Bless Up (Avila Street Records, 2014)
Opening up a barrel full of cool, the Jamaican musician and composer Ernest Ranglin, along with the group of musicians Avila, named for the street in San Francisco where the group rehearses, flashes brilliant with the delicious ska reggae grooves on Bless Up on the Avila Street Records label. Having powered through a career that has seen collaborations with the likes of Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Monty Alexander, Theophilus Beckford and the Skatalites and a discography that includes Below the Bassline, Surfin, Rocksteady, In Search of the Lost Riddim, Guitar in Ernest, Softly With Ranglin, Memories of Barber Mack, Gotcha! and Avila, Mr. Ranglin is still proving the skilled musical statesman even into his eighties. Overflowing with a hip freshness, Bless Up will have listeners wading through some masterful grooves.
Together with bassist Yossi Fine, pianist, Hammond B-3 and Fender Rhodes player Jonathan Korty, tenor and baritone saxophonist and harmonica player Michael Peloquin, trumpet and flugelhorn player Modest Briseno, trombonist Charlie Wilson and pianist, Hammond B-3 Fender Rhodes, melodica, harmonium and Wurlitzer piano player Eric Levy, Mr. Ranglin kicks Bless Up with savagely savvy guitar lines that speak to both Mr. Ranglin’s ska reggae and jazz backgrounds.
Pooling a collection of reggae infused goodies like the opening “Bond Street Express,” ” Joan’s Pen,” “Stuff I Am Looking For” and “Mystic Blue,” Bless Up blazes with a bright and breezy feel. Delicious brass work coats tracks like “Silvan,” where the lazy grooves of title track “Bless Up” make for a full rich sound.
Two fabulous versions of “Bra Joe from Kilimanjaro” set up sultry prowls through the speakers, while the spectacular “Ska Renzo” vibrates with some stunning guitar work.
Bless Up brims over with a delicious easy feel, transporting the listener to a place where the skies are always blue, the water is always warm and the music is always just right.
Buy the Bless Up digital download version
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
