Guitarist Brian Kooken gives a blue plate delight on this stick-to-the-ribs delightful organ trio with Greg Hatza on the Hammond B3 and Robert Shahid on the crispy drums. Kooken’s tone in the strings cuts like a Spyderco knife as he bops on tunes like “Hatza’s Groove” or sways through the Latin pulse of “Brazilian Blues”. As with all adroit B3 trios, the mix of funk and blues has to be just right, and Kooken is a master chef, going soulful on “Hit It”, bouncing with the hues on “5 Minutes Late” and strutting at the chicken shack on “In That Funk Again”. Hatza gets some nice solo spacing, bringing some sophisticated harmonies to “Always Looking Up” and Shahid is tap-tap-tapping out the pulse with strong wrists as on the smokey “It’s Monday And I’ve Got The Blues”. All the songs are originals, but they all have vintage and timeless attitudes. Grab a plate of dry rub ribs and dig in.