CD Review: Blue Lunch

Saxophone Shootout 2 (Live at Nighttown) (Wilberts)

By Dan Weiss on Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 4:00 am

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The eight-piece jump, blues, and swing combo Blue Lunch do, in fact, jump, swing, and get plenty blue during the workouts featured on this hour-long live album recorded at the Cleveland Heights jazz mecca. Look no further than the eight-minute "Honeydripper" or the knotty "Rapid Shave" for proof. Sonny Rollins' "Tenor Madness" gets a zigzagging arrangement, with sax player Tony Koussa living up to the album's title. Toward the end, Blue Lunch show off their vocal side on a dusty run-through of "Reconsider Baby" and a stomping version of the bluesy "If It Ain't Me," which is a little too professional sounding to be truly greasy, but the great harmonica solos more than make up for it. Most crucially, the closing "Rib Joint" leaves no bib unstained. — Dan Weiss