![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/witherspoon_ford.jpg\")
The heyday of jump blues had long since come and gone by 1972; the style enjoyed its moment in the time between the big band era and the birth of rock and roll. In fact, with its muscular arrangements, jump blues is sometimes thought of as the \u201cmissing link\u201d connecting those two styles. But with the latter\u2019s ascendancy, jump blues was all but forgotten for a time.<\/p>\n
Thank goodness nobody told Jimmy Witherspoon. By \u201872 he was still out there, shouting and crooning, backed by a band that understood power and nuance, swing and swagger. And though his time would have seemed to have passed, in the very early 1970s Witherspoon was working with crossover artists like Eric Burdon. In 1972 he recorded a studio set for Blue Note, Spoonful. At that point in his career, Witherspoon had assembled and was touring with a band that included a young lead guitarist called Robben Ford.<\/p>\n
Just past his 20th<\/sup> birthday, Ford had already earned a spot playing with Charlie Musselwhite; just a few years later he\u2019d take a prime role in Tom Scott\u2019s fusion project, L.A. Express. But in between, he toured with Witherspoon, playing on Spoonful<\/i> and a live album released in \u201877 with the inventive title Live<\/i>. The latter is a highly-regarded release that was last in print in 1993. Other live recordings featuring Witherspoon and Ford have surfaced \u2013 documenting festival gigs in Monterey, Notodden and elsewhere \u2013 but the appearance of a new set from Liberation Hall remains a revelation.<\/p>\n Jump Blues Live 1972<\/i> isn\u2019t a festival recording. It\u2019s an expertly-recorded tape of a show in front of an intimate and enthusiastic audience at West Hollywood\u2019s famed Troubadour. Mixing standards and the occasional original, this nine-song set showcases Witherspoon in fine form, with formidable guitar from Ford. The band is on fire: the rhythm section of Stan Poplin (bass) and drummer Jim Baum lays down a sold foundation, and when pianist Paul Nagel lets loose on a solo (as he does on a reading of \u201cKansas City\u201d), the sparks fly.<\/p>\n At the center of it all, of course, is Jimmy Witherspoon. With full command of the mic, he pours his heart out, whipping up the crowd one moment and then seamlessly shifting gears for smoky numbers like \u201cNothing\u2019s Changed.\u201d Playful tunes like \u201cAround the Clock\u201d showcase Witherspoon\u2019s rapport with the band and hint at young Ford\u2019s bright future. And set-closer \u201cGoin\u2019 Down Slow\u201d illustrates Witherspoon\u2019s knowing way with a slow burner.<\/p>\n Thane Tierney\u2019s brief liner note provides the necessary context; as he writes, even in 1972 Witherspoon was at the top of his game. Joined by a future star, on this Hollywood night, he brought the house down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The heyday of jump blues had long since come and gone by 1972; the style enjoyed its moment in the time between the big band era and the birth of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65,73],"tags":[5782,5783],"class_list":["post-30057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-jimmy-witherspoon","tag-robben-ford","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30057","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=30057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30059,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30057\/revisions\/30059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}