Studio Masters

Lucky Peterson – Tribute to Jimmy Smith (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:00:20 minutes | 704 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jazz Village

When you utter the words Hammond B-3, one name and one name only comes to mind: Jimmy Smith! It is to this master of the organ who Lucky Peterson pays homage to on his aptly named album Tribute To Jimmy Smith. The disc will appear on the label Jazz Village on 13th October 2017 (with pre-orders available as of today on Qobuz in Hi-Res 24-Bit!), where Peterson is surrounded by virtuosic partners among which we find Kelyn Crapp, the young guitar prodigy from San Francisco. Throughout the album, Peterson proves to be an agent of a long musical history that is anchored in blues yet remains very open to other influences. We find here a clear jazz pulse, the groove of rhythm’n’blues as well as the energy of rock’n’roll. As for the repertoire, the classics from Smith (The Sermon, The Champ) mix beautifully with other jazz’n’blues gems. From the very first few bars of Night Train by Jimmy Forest (featuring the French trumpeter Nicolas Folmer) one finds that groove takes off instantly and that Lucky Peterson sets the B-3 on fire as fast as lightening! It’s impossible to not tap your feet along to the beat for the whole hour of this wonderful tribute.

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Lucky Peterson – The Son Of A Bluesman (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 57:01 minutes | 641 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jazz Village

Lucky Peterson’s father was blues guitarist and singer James Peterson, a well-known regional musician who also owned the Governor’s Inn, a premier blues nightclub in Buffalo, New York, which means Peterson grew up around his father’s friends, who just happened to be touring and recording musicians like Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, and Bill Doggett, and he learned from all of them. He became fascinated with the Hammond B-3 organ as a young child, and by the time he was five, he’d proved to be a prodigy on it. Mentored by another of his father’s friends, the great songwriter, bassist, arranger, and producer Willie Dixon, Peterson was still only five when he scored an R&B hit with the Dixon-produced “1-2-3-4,” the novelty of it all landing him appearances on The Tonight Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, and others, and his debut album appeared in 1969. But Peterson had an exploratory nature, and while he could have had quite a career as a keyboard player, he picked up the guitar at the age of eight, and by the time he was a teen, he had developed an emotionally searing guitar style. He could have relaunched his career then, but instead he attended the Buffalo Academy of Performing Arts, and went out on the road as part of the touring bands of Etta James and Otis Rush, spent three years as Little Milton’s keyboardist, another three years in Bobby “Blue” Bland’s band, and backed jazz stars like Hank Crawford and Abbey Lincoln. He learned blues, jazz, soul, R&B, funk, and gospel, and by the time he made his re-debut as a bandleader with the Bob Greenlee-produced Lucky Strikes! in 1989, Peterson was a triple-threat multi-instrumentalist who managed to fuse R&B, jazz, gospel, funk, and rock with the blues. All of this leads up to this very personal and semi-autobiographical set, and his 18th album as a bandleader. The Son of a Bluesman, aside from being another fine set of Peterson’s joyous fusion blues, is also the first of his albums that he has produced himself, and it has a warm, career-summing kind of feel to it. The title track, “The Son of a Bluesman,” and the two different versions of the gospel-themed “I’m Still Here,” give this album a personal and retrospective feel, as does the striking, and even silly “Joy,” a straight-up family home recording featuring a rap interlude. But perhaps the best and most poignant track on an album full of standouts is the lovely instrumental “Nana Jarnell,” dedicated to both Peterson’s mother and his wife’s mother, musician, singer, and songwriter Tamara Stovall-Peterson. Peterson’s guitar lead on the track is a marvel of crying, elegantly balanced phrasing, almost horn-like or vocal-like, and it speaks and sings like the marvel it is. This is perhaps Peterson’s most well-rounded and personal album yet, and it coheres in a wonderful arc, capturing the blues as an ever-flowing, joyous, and ultimately uplifting thing. ~ Steve Leggett

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Lucky Peterson – Long Nights (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 43:51 minutes | 483 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © JSP Records

It is understood to the listener from the first seconds of the album: Lucky Peterson will never abandon the blues. As impressive on the guitar as with his impressive vocals, he is accompanied here by what is becoming a basic blues setup: piano, bass and drums. This is not as if to say that Long Nights is devoid of a unique personality. Lucky Peterson hits a guitar of his own – undeniable skill at rhythm and picking. Using his Dobro, the listener is brought to a time that seems all but too distant to understand. From country blues to slow electric blues, Chicago boogie and more… An entire repertoire is reviewed and personalized here. A vintage and authentic parenthesis amidst the digital synthesizer that dominates music today.

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Lucky Peterson – July 28th 2014 (Live in Marciac) (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:18:35 minutes | 897 MB | Genre: Blues, Blues Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jazz Village

Lucky Peterson live in full effect at last summer’s Marciac festival in France, featuring Joe Satriani as special guest on the final track. Born in Buffalo close to New York, Lucky Peterson – a singer, guitarist and organist – is one of the most authentic agents of blues music; he s familiar with its oral tradition and history and can also play and sing it like no other. Mixing his own compositions and inspired covers (of tracks by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Wilson Pickett and even Johnny Nash), he has decided to treat our eyes and ears to a live recording on which he blends blues music and an unstoppable sense of groove. With these fourteen tracks, forged in the embers of a fire burning with soul and rhythm n blues but giving off a few gospel and rock n roll sparks (witness the final track by Chuck Berry alongside Joe Satriani!), Lucky Peterson has put blues, the oldest form of black American music, back in the limelight.

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Lucky Peterson – 50 – Just warming up ! (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:20:05 minutes | 927 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jazz Village

50 – Just Warming Up! Is the new album from American blues legend and multi-instrumentalist Lucky Peterson – one of the most riveting performers of the modern blues era. A searing lead guitarist, a rich and powerful organist, and a first-rate vocalist, Lucky’s musicianship effortlessly translates gospel, rock, and jazz into a 21st century blues. Many reminisce about the bygone days of the blues, but it’s flame still burns hot here in the hands of Lucky Peterson!

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