Ike's back. RISIN' WITH THE BLUES features Ike, backed by the legenday Kings of Rhythm, in his nastiest, most potent vocals ever, with stinging blues guitar and rocking boogie woogie piano.

14 MP3 Songs
URBAN/R&B: Rhythm & Blues, BLUES: Rhythm & Blues



Details:
There is no denying Ike Turnerâs place in musical history. While the general public may know about his heyday with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue during the â60s (a meteroic rise to fame that peaked with their early â70 hits âProud Maryâ and âNutbush City Limitsâ), only hardcore Ike fans and jump blues enthusiasts are aware of him spearheading the formative years of rock ânâ roll with the 1951 hit âRocket 88â(cut in Memphis by his Kings of Rhythm but issued on Chicagoâs Chess Records label under the name Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats). Few know of Turnerâs role as a kind of super talent scout of the South during the 1950s for both the Chess brothers of Chicagoâs Chess Records or the Bihari brothers of Los Angelesâ Modern/RPM Records. Fewer still know of Ikeâs participation on several early â50s RPM recordings by B.B. King (including his piano accompaniment on Kingâs 1951 hit âThree OâClock Bluesâ and his 1952 follow-up âYou Know I Love Youâ), his playing second guitar on classic 1958 Cobra sessions for Buddy Guy and Otis Rush (including Rushâs signature pieces âDouble Troubleâ and âAll Your Love (I Miss Loving)â), or hammering the 88s behind the likes of Howlinâ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Little Walter, and Willie Dixon during the 1950s.

While playing as a house pianist in West Memphis "blacks only" blues clubs, Ike often snuck in a young white truck driver to sit next to the piano to study Ike's boogie style and dance moves: that kid was Elvis Presley.

In the 1960's, Ike's influence on several of the most recognized names in Rock continued: Janis Joplin sought Turner for vocal coaching, and a young Jimi Hendrix played in Ike's Kings of Rhythm for a time. As a teenager, Bonnie Bramlett was briefly a member of the Ikettes, prior to starting her own rise to stardom a few years later.

In retrospect, Ikeâs early innovations seem to have been overshadowed by his notoriety in later years. Following the breakup of Ike & Tina in 1976, Turner entered a dark period of self-imposed exile marked by his heavy cocaine addiction. âI just went into a 15-year party,â is how he put it. The â90s were further marred by his incarceration for cocaine possession at the outset of the decade and the public besmirching of his name by the 1993 movie Whatâs Love Got To Do With It?, which portrays Tinaâs take on their tumultuous 18-year relationship. But like the mythical phoenix, Ike would eventually rise from the ashes of his fallen career and begin life anew.
With 2001âs triumphant Here and Now, one thing was eminently clear: the swagger was back in Ike Turnerâs stride. That comeback album took critics by surprise, proving that, at age 70, he still had plenty of fire left to give. The album received a GRAMMY nomination for "Best Traditional Blues album" in 2001, and a 2002 W.C. Handy Blues Award in 2002.

On Risin' with the Blues, the R&B icon and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer takes the intensity level up a notch or two with typically slashing-stinging guitar work, rollicking boogie woogie piano flourishes and some of the nastiest, rawest, most potent vocals heâs ever summoned up in a fabled career that dates back more than 50 years.
âAll my life I was afraid to come out front and sing,â says the longtime bandleader who throughout his career stood behind a dynamic front person, whether it was Jackie Brenston, Billy Gayles or Clayton Love in the early years or Tina Turner during the â60s and â70s. âI donât know whether I was too bashful to sing it myself on stage, I just liked it better in the background.â
Ike is in the background no more. Throughout Risin' with the Blues, he wails with ferocious authority as the vocal front man while wielding a wicked ax and pumping the piano keys with the energy of a man half his age. On an ultra-funky âGimme Back My Wig,â he snarls his way through the humorous lyrics while on a powerful horn-fueled reading of Eddie Boydâs âFive Long Yearsâ (retitled here as âEighteen Long Yearsâ to commemorate the span of Ikeâs marriage to Tina), he screams with cathartic abandon. On the infectious shuffle blues âTease Me,â Ike gets downright menacing, then turns around and delivers the country flavored ballad âA Love Like Yoursâ with rare poignancy and emotional depth.
Turner cuts a wide stylistic swath on this powerhouse outing. There are bits of jazz extrapolation here in his instrumental âJazzy Fuzzyâ and also on a faithful reading of Horace Silverâs âSenor Blues.â The urgent âI Donât Want Nobodyâ is a dance floor number coming directly out of the Zapp-Bootsy Collins playbook while the gospel-flavored âJesus Loves Meâ has Turner testifying with evangelistic zeal. As he says of that confessional offering, âBehind all the crap that they said I been through, itâs like, âYou can call me a bad boy, but when you get to calling me a bad boy, Jesus loves me anyway.â And thatâs the truth.â
On a rousing rendition of Louis Jordanâs 1946 hit âCaldoniaâ (cut when Ike was an impressionable 15-year-old growing up in Clarksdale, Mississippi), he pays tribute a jump blues hero of his youth. âThatâs my favorite guy, Louis Jordan,â he says. âI grew up with his music -- all those tunes I heard on the jukebox like âCaldonia,â âLet The Good Times Rollâ and âChoo Choo Cha Boogie.â That was a golden era, man! I was born in 1931 so I came up with all those great tunes by cats like Joe Liggins (1945âs âThe Honeydripperâ) and Jimmy Liggins (1947âs âCadillac Boogieâ), Roy Brown (1947âs âGood Rockinâ Tonightâ), T-Bone Walker (1947âs âStormy Monday Bluesâ) and Amos Milburn (1948âs âChicken Shack Boogieâ). That was my music, man! And when I finally formed the Kings of Rhythm, we were doing our own versions of all that stuff, just trying to put our own twist on it.â
Elsewhere on Risin' with the Blues, Turnerâs guitar stings with a vengeance on âRockinâ Blues,â he belts out vocals in robust style on âGoinâ Home Tomorrowâ (a New Orleans flavored stroll reminiscent of Earl Kingâs âThose Lonely, Lonely Nightsâ) and digs into some downhome fingerstyle blues guitar work on the humorous âBig Fat Mama.â The funky instrumental âBi Polarâ showcases both Ikeâs guitar and piano prowess while the organ-fueled closer, âAfter Hours,â is an Erskine Hawkins slow blues that highlights Ikeâs soulful restraint on the ivories.
âEverything you hear on this record comes directly from the heart, man,â maintains the man who has been firmly rooted in the real-deal for over 50 years. âThis whole album is about feeling.â
Amen to that. -- Bill Milkowski

Producers : Ike Turner, Ike Turner Jr. Assistant Producer: Roger Nemour.

Recorded at: Ritesonian Studio, Sun Valley, CA; Track Studio, Ventura, CA; QLA Studio, Hollywood, CA; Bombeat Studio, San Diego, CA; Signature Sound Studio, San Diego, CA. Mastered by Phil Magnotti, in April 2006. Photography: Martin Trailer. Package Design : 3 and Co., New York. Executive producers: Roger Davidson & Joachim âJochenâ Becker, Becker Davidson Entertainment L.L.C.

Bookings : The Agency Tel 760 727 4471

www.iketurner.com