Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Rattle Them Bones

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:49
Size: 100.3 MB
Styles: Retro Swing
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[0:34] 1. The Adventures Of....
[4:17] 2. Diga Diga Doo
[3:13] 3. The Jitters
[3:20] 4. Let It Roll Again
[4:07] 5. It Only Took A Kiss
[3:24] 6. She's Always Right (I'm Never Wrong)
[3:34] 7. Why Me
[4:33] 8. Devil's Dance
[3:20] 9. It's Lonely At The Top
[5:09] 10. Still In The Mood
[2:55] 11. Gimme That Wine
[5:18] 12. 5-10-15 Times

Since hitting it big in the '90s during the swing revival, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy have stuck to their retro-guns while finding ways to explore new ground. To these ends, 2003's Save My Soul found the band delving into New Orleans rhythms and R&B, while 2009's How Big Can You Get?: The Music of Cab Calloway featured the music of the legendary Hi-De-Ho man. That album brought them deeper into a hardcore jazz sound and most likely helped them in signing with the Savoy Jazz label for 2012's similarly jazz-inflected Rattle Them Bones. Once again centered around the sweet and lyrical lead vocals of guitarist/songwriter Scotty Morris, the album features a mix of new material, jazz covers, and even an unexpected take on Randy Newman's "It's Lonely at the Top." These are crisply produced, urbane, and always swinging tunes that often have an old-school big-band sound. This impressive large ensemble sound comes via the longtime core rhythm section of pianist Joshua Levy, bassist Dirk Shumaker, and drummer Kurt Sodergren, as well as such featured players as trumpeter Glen "The Kid" Marhevka, and saxophonists Karl Hunter and Andy Rowley. With all arrangements by Levy, the band is also complemented by a bevy of stellar studio musicians who round out several cuts here. Also featured here is vocalist Meaghan Smith, who duets with Morris on the romantic midtempo ballad "It Only Took a Kiss." Longtime fans of the group’s neo-crooner jazz sound, as well as anybody who digs solidly crafted and always swinging traditional jazz and pop, should find much to enjoy here. ~Matt Collar

Rattle Them Bones

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Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Louie Louie Louie

Styles: Jazz, Swing
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:13
Size: 100,7 MB
Art: Front

(2:54)  1. Dinah
(2:41)  2. Oh,Marie
(4:04)  3. Is You Is, or Is You Ain't My Baby
(3:19)  4. Jack, You Dead
(2:31)  5. Whistle Stop
(2:59)  6. Choo Choo Ch'boogie
(3:44)  7. Basin Street Blues
(3:53)  8. Jump, Jive, an' Wail
(2:48)  9. Knock Me a Kiss
(3:55) 10. Struttin' with Some Barbeque
(2:29) 11. Five Months, Two Weeks, Two Days
(3:20) 12. Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens
(4:31) 13. When the Saints Come Marching Home

Although still largely associated with the '90s neo-swing movement, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy have long outrun that moment's MTV zeitgeist and spent the 2010s deepening their jazz roots. The past decade-and-a-half have found them branching out, exploring New Orleans blues, Cajun, and second-line traditions on 2003's Save My Soul, and paying tribute to legendary Harlem bandleader Cab Calloway on 2009's How Big Can You Get? In this spirit of reinvestigating their influences, the band's 11th studio album, 2017's urbane and upbeat Louie Louie Louie, finds them celebrating three of their biggest musical heroes: Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima. and Louis Jordan. Here, the band round up a nicely curated set of tunes popularized by the three "Louies" and inject them with their own zesty brand of jump blues. Some of the song choices are deliciously on the nose with cuts like Jordan's "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens," Prima's "Five Months, Two Weeks, Two Days," and Jordan's "Jack, You're Dead!," feeling like well-loved road covers the band have played hundreds of times. Others, especially Armstrong's Herculean "Struttin' with Some Barbecue" and the suavely refined "Basin Street Blues," with their nuanced harmonies and tricky horn lines, vibrate with a sense of danger and ambition as if the band had dared themselves to make them their own. Thankfully, they do. Elsewhere, we get equally compelling takes on "Dinah," "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie," "Knock Me a Kiss," and more. It's also fun to hear the band put their own stamp on one of the biggest anthems of the neo-swing movement, Prima's "Jump, Jive an' Wail," popularized in 1998 by the Brian Seltzer Orchestra. Still centered on lead singer/guitarist Scotty Morris, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy have settled into a warm, crisply delivered style of swing that's studio savvy and precise while also full of in-the-moment improvisation and an overall live-sounding aesthetic. Helping to achieve this aesthetic is longtime pianist Joshua Levy, who supplied all the arrangements on Louie Louie Louie. Also impressive are bandmembers trumpeter Glen "The Kid" Marhevka, alto and tenor saxophonist Karl Hunter, and baritone saxophonist Andy Rowley, who all get plenty of room to solo. The result is an album that strikes a balance between Jazz at Lincoln Center-style adherence to tradition and dynamic, pop-informed bravura showmanship. ~ Matt Collar http://www.allmusic.com/album/louie-louie-louie-mw0003046852

Personnel: Scotty Morris (vocals, guitar, banjo); Andy Rowley (vocals, whistle, baritone saxophone); Dirk Shumaker (vocals, acoustic bass); Karl Hunter (clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Glen "The Kid" Marhevka (trumpet); Joshua Levy (piano); Kurt Sodergren (drums); Lee Thornburg, Jim Fox, Paul Kreibich, Ira Nepus.

Louie Louie Louie

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Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Save My Soul

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:05
Size: 96.3 MB
Styles: Retro swing
Year: 2003
Art: Front

[2:31] 1. Zig Zaggity Woop Woop Pt. 1
[4:47] 2. You Know You Wrong
[2:52] 3. Always Gonna Get Ya
[4:59] 4. Don't You Feel My Leg
[4:37] 5. Oh Yeah
[4:28] 6. Simple Songs
[3:21] 7. Next Week Sometime
[6:34] 8. Save My Soul
[4:19] 9. I Like It
[3:34] 10. Zig Zaggity Woop Woop Pt. 2

For their first album in four years, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy realized they needed to switch gears since the freak, late-'90s big band craze had become about as hot as yesterday's scrambled eggs. Thankfully, a trip down to New Orleans to play Jazzfest (recounted in this album's title track) reinvigorated and reinvented the group's sound. Gone are the smarmy Vegas charts, replaced with a swampy Crescent City, slinky Bourbon Street swagger. Add Latin mambo on the percussive "I Like It" and "You Know You're Wrong," along with some second-line funk straight out of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on "Zig Zaggity Woop Woop, Pt. 2" and you've got a swinging, finger-popping disc that should keep the band's established fans happy, while expanding their previously limited, and nearly dead-ended scope. Most of the tunes are originals -- if derivative ones -- except for a cover of Blue Lu Barker's ""Don't You"" Feel My Leg" (also a moderate '70s hit for Maria Muldaur). However, the barroom swagger turned Dixieland jazz of "Simple Songs" seems a bit forced and frontman Scotty Morris' voice hasn't improved. This material would benefit from a gruffer approach. But Save My Soul is a surprisingly enjoyable and fresh album from a band many might have written off as already expending their allotted 15 minutes of fame. The disc's CD-ROM content includes three live tracks, information, pictures of each band member, and shots from the making of the album. ~Hal Horowitz

Save My Soul

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Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Rattle Them Bones

Styles: Retro Swing
Year: 2012
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:55
Size: 160,4 MB
Scans:

(0:35)  1. The Adventures Of...
(4:15)  2. Diga Diga Do
(3:14)  3. The Jitters
(3:20)  4. Let It Roll Again
(4:08)  5. It Only Took A Kiss [featuring Meaghan Smith]
(3:26)  6. She's Always Right (I'm Never Wrong)
(3:34)  7. Why Me?
(4:33)  8. Devil's Dance
(3:22)  9. It's Lonely At The Top
(5:09) 10. Still In The Mood
(2:55) 11. Gimme That Wine
(5:18) 12. 5-10-15 Times

Since hitting it big in the '90s during the swing revival, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy have stuck to their retro-guns while finding ways to explore new ground. To these ends, 2003's Save My Soul found the band delving into New Orleans rhythms and R&B, while 2009's How Big Can You Get?: The Music of Cab Calloway featured the music of the legendary Hi-De-Ho man. That album brought them deeper into a hardcore jazz sound and most likely helped them in signing with the Savoy Jazz label for 2012's similarly jazz-inflected Rattle Them Bones. Once again centered around the sweet and lyrical lead vocals of guitarist/songwriter Scotty Morris, the album features a mix of new material, jazz covers, and even an unexpected take on Randy Newman's "It's Lonely at the Top." These are crisply produced, urbane, and always swinging tunes that often have an old-school big-band sound. 

This impressive large ensemble sound comes via the longtime core rhythm section of pianist Joshua Levy, bassist Dirk Shumaker, and drummer Kurt Sodergren, as well as such featured players as trumpeter Glen "The Kid" Marhevka, and saxophonists Karl Hunter and Andy Rowley. With all arrangements by Levy, the band is also complemented by a bevy of stellar studio musicians who round out several cuts here. Also featured here is vocalist Meaghan Smith, who duets with Morris on the romantic midtempo ballad "It Only Took a Kiss." Longtime fans of the group’s neo-crooner jazz sound, as well as anybody who digs solidly crafted and always swinging traditional jazz and pop, should find much to enjoy here. ~ Matt Collar  http://www.allmusic.com/album/rattle-them-bones-mw0002409480

Personnel: Scotty Morris (vocals, guitar, banjo); Andy Rowley (vocals, baritone saxophone); Dirk Shumaker (vocals, acoustic bass, upright bass); Karl Hunter (clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Glen "The Kid" Marhevka (trumpet); Joshua Levy (piano); Kurt Sodergren (drums).

Rattle Them Bones

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Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - How Big Can You Get

Styles: Swing, Jive
Label: Vanguard Records
Released: 2009
File: mp3 @320K/s
Size: 102,4 MB
Time: 44:42
Art: front

1. Come On With The 'Come On' - 3:22
2. Calloway Boogie - 4:03
3. The Call Of The Jitterbug - 3:30
4. Hey Now, Hey Now - 4:34
5. The Jumpin' Jive - 4:02
6. How Big Can You Get - 4:05
7. The Old Man Of The Mountain - 4:15
8. The Ghost Of Smokey Joe - 5:29
9. Reefer Man - 2:54
10. Minnie The Moocher - 4:59
11. Tarzan Of Harlem - 3:24

Notes: 2009 release. Cab Calloway was a legendary fireball of talent, whose infectious 'hi-de-hi's', 'ho-de-ho's', scattin' and jivin' became the spirited cry of people wanting to be happy. A truly larger than life figure in American pop culture, immortalized in cartoons and caricatures, Calloway also led one of the greatest bands of the Swing Era. 100 Years later the coolest Swing band around, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, are celebrating the birthday of Calloway with this fantastic album. 11 tracks including 'Minnie The Moocher'.

How Big Can You Get

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