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Louise Cappi – Mélange (Independent)
www.reverbnation.com/louisecappi)

That is a really very appropriate CD title. It translates from the
French as “a varied mixture”, which this release certainly is – or a
gumbo if you prefer. That use of French is apt too, as singer Louise is
based in New Orleans. Allen Toussaint comes to mind a few times
here, a singer/ pianist with a wide repertoire but roots deep in the

Crescent City’s music, and much of Louise’s arrangements are based
around keyboards. So, the set opens with the jazzy ‘Talk To Me’ and
closes with Leon Russell’s emotional ballad, ‘Song For You’, sand-
wiching numbers like the very bluesy version of Randy Newman’s ‘Guilty’, with fine guitar work by
Alex Krahe, and a cover of Roberta Flack’s smooth soul hit from 1975, ‘Feel Like Makin’ Love’. There is
also an excellent medley of ‘Chain Of Fools/ Unchain My Heart’, bridging soul and R’n’B, a lascivious
‘Let’s Make Love’, and a quietly assertive ‘It Is What It Is’ and another bluesy cover with ‘Summertime’.

The heart of the album is ‘Bella Nola’, a passionate and thoughtful love song to New Orleans, which I
guess is where we came in…

Norman Darwen
Muddy Waters Muddy Waters Day/ Live At Newport (Floating

World FLOATM 6399)

When Muddy Waters played at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960, it

probably already seemed like a dream to the bluesman from Missis-
sippi. OK, there were clear signs he was breaking through to a

bigger, whiter audience, and in Britain (where he had already

toured), the live album he recorded at Newport was to become
hugely influential. It is a fine example of how he sounded back then

– though no doubt he was rawer in Chicago’s clubs – with his own band behind him and a slew of blues
classics to draw on. And if you want to know just how fine he sounded, the second disc of this double

CD set is a reissue of that landmark recording.

Even then though, in those segregated, pre-Civil Rights days, he could never really have imagined that
16 years later, Boston, Massachusetts would be the setting for a “Muddy Waters Day”. The first disc

was recorded by Radio WBCN-FM just before Muddy Waters returned to prominence with “Hard
Again”, and Muddy’s stature as a living legend was beyond doubt. It features his long-time regular

band (Pinetop Perkins on piano, Bob Margolin and Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson on guitars, Jerry

Portnoy on harmonica, Calvin Jones bass and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith drums), and is fairly typical of
his sets around that time – which may sound a little dismissive but certainly is not intended to be. The

editing is a little clumsy in places, but there’s no denying the music. After all, this IS Muddy Waters.
Check it out…

Norman Darwen