Bman's Blues Report

  I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Heart, Mind and Soul by Randy Bernsen , and it's quite interesting. Opening with With You Always , with it's Latin flavor, Randy Bernsen on guitar plays a solid melody, joined by Jimmy Haslip on bass, David Nizri on drums, Uzi Nizri on piano and Dan Davis on trumpet. A more jagged melody with strong bass accents by David and cool piano solo by Uzi make this a terrific opener. Prodigal Son starts quietly with keys, drums, and bass with light solo accents by Bernsen and interweaving trumpet by Derek Sims and sax by Bob Franceschini. Very nice. Slinky, Billy Gate Blues has Bernsen up front with wide open guitar melody over the driving rhythm line of David and Haslip. Uzi sets a cool melody line, picked up by Bernsen with a terrific shuffle reinforcement and punchy trumpet work by Davis. Strong. ABBA Father is a really nice acoustic guitar solo with a Spanish flavor, floating on a bed of piano and keys and with the...