As you well know if you read this blog on a regular basis, I am both a fan of harmonica and of jam rock. These passions rarely coincide, and so it was with some curiosity that I heard of Jason Ricci and his band New Blood. A few years back, Planet Harmonica collaborator Mark Nessmith had interviewed Jason and we published the interview in issue 4 of the magazine. However, I had only heard him play acoustic blues on an album of guitarist/singer Keith Brown, and I was eager to hear his own stuff. Now I have: in the last few weeks, Jason sent me both his Live at Checkers Tavern and the new release Blood on the Road. Consider this a joint review.
Jason is comparatively young and gigs nearly 300 nights a year with the New Blood, after having played with many blues names like the aforementioned Keith Brown or Junior Kimbrough. Such a gruelling schedule has built the New Blood's reputation as a band not to be missed. The line-up is classic (drums, bass, guitar and harp/vocals), and upon looking at the track listings, one may be excused to believe that they play straight-ahead blues in the same way that hundreds of bands do in the US and elsewhere. After one complete listening of either record, that impression quickly fades.
Blues is undoubtedly the foundation of the music, but the band stretches far beyond the its traditional shores into a more exploratory territory influenced as much by rock and jazz as it is by blues. Most of the covers are heavily rearranged versions of the originals, with, on the whole, a heavier beat and a funkier groove. In other words, it may pass off as blues and certainly has the required depth and intensity, but it's modern and does not get shackled by a certain view of tradition.
The musicians are all top notch, both dynamic and inventive. Shawn Starski on guitar deserves a special mention. He avoids the pitfall of imitative blues playing with inventiveness and gusto. His chording, his phrasing and his vibrato are all exceptional and form an inherent part of the New Blood's sound. The interplay between him and Jason is impressive, of the telepathic variety that only comes from hundreds of dates played together.
If there's any criticism that could be levied at the band itself, it's that Jason isn't a particularly good vocalist. His hoarse singing sounds more like a powerful bark than the kind of vocals you'd expect from the frontman of a blues-rock band. That being said, he uses this characteristic weakness to fairly good effect and although I'm often picky about singers, I can't say that it detracts much from the music in this specific case. Jason is careful not to overstretch, and his particular delivery is well suited to a kind of half-recited half-sung funky style as featured on I Wish you Would on Live at Checkers Tavern.
There is little doubt however, that Jason is a harmonica player first and foremost. It is astonishing to me that someone so young can have acquired such a distinctive vocabulary (especially when so many blues players several times his age rehash the same tired riffs over and over) and although what he does is technically advanced, it's not the technique that draws attention so much as the musical approach to phrasing and improvising.
Put simply, Jason's playing is like nothing you've ever heard. His phrasing is very nervous, a flurry of short notes with lots of ornamentation that can stretch for very long while remaining interesting. In fact, on those tracks where the band really takes its time, particularly on Live at Checkers Tavern, there's an evident stream of consciousness quality to his playing that is mostly heard in rock bands that focus heavily on improvisation, like the Derek Trucks Band or moe. but is also reminiscent of Stevie Ray Vaughan's capacity to remain fresh and dynamic however long the choruses. Jason's vocabulary borrows to blues, jazz and rock mostly, but the blend is his own.
His harp sound is powerful, if a little hollow to my taste (this is particularly evident on the first few tracks of Blood on the Road). Jason plays mostly amplified and uses vibrato efficiently, but sparsely, which is a side-effect of playing few long notes anyway, although this is less true of the studio recording where his playing is a little less frantic.
On the whole, Jason's music is quite exceptional and very exciting, although I do feel at times that too many ornaments and too many short notes can grow a little tiresome. Listening to Live at Checkers Tavern, I wondered if, in building his vocabulary, Jason had possibly cut himself off from some of the instrument's strengths. However, on Blood on the Road, which features a few more laid back tunes, he displays a capacity for more lyrical and melodic playing, so maybe this impression was just a side effect of live performance.
Now on to the albums themselves. Blood on the Road is a studio recording, but the sound and arrangements don't feel like they are studio. That can be perceived both as a strength or a weakness, depending on your point of view. I like live in the studio as much as the next guy, but the studio, it seems to me, can also be an opportunity to try for a different sound, different arrangements, and a bit of production allows for a lot of possibilities. It seems to me that these possibilities weren't much exploited in this record, although as might be expected, the vocals are clearer, and the mix is generally friendlier than on live recordings.
Live at Checkers Tavern, on the other hand, is a genuine live recording, complete with audience and comments, and although it clocks at an impressive 76 minutes, it's very clearly an incomplete concert, with some tracks fading well before their probable complete run. It only features 7 tracks, which gives you some idea of the length on some of them.
Apart from two originals, Blues Penitentiary and My Head is a Bad Neighborhood, there is no overlap between the two records, and the 10 songs present on Blood on the Road are on the whole shorter and stretch out less. There's a decent mix of instrumentals and vocal tracks on both records. That being said, the feel of these two recordings are very different : where Blood on the Road is a modern blues record, Live at Checkers Tavern is more of a wild jam rock record.
Both records are good introductions to Jason and the New Blood, but ultimately, my preference goes to Live at Checkers Tavern. It seems to me that the real strength of the band lies in its capacity for inventive jamming, and this is featured much more clearly on the live recording. A 20 minute Feel Good Funk may frighten those used to blues standards that run at 2:58, but the capacity of the musicians here to fill that space with interesting improvisation is genuine.
Furthermore, the hallmarks of the jam band tradition, if there is such a thing, are more evident on Live at Checkers Tavern. My favourite track is the instrumental Reverse Technology which, besides featuring an excellent theme and a great groove, pulls all the stops of long improvisations: lick trading between guitar and harmonica, quoting (mostly of themes associated with Coltrane, maybe it's a nod at Derek), rhythm changes, breaks, etc.
That being said, I realise that I'm showing my current musical leanings very much in stating this preference. Blood on the Road, without taking anything away from what makes Jason and the New Blood what they are, may be a better introduction to the band for those who come to it from blues and classic rock. It's less out there, the tracks are shorter, and on the whole the variety featured is more in the usual realm of blues, with a few shuffles, swing blues, slow blues, etc. Additionally, fans of Little Walter are served with both a great cover of Mellow Down Easy and a superbly fluid homage instrumental called Walter's World.
So there you have it. Jason Ricci is definitely worth checking out, and I hope I gave you all the clues to decide which of these two records to acquire first. In the end though, my advice would be to get both since they feature very different aspects of the band and of Jason's playing. Trust me, you won't regret it!
Click here to acquire these records through Jason's website
A geographical i-mic update has just been made, since all the additions to the i-mic gallery today are either from Argentina or from Brazil. I particularly love the one displayed here, made by Flavio Fusuma from Florianopolis in Brazil. It's based on an old Ericsson phone handset, and doesn't it just look sleek?
I love that Nino Rota theme from 
A few years back, a reader of Planet Harmonica called Steven Dayton designed a flash animation detailing step by step instructions on how to build an i-mic. For various reasons, Steven's flash was no longer online and he agreed to send it to me so that I could host it here. Thanks Steve!
