Barry Levenson - The Late Show (2011)

If the great players who stamped out Chicago's West Side as their cutting fields in the 1960's - Magic Sam, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Albert King - had pushed their command blues melodies into new harmonic territory, one result may have been Barry Levenson's The Late Show. Interestingly, ten of the fifteen tracks here are instrumentals, although as befitting a 21st century roots stylist, Levenson has a broader, all-encompassing approach than your average blues album. In this way, The Late Show is a concept album that mines all facets of the blues and blues-based guitar. From the Meters-like groove of Meters Runnin' to the Bill Frisell-shaped twang of Steel Life to the Bobby Womack and Curtis Mayfield church-derived Whole Lotta Blues and the Les Paul sweep of Charlie's Ride, Levenson lays down line after line of single notes whose harmonic backdrop is Grant Green and Kenny Burrell's boplicity.