{"id":28162,"date":"2024-09-14T05:30:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T09:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28162"},"modified":"2024-09-12T15:26:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T19:26:46","slug":"album-review-bruce-katz-band-back-in-boston-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/14\/album-review-bruce-katz-band-back-in-boston-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Bruce Katz Band \u2013 Back in Boston Live"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-28163\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/bruce_katz_band.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/bruce_katz_band.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/bruce_katz_band-300x275.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>It\u2019s refreshing to encounter an artist whose work encompasses soul jazz, blues and r&amp;b, executing each style with verve and authenticity. That\u2019s certainly the case with <i>Back in Boston Live<\/i>, the latest from keyboardist and band leader Bruce Katz. Right out of the gate he lays down a tasty groove with the B3-led original \u201cThe Czar.\u201d The bass line is rock-solid too, and it\u2019s Katz on organ pedals. Drummer Liviu Pop lays down a solid backbeat, and guitarist Aaron Lieberman alternates between supportive rhythm playing and lean\u2019n\u2019mean lead breaks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">Most of the eleven cuts on this set \u2013 cut live at Norwood, Mass.\u2019s Fallout Shelter \u2013 are Katz compositions, and their titles often telegraph what you\u2019ll hear: \u201cTake the Green Line,\u201d \u201cFor Brother Ray,\u201d etc. Bassist Jess Williams handles the bottom end on half of the cuts, including a reading of Leroy Carr\u2019s \u201cBlues Before Sunrise.\u201d On that track \u2013 which has a feel reminiscent of John Mayall\u2019s Bluesbreakers \u2013 Lieberman takes a lead vocal tun while Katz throws down some appealing ivory-tickling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">The album\u2019s only other cover is a take on Dickey Betts\u2019 Allman Brothers Band classic, \u201cIn Memory of Elizabeth Reed.\u201d At nine-plus minutes, the trio (with Katz back on organ and pedals) has and takes plenty of space to stretch out. Their sound is leaner than the ABB\u2019s, but they play with equal parts muscle and finesse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">Katz\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Feel So Good Today\u201d is sprightly jump blues with a sassy and saucy Lieberman lead vocal. \u201cGet your Groove\u201d is gospel-inflected blues. \u201cGary\u2019s Jam\u201d is solidly back in soul jazz territory, with lots of engaging interplay between Katz and Lieberman. \u201cDreams of Yesterday\u201d is a meditative piano-centric blues with some lovely guitar work that feels like (but is not) pedal steel. \u201cJust An Expression\u201d is fusion-y, hard bop jazz with some knotty twists and turns that keep the listener on toe-tops.<\/p>\n<p class=\"western\" align=\"left\">Listeners who shy away form live albums need not do so here. <i>Back in Boston Live<\/i> has the spirit and energy of in-person performance, with the sonic quality of a studio recording. The audience is mixed almost completely out of this line recording; unless you\u2019re listening closely for it between tracks, you\u2019re not likely to notice that there\u2019s an audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s refreshing to encounter an artist whose work encompasses soul jazz, blues and r&amp;b, executing each style with verve and authenticity. That\u2019s certainly the case with Back in Boston Live, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,42,49,60,65,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-rb","category-review","category-soul","cat-9-id","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-60-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28164,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28162\/revisions\/28164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}