jueves, 8 de octubre de 2009

Chris DUARTE Group - Texas Sugar, Strat Magik 1994


Chris DUARTE Group - Texas Sugar, Strat Magik  1994
Label: Silvertone

Blues

Chris Duarte (born February 16, 1963, San Antonio, Texas, USA) is an Atlanta-based guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. Duarte plays a rhythmic style of Texas blues-rock that draws on elements of jazz, blues, and rock 'n' roll.
Duarte won a major label deal with Silvertone Records and released Texas Sugar/Strat Magik in 1994, and was named “Best New Talent” in Guitar Player’s 1995 Reader's Poll.[citation needed] He finished fourth in the magazine’s “Best Blues Guitarist” category behind Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and B.B. King.
Though Duarte has played a limited number of U.S. dates in recent years with the Japanese band Bluestone Company backing him, he performs primarily as a power trio, The Chris Duarte Group. Originally formed with long-time friend and collaborator John Jordan on bass, the latest incarnation features Joel Powell on bass, and Chris Burroughs on drums. Apart from his band, Duarte has performed as a session player with Julie Burrell, Diana Cantu, Alan Parsons, Bobby Mack, Tracy Conover, Indigenous, Omar & the Howlers, and the Talking Heads.
Chris recently wrapped recording on a new CD with Bluestone Company. Produced by Mike Varney, the album was recorded at Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, CA and is tentatively scheduled for a January 2009 release on Blues Bureau. There will be a full 11 city tour of Japan in support of the release including Osaka, Kyota, Hiroshima, and Tokyo.
The Chris Duarte Group's December dates in Asheville, Charlotte, & Greenville were filmed for the "The PBS Project". The shows featured Steve Bailey on bass and Jeff Sipe on drums, both of whom are renowned musicians. Jeff Sipe has toured and recorded extensively with Leftover Salmon and Aquarium Rescue Unit among others. Steve Bailey who's featured on several Victor Wooten albums including 2005's "Soul Circus, has also recorded and toured with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Tab Benoit, and Jethro Tull.*Wikipedia*.
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This review is from: Texas Sugar/Strat Magik (Audio CD)
The comparsisons to Hendrix and Vaughan abound, but anyone who typecasts Duarte as a simple clone of those two godfathers of acid blues is simply short sighted.
Chris Duarte's first full-length album, *Texas Sugar* is astounding on many levels. Sure, it's hard-rocking blues. However, the funk and jazz influences color nearly all the tracks. Take something like "Big Legged Woman." Certainly, one can hear the blues influences, from the scorching guitar solos to the chordal structure. However, one would have to be tone deaf to miss the scratching, funky rhythm of the song. "Big Legged Woman" shares more in common with Wild Cherry or post-Bitch's Brew Miles than with Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Duarte reminds me of what Jimi Hendrix may have become: a restless experimenter who fuses jazz, funk, rock, blues, and acid rock with a stamp of originality that many, many musicians should envy. His playing is clean, but sometimes hidden behind a wall of effects and distortion. I'd like to hear an acoustic outing from Duarte.
The songs, however, are amazing. I love "My Way Down." It's a blues/rock/funk explosion with a guitar solo that soars above the stratosphere, makes a left at Neptune, and comes back home with alien knowledge of another world.
Buy this album. Also, check out "Tailspin Headwack."
By J. Newberry.
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01. My Way Down    4:38  
02. Letter To My Girlfriend    4:15  
03. C-Butt Rock    4:04  
04. Just Kissed My Baby    6:45  
05. Shiloh    9:39      
06. Scrawl    4:54      
07. What Can I Do?    5:03  
08. Big-Legged Woman    5:15  
09. Borrowed Love    3:54  
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