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REVIEWS

Mama & Friends—Mama’s Bag—Bone Union Records BUR 1107
/Black and Tan Records

Well here’s a turn-up for the books. A group of Turkish musicians
whose music reflects the early roots of the blues and gospel
music, as with a high degree of authenticity, they bring to life the

music of Robert Johnson, Jesse Fuller, Leadbelly and Bessie Smith
and others. The musicians in question are Çağlayan Örge (banjo-
guitar), Suna Suner (vocal, tambourine) and Sarp Keskiner
(vocal, electric lead and slide guitar, kazoo, harmonica,
tambourine, snare & a cymbal). The band was formed in 1996
and these recordings were made in 1997 at various live gigs in
Turkey, recorded on a cassette recorder by in-house sound
engineer Kubilay Gürol.

But don’t let that put you off—this is a revivalist band par excellence! Take a listen to ‘This Little
Light of Mine’, the old spiritual. It comes with vocals that sound like they emanate from a church
in rural Mississippi and with a slide guitar that constantly reminds me of the very best ‘sacred
steel’ work by the likes of Sonny Tredway, Willy Eason or Aubrey Ghent. These folks have done
their homework!

This is an album that is replete with authenticity taking some old favourites like ‘CC Rider’,
‘Trouble In Mind’ and ‘Careless Love’ and presenting them with a verve and panache that takes

them to a new place. I really like this one, it has a nice feel about it and a certain je ne sais quoi
which puts it in a different place than many of the revivalist groups I hear.

Ian K McKenzie

Tito Jackson—Under Your Spell—Play It Right Records

Toriano Adaryll “Tito” Jackson is an American singer-songwriter
and guitarist. Jackson, older brother of the late Michael, was an
original member of The Jackson 5, which rose to fame in the late
1960s and 1970s with the Motown label, and later had continued
success on the Epic label in the late 1970s and 1980s.

This, I think, is his first venture into the blues and it is a
stunner. Eleven tracks of outstanding recordings with
contributions from some of the current blues elite including
George Benson, Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Neil, Bobby Rush and
from the Motown world, Stevie Wonder—providing some easily

identifiable harp work to ‘Love One Another’. Six of the eleven tracks were co-written (with Tito)
by Michael K. Jackson, who strangely is no relation, but has worked with Jermain, Jaafar and TJ
Jackson and at one time fronted the band Portrait. Here he acted as a back-up singer too and
produced/arranged or engineered a significant number of the tracks.

The Music? Well Tito has a fine voice for this kind of stuff. Much of it comes with a nice touch of
funk often driven by some outstanding bass playing from a wide range of guest musicians
including Kenny Neil, his son Darnell, Terrell Griffith, and Rocc Thomas, the latter joining in for a