Full
1. Chicken Shack (5:28)
2. Take My Hand, Precious Lord (4:10)
3. The Fives (2:56)
4. Within (4:28)
5. Exactly Like You (2:57)
6. Baby Won't You Please Come Home (3:51)
7. E&C Boogie (2:59)
8. Big Joe (4:21)
9. Winin' Boy (5:31)
10. Sweet Georgia Brown (5:35)
11. Tin Roof Blues (5:12)
12. The Preacher (5:05)
In the Chicago blues piano tradition, each player developed his own personal style, from Jimmy Yancey to Albert Ammons. Erwin Helfer's style and his compositions are his own. His playing and personality are honest, straightforward, and committed to strong personal connections, on the bandstand and off. On Erwin Helfer Way , Helfer plays solo, and he is also joined by some of his closest collaborators including Barrelhouse Chuck, John Brumbach, William Bugs Cochran, Lou Marini, and Skinny Williams. This disc is another masterpiece by Helfer, who is the last living link to the Yancey's. Erwin Helfer was introduced to piano blues as a young teenager growing up in Chicago in the early '50s, the heyday of the city's blues clubs and the fortunes of labels such as Chess Records. A native of Chicago's south side, he haunted the clubs as a boy, but he also took the time to attend school and completed college with a degree in music, which he followed by spending three years in New Orleans in the late '50s, where he played jazz. Among the musicians who influenced him most were Jimmy Yancey, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Speckled Red, and Helfer counted himself a good friend of guitarist Big Joe Williams. Helfer became a performer and teacher, touring Europe as a blues pianist and also training college students in Chicago throughout the 1970s. His style is equally adaptable to blues and jazz.
Helfer, of course, is a genuine Chicago treasure — one of the greatest living exponents of boogie-woogie and old-fashioned blues piano, and one of the most modest, affable human beings on the planet. Earlier this year he released a typically refined and entertaining album called "Erwin Helfer Way" — the title refers to the stretch of Magnolia Avenue he lives on, which was christened for him by the city's honorary street-naming program in 2006. The recording features Helfer in a variety of instrumental settings with his regular cast of collaborators. There are raucous, hard-driving blues like the opener "Chicken Shack," with dueling tenor saxophones played by John Brumbach and Skinny Williams—bassist Lou Marini and drummer William "Bugs" Cochran, a onetime member of Sun Ra's Arkestra, are the rhythm section throughout the record, save for some solo pieces and a pair of duets with fellow keyboardist Barrelhouse Chuck — as well as a version of the Horace Silver tune "The Preacher," where Helfer and company vibrantly flavor the hard bop with some stride, swing, and R&B. The pianist takes some concise solos on these band tracks, and he also shows what a peerless accompanist he can be. But for me the best moments on the album are the three tracks when Helfer is all alone, where one can bask in the interplay between his right and left hands. There's the driving barrelhouse bass line he inserts beneath his jaunty take on the standard "Exactly Like You", and the leisurely pace he takes on the early jazz piece "Baby Won't You Please Come Home", played with his usual elegant phrasing. /Peter Margasak
Helfer, of course, is a genuine Chicago treasure — one of the greatest living exponents of boogie-woogie and old-fashioned blues piano, and one of the most modest, affable human beings on the planet. Earlier this year he released a typically refined and entertaining album called "Erwin Helfer Way" — the title refers to the stretch of Magnolia Avenue he lives on, which was christened for him by the city's honorary street-naming program in 2006. The recording features Helfer in a variety of instrumental settings with his regular cast of collaborators. There are raucous, hard-driving blues like the opener "Chicken Shack," with dueling tenor saxophones played by John Brumbach and Skinny Williams—bassist Lou Marini and drummer William "Bugs" Cochran, a onetime member of Sun Ra's Arkestra, are the rhythm section throughout the record, save for some solo pieces and a pair of duets with fellow keyboardist Barrelhouse Chuck — as well as a version of the Horace Silver tune "The Preacher," where Helfer and company vibrantly flavor the hard bop with some stride, swing, and R&B. The pianist takes some concise solos on these band tracks, and he also shows what a peerless accompanist he can be. But for me the best moments on the album are the three tracks when Helfer is all alone, where one can bask in the interplay between his right and left hands. There's the driving barrelhouse bass line he inserts beneath his jaunty take on the standard "Exactly Like You", and the leisurely pace he takes on the early jazz piece "Baby Won't You Please Come Home", played with his usual elegant phrasing. /Peter Margasak
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