B.B. King
Forty years ago, when my buddy Paul’s parents were out for the night, we’d crank up his dad’s fancy stereo and blast B.B. King’s Live At The Regal. For rock fans turned onto the blues by Brits such as John Mayall and Eric Clapton, King’s rowdy inner-city concert was like trading milkshakes for bourbon. Muddy, Wolf and many more would soon further my understanding of the music, but for me, the blues began with those suburban nights at the Regal.
We quickly discovered that B.B. King had made great music long before finding his way onto late-’60s concert bills at the Fillmore. It’s those 50s sessions that were producer T Bone Burnett’s model for One Kind Favor, a very sweet set of blues that ranks with the best of B.B. King’s catalogue. The superb band includes Jim Keltner on drums, Nathan East on acoustic bass, and Dr. John on piano. Burnett adds horns and history most of these tunes were in the air when B.B. first traveled from Mississippi to Memphis. No wonder the now-83-year-old master was inspired to shed yet more new light on his singular life in the blues.
The collection opens with a second-line beat putting a syncopated twist on Lemon Jefferson’s “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean”. King’s guitar tone is thick and tangy, and Burnett leaves lots of room for his honeyed fills and sharp solos. King rocks on Howlin’ Wolf’s “How Many More Years” and performs a sly duet with Dr. John on the first verse of John Lee Hooker’s “Blues Before Sunrise”. The band sounds country on songs by the Mississipi Sheiks, and urbane when covering Lonnie Johnson.
One Kind Favor was cut live, like Live At The Regal, but it captures a different experience: the respectful rapture of gifted musicians coaxing another great show from the American artist known as the King of the Blues.