Showing posts with label Alex Dixon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alex Dixon. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

The Alex Dixon Band - Rising From The Bushes

Year: 2009
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:59
Size: 104,4 MB
Styles: Electric blues
Scans: Full

1. Willie Dixon (Intro) (0:21)
2. Fantasy (5:04)
3. Lose Control (4:20)
4. Down In The Bottom (4:19)
5. Still In Love With You (4:15)
6. Paint You A Picture (4:46)
7. Spoonful (5:24)
8. My Suspicious Mind (4:36)
9. These Are The Times (3:46)
10. Find A Way To Live (3:55)
11. Everything's Gonna Be Alright (3:57)
12. Willie Dixon (Outro) (0:11)

Alex Dixon is the grandson of blues pioneer Willie Dixon, who he toured with as a pianist up until the death of the legendary bassist and composer. This recording reflects more of a blues-rock than urban Chicago edge, with soul tossed in as well. The beat of these tunes is dominated by veterans Alvino Bennett (of Koko Taylor's band) and two tracks featuring the veteran pop and rock studio drummer James Gadson.

This more contemporary, populist approach to the blues in a way relegates Dixon's piano playing to a sidebar, and he also leaves the singing to various others, most notably the near legendary Marcy Levy, well known for her work with Little Feat, Bob Seger, and countless others. She's featured on two selections: wailing in the upper register for the straight rock-blues "Fantasy" and on the slow, sexy "Paint You a Picture," with some nice harmonica work from Michael Fell. Very few, except Kathi McDonald, have ever rivaled Levy in the decades following Janis Joplin.

Alan Mirikitani (aka B.B. Chung King) plays guitar, and sings in a soul bag reminiscent of Robert Cray on three tracks, including the heavy backbeat-driven "Lose Control" and similar tunes "My Suspicious Mind" (where Alex Dixon plays piano more up-front) and "These Are the Times" (where he switches to Fender Rhodes). The vocalist in the main is David Dills, who has a tougher, more calculated voice on Willie Dixon's all-time classic "Spoonful," done in a steely rock-hard facade, and "Down in the Bottom," a "Rollin' and Tumblin'"-type rock-blues.

Alex Dixon penned eight of these selections, and it's clear he wants to bring the blues forward into modern times rather than rehashing tried and true traditional standards. This is most evident during "Still in Love with You," not a cover of Al Green's hit, but a simplified slow pop-blues. A previous recording with Cash McCall is the only other recording readily available from Alex Dixon, but he's still in his thirties, with much room for growth, hopefully a desire to step out and show his true colors as a blues pianist, and maybe an authentic tribute to Otis Spann, Pinetop Perkins, or Lafayette Leake in his soul. /Michael G. Nastos, AllMusic

(For personnel details, see artwork included.)

Rising From The Bushes mc
Rising From The Bushes zippy

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Vintage Dixon - Alex Dixon Presents... The Real McCoy (Feat. Lewis 'Big Lew' Powell)

Size: 84,5 MB
Time: 35:52
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2020
Styles: Chicago Blues
Art: Front

01. Nothing New Under The Sun (2:45)
02. Spider In My Stew (3:29)
03. The Real McCoy (3:13)
04. My Greatest Desire (4:11)
05. When I Make Love (2:54)
06. Howlin For My Darling (3:34)
07. Groaning The Blues (3:38)
08. 10,000 Miles Away (3:11)
09. Chi-Town Boogie (3:21)
10. I Want To Be Loved (2:10)
11. Chi-Town Boogie (Instrumental) (3:20)

No one in the world today is rooted in Chicago blues as firmly as producer/bassist/keyboard player Alex Dixon, and that comes through loud and clear on this CD. Serving as the recording debut of vocalist Lewis “Big Lew” Powell, it delivers a powerful reminder that the old-school sounds of the Windy City are just as important and viable today as they were in their heyday in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

Alex was raised by grandfather Willie Dixon – without question one of the most important bluesmen ever, and grew up in a home that welcomed a steady stream of superstars. He took piano lessons from Leonard “Baby Doo” Caston of Big Three Trio fame, his uncle Butch and Little Brother Montgomery. And at age 10, he played keys in various styles as Willie narrated as the duo laid the groundwork for what would become the international Blues in the Schools movement.

Now based in the San Francisco Bay area, Alex toured with Willie for four years and wrote co-wrote 40 tunes with him, including “Study War No More,” a key cog in his grandfather’s last album, the Grammy-winning Hidden Charms. As an adult, he’s a past-president of the Dixon family’s Blues Heaven Foundation, and currently serves as royalty director of Hoochie Coochie Music, Willie’s extensive songwriting catalog that’s been covered by Cream, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and hundreds of others.

This is the third CD Alex has written and produced, following The Vintage Room, a 2007 blues-rock collaboration with guitarist Cash McCall billed as The Blues Experience, and Rising From the Ashes in 2009, billed as The Alex Dixon Band. Dixon met Powell – the drummer for Chicago vocalist Nellie “Tiger” Travis – at the 2015 Chicago Blues Festival, fell in love with his voice – a powerful baritone reminiscent, but rougher than his grandfather – and has been developing this project ever since.

Powell’s featured throughout with Dixon doubling on electric and upright bass and piano. They’re surrounded by several of the most important second- and third-generation blues artists today, including Sugar Blue and Steve Bell – Carey’s son – on harmonica and Alvino Bennett (Koko Taylor, Mighty Joe Young) on drums with Melvin Taylor and Gino Matteo on guitars throughout with guest appearances from Rico McFarland and Joey Delgado on two cuts each. Alex’s 13-year-old daughter Leila and Maori sound weaver Whaia sit in on backing vocals. ~Marty Gunther

Composed of seven originals penned by Alex and four familiar covers from Willie’s catalog, this album was recorded at EastWest Studios in Hollywood, Calif., the site of the elder Dixon’s final recordings and fulfills Alex’s desire to deliver music with an authentic traditional Chicago blues sound.

Blue explodes out of the gate to open “Nothing New Under the Sun” with Powell hot on his heels, proving he’s a blues belter of the first order, albeit with limited range. It’s a hard-hitting shuffle that takes its time before flowing into “Spider in My Stew.” A soul-blues hit for Buster Benton in 1973, it gets a complete makeover and comes across with an uneasy feel that enforces the subject: that the singer suspects his lady’s cheating.

The tempo picks up for medium-paced shuffle “The Real McCoy” in which Powell cautions that he can spot a phony in a glance and warns: “The time right here/Is all we got/I’m gonna love you/If you like it or not.” An unhurried harp solo opens the ballad “My Greatest Desire,” the original complaint that the singer’s given his lady everything she wanted, but he’s in agony now that she’s gone.

A block of three Willie numbers — “When I Make Love” first recorded in 1973 by Margie Evans, “Howlin’ for My Darlin’” — co-written with Howlin’ Wolf and released by Chess in 1959 and “Groanin’ the Blues,” first laid down by Otis Rush on Cobra in 1957 – follow before four more originals fill out the set.

The percussive “10,000 Miles Away” – which features Bell and Whaia — revisits the separation theme, this time with Powell stating he has to move halfway around the globe because his love’s still strong before the action heats dramatically for the stop-time pleaser, “Chi-Town Boogie,” featuring McFarland. “I Want to Be Loved” borrows heavily from Willie’s “I Want to Be Loved” before the band reprises the previous song as “Chi-Town Boogie Instrumental.”

The Real McCoy MP3
The Real McCoy FLAC