Page 59 - BiTS_12_DECEMBER_2025

Boz Scaggs—Detour —Concord Jazz ASIN B0FNK-
G3Q3D

Boz Scaggs came to fame as the guitarist in the 1960s

with the Steve Miller Band playing ‘progressive blues’ but
he left to go solo in 1969 and later had mega-selling
singles and albums in the 70s with commercial-sounding

sophisticated soul/blues. Since then he’s continued to
produce blues and soul albums and also jazz albums like
2003’s ‘But Beautiful’ and 2008’s ‘Speak Low’ and indeed

I think that his voice is much better suited to interpret the ‘Great American songbook’
than say Rod Stewart’s. This album came about following informal sessions with
pianist Seth Asanow who introduced Boz to a number of lesser-known jazz songs

as well as accompanying him on classics like Ray Noble’s ‘The Very Thought of You’
and Bobby Troup’s ‘The Meaning of the Blues’. The album opens with Allen
Toussaint’s ‘It’s Raining’ (an R&B hit for Irma Thomas) but given a lovely restrained

jazzy arrangement here complete with tasteful strings. Unfortunately for me the
album is ‘too tasteful’ – Boz’s voice is very good throughout, as is the piano, double
bass and sensitive brushed drums but the songs and arrangements were just too

samey, too relaxed and I longed for some of Boz’s guitar or a sax solo for a bit of
variety.

Graham Harrison

Hubert Dorigatti—Poor Boy—Independent

Hubert Dorigatti is an Italian singer and guitarist who

after exploring various musical avenues, including Bob
Dylan tributes, has now returned to his first love - the
blues. This album of mainly original tracks features him

and several top harmonica players with both band and
stripped-down arrangements. The opener ‘Cold, Cold

Heart’ features Hubert and band with Canadian harp
player Roly Platt and this is followed by the title track
with the great Charlie Musselwhite adding both his
harmonica and vocals. Next, we have just Hubert’s acoustic guitar and vocals

together with superb country blues harmonica from the French player Mickael
Mazaleyrat, then it’s another band track ‘Lone Wolf’ with Jason Ricci playing very

subtly – nice track.

The one cover here is Hubert with band and the Polish harmonica star Greg Zlap
with their unlikely version of Led Zeppelin’s ‘The Ocean’. Hubert is then joined by

Austrian harp player Christian Deimbacher for the poignant ballad ‘Long Way Back
Home’ and we then get two tracks where Hubert is joined by his countryman