If you want to know the pulse and attitude of Los Angeles, two of your best options are eating at a Tommy’s Burger and listening to Mose Allison. As old as the reference in the Gettysburg Address (was he there when Lincoln delivered it?), Allison’s attitude and style embodies the best of West Coast jazz. This concert from 2006 has him with the snappy team of Bill Douglass/b and Pete Magadini/dr and you get 19, count ‘em, 19 songs in under 55 minutes, so the pace moves as quickly the time to eat a snapper at Pinks.
His voice has a combination of wise counselor and beach bummed Maynard G Krebs, bouncing the bop on “I Don’t Want Much” and still able to deliver a sardonic message on “Certified Senior Citizen.” His signature tunes like “Your Mind is On Vacation” and “Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy” still sound hipper than today’s hipsters, and he shows his piano chops are still intact on “No Name.” Even traditional American gets a twist with a clever read of “You Are My Sunshine” while going bluer than blue no “Stranger in M Hometown.” He can still deliver a biting lyric with “You Call it Joggin’” while delivering a great read on suburban angst on “Middle Class White Boy.” This guy still knows how to sound like a street poet in an age of Facebook.
Ibis Recordings