Victor Puertas & Max Genouel - Recording Session (2019)

Personnel:
Victor Puertas: Vocals, Harp & Keyboards
Max Genouel: Vocals & Guitar
Hugo Deviers: Drums & Backing Vocals
Julien Dubois: Bass

If the name of Victor Puertas is mentioned first on the cover, this disc is shared almost equally between Max Genouel and him. Instrumental, both are at the same level of excellence. We know Victor's superior talent on the harmonica, all his interventions here are remarkable, in the diatonic as well as the chromatic, but also in the keyboards, piano and organ, to which he devotes a large part of his efforts in the session. Is that why we hear it less than we could have wished for the harmonica?

On the guitar, Max takes on more thickness with each outing, delivering another festival of eclecticism, all the more impressive since it remains in tone and good taste. Jump, blues, soul, rock 'n' roll, its riffs strike just right and the rhythmic phrases deserve the attention like solos. On vocals, Victor is soulful while Max is more in energy, even if he manages to channel it as on the slow blues taken from T-Bone Walker Here in the dark . Chuck Berry, with You can't catch me in country blues mode, Sam Cooke with Mary Lou and Bobby Blue Bland with Members only which does not take off as much as desirable, Earl Hooker with the title wink Senorita Juanita , are the others requested authors.

It's the originals that get the most attention, the instrumental jump Hard wood, the blues and rhythm and blues No one like you, Devil's night, My baby used to love me, Good days are gone, Next door neighbor. Their ambiances are bathed in a dull threat, streaked with guitar shards, harmonica solos from space, authoritarian throats, filled with references to the heroes of the two leaders and their accomplices, Julien Dubois on bass and Hugo Deviers on drums. A first disc which calls others. ~Christophe Mourot