Randy Bachman - Jazz Thing (2004)

Randy Bachman is a Canadian rock guitarist and singer. He was born in Winnipeg and was a member of Chad Allen & the Expressions, which evolved into the Guess Who, the most successful Canadian rock band of the 1960s. He left the Guess Who in July 1970, made a solo album, Axe, and then formed Brave Belt, which evolved by 1972 into Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO). He left BTO in April 1977, made a second solo album, Survivor (1978), and then launched a new band, Ironhorse, in 1979, but was back touring with the Guess Who in 1983 and then with BTO by 1984. Another solo album, Any Road, was released on Guitar Recordings in 1993. The live Every Song Tells a Story appeared in 2002 from True North, followed by JazzThing in 2004 from Maximum Jazz. The Bachman Cummings Songbook saw the light in 2006. Also in 2006, Bachman issued a collection of unreleased Bachman Cummings project songs (originally recorded in 1987) dubbed The Thunderbird Trax. In 2007, another jazz-flavored release (JazzThing II) was issued, along with the Bachman Cummings cover album Jukebox. A DVD document of Bachman's July 7, 2007 live performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival was issued in July of 2008. For the 2008 holidays, Bachman released an album of Christmas favorites (Takin' Care of Christmas) -- with the titular track being a reworked version of the BTO classic "Takin' Care of Business." In 2010 Bachman and Fred Turner issued an eponymous studio album (Bachman & Turner), and in 2015 Bachman released the star-studded solo outing Heavy Blues, which featured appearances from Neil Young, Jeff Healey, Joe Bonamassa, and Peter Frampton. In the wake of Heavy Blues, Bachman continued to play live and host his Vinyl Tap show on CBC radio. ~ William Ruhlmann