Jay McShann with Duke Robillard & Maria Muldaur Still Jumpin’ the Blues Stony Plain 1254

Jay McShann is 83 years old and walks with a cane, but his playing is timeless. Still Jumpin’ the Blues showcases the venerable pianist with Duke Robillard’s current band, which includes ex-Roomful of Blues saxman Doug James and Marty Richards, one of the swingingest drummers in the business. Together they deliver a luscious 45-minute set that features the sultry voice of Maria Muldaur on "Backwater Blues" (a Bessie Smith chestnut that McShann says he first heard in 1928) and the vampish "Come on Over to My House."

Robillard plays a weepy lap steel guitar on "Hootie’s K.C. Christmas Prayer," which, oddly enough, has nothing to do with Christmas. And on "Backwater Blues" he replicates some of the fine fingerwork of Al Casey, Fats Waller’s long-time guitarist who recorded with McShann in the ’60s and ’70s.

Everybody joins in on "She’s Got It," a risqué sing-along that’s built around the lines "She got it / She needs it / She sits right on it / She just won’t give it away / Anybody get it, they sure will have to pay."

McShann, a pillar of Kansas City’s legendary jazz community of the ’30s and ’40s, is in top form — never missing a note, never taking on more than he can handle. And Robillard’s playing is, as always, both flawless and reverential.

The CD closes with a 17-minute-plus interview with McShann (it’s preceded by a two-minute pause so you can change discs if you don’t want to hear it) in which he tells how he got the nickname "Hootie" and recalls his barroom travels with Art Tatum and his dealings with Charlie Parker. The interview closes with McShann knocking out a priceless, "live"-in-the-living-room version of "Ain’t Nobody’s Business."

Still Jumpin’ the Blues is a wonderful CD. And, like its Stony Plain predecessor, Hootie’s Jumpin’ Blues, both it and McShann are real treasures.

— Dave Ranney

©2000 Blues Access, Boulder, Colorado, USA TOP