SOUL OF THE BLUES
Sweet Miss Coffy, Cadillac George Harris, George Jackson
Burke’s roots are in gospel, and despite the much-vaunted historical connection between the two, gospel and blues require markedly different approaches. For all the frenetic emotionalism gospel singers often display, the good ones always remain in technical control. Gospel melody lines can be complex, and there are subtle dips, melismatic trills, and myriad other tricks a vocalist must master. Listeners respond as enthusiastically to brilliant displays of virtuosity as they do to manifestations of an elevated spirit.
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One might wonder, then, how a gospel singer would fare in a style that depends, at least in part, on an illusion of artlessness. But as Burke once told Peter Guralnick about his early years as a soul superstar on Atlantic: “You must remember, I was capable of singing anything.” He shows he still is on Soul of the Blues, demonstrating from his first note a mastery all the more astounding for its apparent effortlessness.
One of the most impressive things about this disc is that Burke never takes the easy way out, as so many blues singers do: no chopped-short phrases, no difficult passages resolved in grunts or shouts instead of notes. He brings every musical idea to full realization–yet never at the expense of emotional immediacy.
With this song Burke is solidly in the tradition of T-Bone Walker, Cleanhead Vinson, and the great Kansas City blues shouters (whose power he approaches, especially on those thrilling ascents into high-tenor testifying)–he brings a dash of elegance to even his nastiest imagery. Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff blows in with a lovely tenor sax solo, and Clarence Hollimon’s guitar has the taste and tone of T-Bone, but with his own ideas inserted into Walker’s groove.
