Bluesmen Aid Heckstall-Smith

English pioneering blues saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith's fourth solo recording, Godfather of British Blues -- Blues and Beyond, is scheduled for a June 19th release on new label Blue Storm.

In the Fifties, when British horn players only played jazz, Heckstall-Smith became the first to cross over into R&B and backed everybody in the blues scene from Alexis Korner and Graham Bond to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, later co-founding the fusion unit Colosseum with drummer John Hiseman, who will guest on the CD. The core backing band is David 'Clem' Clempson, former guitarist for Colosseum and Humble Pie, bassist David Hadley and drummer Gary Husband from Simply Red. The project also features other characters from the saxophone player's past: Jack Bruce, who got his start in an early Dick Heckstall-Smith band, sings on a cut, and John Mayall plays piano on another.

"When I was with Blues Incorporated in 1962 we did a gig in Manchaster," remembers Heckstall-Smith about his first meeting with Mayall. "Alexis Korner knew where to farm [out] the band to avoid having to pay for a hotel. I was woken up by this divine, supernatural organ playing with this beautiful voice over the top of it. It was John Mayall."

Former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, who served with Heckstall-Smith under John Mayall in the late Sixties, plays guitar behind British vocalist Paul Williams, and Procul Harum's Gary Brooker sings Heckstall-Smith's take on late bluesman's Cyril Davis' "Spooky But Nice."

Ginger Baker, who along with Bruce, played with the DH-S group for many years was not be able to join the sessions due to a riding accident. "Ginger is my oldest friend in the music business and we're still friends -- better than ever," Heckstall-Smith recalls fondly. "When first I saw him he was this raging ginger-haired git when he was eighteen [1957]. He was playing this kit of drums that he'd built himself."

As well as Eddie Martin and Belfast bluesman Rab McCullogh, the project will also feature singer/harmonica player Paul Jones -- formerly of Manfred Mann, and the Blues Band -- on Muddy Waters' "Rolling and Tumbling."

Peter Green, probably the only British blues musician that the reedman has not previously worked with, is also on the CD. "The Peter Green period was when I was working with the Graham Bond Organization. Let me tell you, if you were working with the Graham Bond Organization you didn't work with anybody else -- there was no time!"

With the exception of Sarah Vaughn's "Don't Be on the Outside," which will feature three former members of Colosseum (Heckstall-Smith, Hiseman and Clempson) and Helen Reddy's "Angie Baby," the rest of the CD will be original material mainly co-written by Heckstall-Smith and singer/poet and Cream lyricist Peter Brown.

"I've known Dick since 1960," says Brown who is co-producing with keyboard player David 'Munch' Moore. "He's an incredible improviser -- inventive and completely unpredictable."

GIANLUCA TRAMONTANA
(May 30, 2001)