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| Al Basile - The Tinge Sweetspot Records announces a February 19, 2008 release date for The Tinge, the latest album from singer/songwriter/cornetist Al Basile, with national distribution by City Hall. The Tinge is Basile's sixth solo album and the follow-up to his 2006 CD, Groovin' In The Mood Room, which reached #14 on the Living Blues chart. Basile began his performing career in 1973 when Duke Robillard hired him as the first trumpet player for the seminal jump band Roomful of Blues, and played with such blues and jazz greats as Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Red Prysock, Helen Humes, Joe Turner, and Johnny Shines. Leaving in 1975 to devote himself to teaching, singing, and songwriting, he was reunited with Duke Robillard, Roomful's founder, in the late eighties. His songs and playing have continued to appear throughout the nineties on Robillard's albums for Rounder, Stony Plain, Pointblank, and Shanachie. Songs he has co-written with Duke have been used on television's Homicide: Life on the Street and the feature film Blood and Wine. Ruth Brown recorded one of Al's songs on her Handy Award winning 1997 release R&B=Ruth Brown, the first of two albums with songs written by Basile to also be nominated for a Grammy. As with all Al Basile albums, The Tinge highlights his superior skills as a songwriter, singer and horn player. The new CD emphasizes generous helpings of his cornet playing on a batch of songs which span Kansas City swing to soul-jazz to the classic blues material he first did with Roomful of Blues. With Roomful's Rich Lataille in the horn section along with Doug James and Duke, half of the original Roomful lineup is at work here, and Al has written blues songs like “Not the Wrong Woman” and “Too Slow,” which celebrate their shared past (the latter is sung and played in the manner of Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, with whom Roomful first played in 1973). Joining in the fun are special guests and perennial musical compadres Bruce Katz on piano, organ, and Wurlitzer, Marty Ballou on bass and Mark Teixeira on drums, cooking on older style jazz like “While We're Dancing” and “Give Me the Rainbow” to brooding plunger muted blues to bubbly workouts reminiscent of sixties soul. With the addition of his rich open tone and relaxed, lyrical solo work to his highly crafted songs, unique storytelling, and strong, personal vocals, The Tinge is Al Basile's statement record. The books and literary magazines which publish his poetry identify him as a poet, but that's only half the story. His recordings prove that he's a bard of the blues. In addition to his own recordings, Al's recent activity includes appearing as a featured cornet player on Dave Gross' Take the Gamble in 2006, and he continues to work with long-time friend Duke Robillard on a number of his projects. In addition to playing on Blue Mood, Duke's T-Bone Walker tribute record nominated for a Blues Music Award in 2004, Basile also appeared on the A Special Evening with Duke Robillard and Friends DVD released in 2005, played on and wrote for Robillard's Grammy-nominated Guitar Groove-a-Rama album and co-wrote the title tune on Duke's latest release, World Full of Blues. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |