Will Jacobs

Will Jacobs – Goldfish Blues (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 43:41 minutes | 500 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ruf Records GmbH

Although barely 29 years old, the young guitarist and singer Will Jacobs nevertheless sports a curriculum that distinguishes him from the simple status of newcomer. A native of Chicago (there must be worse places to learn the blues), he rubbed shoulders there, while still a teenager, with the demanding circuit of local clubs, to report himself even before his 17th birthday, during the 2009 edition of the Memphis International Blues Showcase (at the head of his own band at the time, Dirty Deal). After a residency in Sri Lanka and a few tours with C.J. Chenier, the boy landed in Berlin, establishing a rear base there from where he swarmed to who better-better on our old continent (from Ukraine to Poland, and from Germany to Armenia and Spain). After having published a joint album with the harmonica player Teuton Marcos Coll, he aroused the interest of a Thomas Ruf rarely struck with deafness, to finally give birth under his leadership of his first solo album. Recorded “at home” (and in a week) in a Berlin studio, the latter presents it judiciously surrounded by a quartet of excellent local musicians, Hammond organ included. If the funky opening “Come Back To Me” blames the converging influences of Larry Garner and SRV, the hushed swing-jazz “Katie’s Blues” reveals a significant part of what Will acquired during his time on the benches of the Berklee School Of Music. Whether in terms of harmonic creativity or subtlety in touch, we are reassured not to find ourselves once again confronted with a sterile shredder galore. Juicy to perfection on a clavinet mat and groovy rhythm section, the titular track, “You Do You”, “Grooving With You” and the no less hectic “and aptly titled) “Funky Woman” refer to the career endings of the late Freddie King and Johnny Guitar Watson, mutinous backing singers and turgid bass in support. The six strings respond to it like fireworks (all cocottes and wah-wah outside), and it seems as if we have returned to the miraculous time of these “Burglar” and “Ain’t That A Bitch”, who knocked down the sanitary cords that many Ayatollahs were then trying to erect between funk and electrified blues. Impossible in any case not to stir the popcorn and all the Saint-Frusquin! As an impetuous soul man, Will then delivers the unstoppable ballad “I Wish”, before his native Chicago shuffle takes over for a “Dirty Dog” full of triple-senses (and lustful licks everywhere). It’s simple, it feels like Magic Slim, on a night when John Primer would have been passing by (la bamboula, in short).

(more…)