Here are a couple of discs to liven up your lawn parties or tailgaiters.
Thought you’ve heard it all? Try this one by the Sir Sultry Quintet, an LA-based band that mixes blues and jazz with a liberal dash of flamenco. Mixing California with Seville, this band mixes knee slapping vocals by Ethan Margolis on”Before It Gets Cold” and “Eating Out” with free flowing latin passion. Guitarist Ethan Margolis tams up with Katisse Buckingham/sax-fl, Hussain Jiffry/b, Mitch Forman/key and a rotating team of drummers on exciting instrumentals such as “Niebla”, “Smile at Life” and the title track, as guest vocalist Judith Hill brings excitement to “Love Bubbles.” The band gets loosey goosey and informal at times, like a casual night in the back yard, but that’s part of the charm here. You feel like you’re part of the get together. Where’s the food?
Meanwhile, if you want a hard hitting night out on the dance floor, The City Boys All Stars got the place sweating at the Cutting Room in NYC back in 2013. A snapping horn section that includes Lew Soloff/tp and Andy Snitzer/sax creates a Stax sounding framework to the tongue in groove teram of Al MacDowell/b, Rob Clores/key, Nick Saya and Daniel Sadownick/perc along with Mike Merola’s moaning guitar on pieces like the drencing “Testimony” and soul fascinating “Funky Peaches.”
Soloff’s trumpet glows on a rich take of “God Bless The Child” and Snitzer is sp otlighted on the original “When You Needed Me” while vocals by Bill Kurz, Angel Rissoff and Horace Scott II keep the party going, with Kurz exposing his soul on Strung Out” and “City Boy Blues.” You’ll drop 5 pounds on the dance floor with this one.