Cleopatra Records artist: Big Jay McNeely - I'm Still Here - Big Jay Sings The Blues - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, I'm Still Here- Big Jay Sings The Blues from Big Jay McNeely and it's solid old school blues. Opening with shuffle track, You Never Miss The Water with Big Jay on lead vocal and sax. Yep... Big Jay got the blues. On blues standard, Baby Please Don't Go, Big Jay sets a super groove on vocal followed by honking sax and tight guitar riffs. I really like boogie track, Once I Had A Woman, with John Lee like form and style and slide in the back. I Love To Feel Free has a real nice swing to it with Big Jay on lead vocal. Ringing slide and prime lead guitar riffs really set this track off nicely and Big Jays sax is fat and solid. Wrapping the release is Still Got A Long Way To Go with a solid bass line and real nice slide and lead guitar work behind Jay's vocals. This is
an excellent closer for a real nice posthumous release of McNelly's work. 

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Polka Dot Records artist: Carolyn Gaines - Beware Of My Dog - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Beware Of My Dog, by Carolyn Gaines with it's contemporary blues roots. Opening with title track, Beware of My Dog, vocalist Gaines works Big Mama's Hound Dog rhythm and theme to craft her own effort and featuring a cool sax solo by he cousin, Big Jay McNeely. I got to say, sometimes it's an album cover and sometimes it's the name of a song that gets me. Stone Out Your Raggly Mind is about as cool a track title I've heard. A simple shuffle, carried by Gaines on melody, backed by guitarist Fred Clark, Glen Doll on harp, Rudy Copeland on organ, Del Atkins on bass and Chad Wright on drums, and of course McNelly on sax. Very cool. Adapted from Muddy Waters' Hoochie Coochie Man, Hoochie Coochie Woman and Gaines really digs in. Along with her vibrant vocals, a smart guitar solo by Clark and reinforcement by Doll bakes this track. One of my favorite tracks on the release, Junior Kimbrough's Done Got Old, is earthy and tight. Super blues number, Jerry Rice "Busy Man" , shows the primitive styling of early blues masters with only guitar and harp accompaniment. Wrapping the release is Big Jay's Something On Your Mind, stripped down with organ accompaniment and little more. McNeely takes a real nice solo balanced by Copeland's organ making this a particularly effective and a super wrapper for this release. 

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Cleopatra Records artist: Big Jay McNeely - Honkin' & Jivin' At The Palomino - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Honkin' & Jivin' At The Palomino, from Big Jay McNeely and it's hot! Kicking down the door on the opener, Palomino Hop, McNeely has flames coming from his horn, backed by Marty Rifkin on pedal steel, Steve von Gelder on fiddle, Dale Watson on guitar, Ronnie Mack on guitar, Keith Rosier on bass and Billy Block on drums. Excellent! On Don Gibson's, I Can't Stop Loving You, McNeely set out a soulful rendition not unlike Ray Charles own arrangement.  Pretty Girls Everywhere has a cool, sixties twist, beach sound with fiddle work by Gelder, Steel by Rifkin and Big Jay on vocal and sax. Shuffle track, Honky Tonk has extended instrumental lead from McNeely and Gelder plus a great pounding return. Very cool.  Bluesy, Young Girl Blues is set deep with the best vocals by McNeely, and balanced soloing throughout. Wrapping the release is Big Jay Shuffle, and excellent closer with Big Jay honkin' out with swift pace. A crisp steel solo by Rifkin, guitar solo's by Watson and Mack and Gelder's fiddle work add nicely but this is the Big Jay show and he's playing it to the max. Super.

Also included is a DVD of the show. Looking forward to seeing it at home!

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Sax Legend BIG JAY MCNEELY Blows His Brains Out On This Live CD/DVD Recorded in 1989 At The World Famous Palomino Club!

Sax Legend BIG JAY MCNEELY Blows His Brains Out On This Live CD/DVD Recorded in 1989 At The World Famous Palomino Club!

Los Angeles, CA - Hot on the heels of his blockbuster comeback album, Blowin’ Down The House - Big Jay’s Latest & Greatest, R&B vocalist and the King Of Honking Sax, Big Jay McNeely, announces this incredible concert recording from 1989 to be released in a multi-media package September 15. Honkin’ & Jivin’ At The Palomino features a killer concert performance put together as part of Ronnie Mack’s well-loved Barn Dance, an musical showcase that drew everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. The set pulls from multiple decades of soul, pop, rock & R&B, here given a bit of the country swing and twang by the amazing Barn Dance band that includes Ronnie Mack himself! The video footage proves that Big Jay’s showmanship never diminished as he entreats and cajoles the audience to dance, sing and shout along with him through such barn-burners as “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “All That Wine Is Gone,” “Pretty Girls Everywhere” and Big Jay’s own smash hit single “There Is Something On Your Mind!” The DVD even includes a bonus interview with Big Jay speaking candidly about his long and influential career.

Big Jay McNeely’s incredible career began in the ‘40s and saw him play with several major R&B and blues legends of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s such as Little Richard, B.B. King, Etta James and Junior Wells. He scored his first major hit with the 1949 smash hit instrumental “Deacon’s Hop” and scored again with a R&B vocal ballad “There Is Something On Your Mind” featuring Little Sonny Warner. He pioneered the flamboyant playing style called “honking” and is widely acknowledged as one of the first musical entertainers to make showmanship an important element of the live concert experience. His music continues to be an important signifier for that early era, earning McNeely gigs at major festivals both here and abroad as well as having his music featured in the 2013 Sean Penn film Gangster Squad starring and last year’s biopic Trumbo starring Bryan Cranston.

Catch Big Jay perform at a very special record release party at Cody’s Viva Cantina in Burbank, CA on September 17. For more information, visit: http://windsorlivemusic.com/

Track List:

1. Palomino Hop

2. I Can't Stop Loving You

3. All That Wine Is Gone

4. There Is Something On Your Mind

5. Pretty Girls Everywhere

6. Honky Tonk

7. Young Girl Blues

8. Big Jay Shuffle

Buy the CD: http://flyt.it/BigJayMcNeelyCD

Buy the Vinyl: https://www.amazon.com/Honkin-Jivin-Palomino-MCNEELY-BIG/dp/B073W3M9HD

Buy the digital version: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/honkin-jivin-at-the-palomino-live/id1276263965

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Cleopatra Records artist: Big Jay McNeely - Blowin' Down The House - New Release Review

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Blowin' Down The House, from Big Jay McNeeley and it'S quite cool. Opening with club style funky track, Love Will Never Fail, McNeely shows his trademark squeal and rich horn work that has made him stand out among horn players. On soul track, My Love Never Ended, McNeely hits a solid groove with one of the best tracks on the release and soulful sax honking. Very cool. I've Been Mistreated has a real aggressive sound like early James Brown, Ike Turner or Hendrix. With rockin' guitar work and fat sax work, this track is way cool. Hard driving, Party, really jams with fluid guitar riffs over a rumbling bass lines, Mcneely really gets the place screaming for an exceptional jammer. Swing track, Big Jay's Hop, is a bit more contained but no less rockin'. McNeely's trademark lead sax work is unmistakable and fat fat fat. Blow, Blow, Blow is really hopping with sax sax sax. Excellent! Willie The Cool Cat is a great swinger with super guitar and sax lead. Step back and let it fly! Nervous, Man, Nervous has a great swing as is chocked full of super lead sax as well as fat, fat bari sax. With multiple male voices "shouting" out the lyrics, this track really gets rocking. Wrapping the release is Get On Up & Let's Boogie, a fast paced rocker with super piano getting it rolling. Trumpet punctuation behind the lead vocals brings you up to the hot guitar soloing and then ultimately McNeely taking a hot flying solo carrying the release to the end. Excellent closer to a sweet taste of Big Jay McNeely.



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Deacon's Hop - Big Jay McNeely and Detroit Gary Wiggins

Big Jay McNeely (born Cecil James McNeely, April 29, 1927, Watts, Los Angeles, California, United States) is an American rhythm and blues saxophonist.
Inspired by Illinois Jacquet and Lester Young, he teamed with his older brother Robert McNeely, who played baritone saxophone, and made his first recordings with drummer Johnny Otis, who ran the Barrelhouse Club that stood only a few blocks from McNeely's home. Shortly after he performed on Otis's "Barrel House Stomp." Ralph Bass, A&R man for Savoy Records, promptly signed him to a recording contract. Bass's boss, Herman Lubinsky, suggested the stage name Big Jay McNeely because Cecil McNeely did not sound commercial. McNeely's first hit was "The Deacon's Hop," an instrumental which topped the Billboard R&B chart in early 1949. The single was his most successful of his three chart entries.

Thanks to his flamboyant playing, called "honking," McNeely remained popular through the 1950s and into the early 1960s, recording for the Exclusive, Aladdin, Imperial, Federal, Vee-Jay, and Swingin' labels. But despite a hit R&B ballad, "There Is Something on Your Mind," (1959) featuring Little Sonny Warner on vocals, and a 1963 album for Warner Bros. Records, McNeely's music career began to cool off. He quit the music industry in 1971 to become a postman. However, thanks to an R&B revival in the early 1980s, McNeely left the post office and returned to touring and recording full time, usually overseas. His original tenor sax is enshrined in the Experience Music Project in Seattle, and he was inducted into The Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.
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