![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bbking_france.jpg\")
Zev Feldman \u2013 the man known far and wide as the Jazz Detective \u2013 has unearthed many previously unheard recordings of both historical import and essential listening. The large majority of his work has been within jazz. But one of his most recent projects ventures outside that idiom. Feldman\u2019s Deep Digs label presents B.B. King in France<\/i>, a 2CD document of a 1977 concert at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival.<\/p>\n
First released last November as a vinyl set for Record Store Day\u2019s Black Friday, the album is a beautifully recorded performance. King is joined by a seven-piece band as he delivers 14 tunes in his inimitable style. The majority of the tunes are King originals, and while the titles are well-worn numbers \u2013 \u201cWhy I Sing the Blues,\u201d \u201cThe Thrill is Gone\u201d \u2013 hearing them played with passion, good humor and finesse makes the experience totally worthwhile.<\/p>\n
After an obligatory band intro (in this case, \u201cBlue Monk\u201d) King tears off some tasty leads and a spirited vocal for the classic \u201cCaldonia.\u201d The intricate, multi-layered horn charts add wonderful texture to the arrangements, and the stereo separation captures it all in high fidelity; this is something of a headphone album.<\/p>\n
The set list is nicely varied in terms of uptempo cuts and searing, soulful tunes. King is in fine form, making a point of introducing his fine sidemen by name as they take the spotlight. He\u2019s the consummate performer who has no problem sharing that spotlight; everyone knows exactly whose show it is. King\u2019s distinctive way of delivering the music — sustained notes, expressive string-bending, emotive silences, spot-on vocals \u2013 enlivens every song.<\/p>\n
Listening to B.B. King in France<\/i> some 45-plus years after its recording, there might be a temptation to hear musical cliche in the performances. But it\u2019s worth remembering that while King\u2019s approach to these songs — whether his compositions or covers \u2013 is very much in the tried-and-true blues tradition, King in fact was an architect of that tradition. Listening with that fact in mind is helpful to extract maximum enjoyment for the experience. Had he not done it the way he was doing it, we might not think of that style as the<\/i> way that electric blues should be played.<\/p>\n
All that said, there\u2019s a contemporary feel to some of the songs in King\u2019s set. \u201cI Like to Live the Love\u201d is a prime example of this: decades after he had come to prominence, King sounded as current as any soul or r&b artists of the era. He effortlessly engages the audience in the tune, too, making it even better.<\/p>\n
There have been many, many B.B. King live albums, and some of them rank among the most important and essential releases in the man\u2019s catalog. It\u2019s fair to question whether there\u2019s room or reason for another. But one listen to B.B. King in France<\/i> will answer that question with a definitive yes.<\/p>\n
Typical with all projects with which Zev Feldman is involved, the packaging, notes and accompanying images are all first-rate. But it\u2019s the music that will attract most, and that is as it should be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zev Feldman \u2013 the man known far and wide as the Jazz Detective \u2013 has unearthed many previously unheard recordings of both historical import and essential listening. The large majority […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[5614,3183],"class_list":["post-28920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-b-b-king","tag-zev-feldman","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28922,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28920\/revisions\/28922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}