Bman's Blues Report

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Live at Blue Bamboo from Chris Cortez and it's quite good. Opening with The Visit , Chris Cortez leads the way with his cool, fluid lead work on guitar. Bob Thornton on piano takes the second lead with vibrant phrasing over the tight bass lines of Doug Mathews and Jeff Sipe on drums. This is a strong  opener with a potent upbeat melody. Arlington Park has a cool Latin feel with the addition of Joel Rosenblatt on drums, Ron Jenkins on bass, Jeff Rupert on sax and John DePaola on trumpet. Both Rupert and DePaola add really solid lead work making this a standout track. Very nice. Different Strokes is a cool bop tune with really nice muted trumpet work by DePaola, accented by Thornton. Both Thornton and Cortez stretch on melodic solos and Rosenblatt shows his stuff as well, making this one of my favorite tracks on the release. Funky, Aarrgh , really hits a nice groove with Cortez grinding in with some more aggressi...

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Hermanos , from Cortez/Williams Project and it's quite enjoyable. Opening with title track, Hermanos , and a Latin rhythm carried by Doug Matthews on bass and, Walt Hubbard on drums. Chris Cortex takes the first melodic solo on guitar with clean, fluid runs over the piano work of Bob Thornton and Dan Jordan on flute. Larry Williams' trumpet is really nice with open bell and thoughtful phrasing, followed by Jordan on flute. Very nice opener. Another Latin based number is Un Pedazo De Tu Sonrisa . With a Samba beat by Jeremy Katalnic and a cool trumpet lead by Williams , reinforced by Cortez on guitar this track is anything but predictable. Thornton's direct piano solo is engaging and tight. Silhouette is an inciteful piece with a convoluted melodic interplay between  Jordan on flute, Williams on trumpet and Thornton on piano and featuring  Marco Bojorquez on bass. Topaz is one of my favorite tracks on the rele...