Bman's Blues Report

               Label : Origin Records                                                                              Released : September 14, 2026 The Mike Dana Jazz Orchestra is a powerhouse big band project cooked up by veteran jazz guitarist, composer, and long-time educator Mike Dana. Far from a rigid academic ensemble, this group functions as an elite collective, regularly pulling in world-class heavyweights like Bob Mintzer , Eric Marienthal , and Wayne Bergeron to breathe life into Dana's rich orchestrations. On their 2026 album Farther (still) , released through Origin Records , the band is a powerhouse in modern big band music. Backed by the clean production and stellar tru...

Johnny "Guitar" Watson was the ultimate musical shape-shifter, blazing a trail through blues, soul, and funk for over forty years with a ton of attitude and a wildly aggressive guitar style. Growing up in Houston and later cutting his teeth in Los Angeles, he wasn't afraid to break the rules from day one. In fact, his 1954 track "Space Guitar" practically predicted psychedelic rock by messing around with feedback and reverb a decade before anyone else caught on. Through the ’50s and ’60s, he racked up R&B hits like "Three Hours Past Midnight" and the famously cool "Gangster of Love," cementing his reputation as a guitar hero who could out-play and out-swagger just about anyone on the scene. But instead of riding the nostalgia wave, Watson completely flipped the script in the mid-1970s and reinvented himself as a flashy, gold-tooth-wearing funk maestro. He started producing his own records, playing almost all the instruments himse...