RJ Spangler's Blue Four featuring Bill Heid!

[RJ Spangler]

The first release from RJ Spangler's Blue Four!

This collaboration with legendary keyboardist Bill Heid mixes swing, bop and blues. In addition to Spangler on drums and Heid on keys, the quartet also features Pat Prouty on bass and Keith Kaminski on sax. Legendary Detroit guitarist Johnnie Bassett is featured on three tracks!

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RJSpanglersBlueFour <~ buy it here!

http://eastlawnrecords.com/

[RJ Spangler]

<~ here is a clip of us recording the CD. This is Bill Heid Playing "Alfredo" -- a track that wasn't used on the CD.

[RJ Spangler]

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RJSpanglersBlueFour <~ now available as a down-load.

[RJ Spangler]

My CD is starting to get some air-play!

WHFR, WEMU, WRCJ & WCMU here in Michigan are are all giving us some love.

Looking toward the west: KMFB, KTDE, KMEC, KTEP, KHUM, KCSM & KRVM.

Midwest to the eastcoast: WHDD, WNTI, WVBR, WRTB & WPKN.

Not a bad start!

[RJ Spangler]

R.J. SPANGLER’S BLUE FOUR: You Know I Can’t Refuse – The Bill Heid Sessions

Eastlawn Records ELD-019 (46:13)

Ninety Nine/ Red Cherries/ Baby Let’s Go Down To The Wood/ Too Much Jelly Roll/ Failing By Degrees/ Boogie For Mr. B/ Piney Brown Blues/ Times Getting Tougher Than Tough/ I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town/ You Know I Can’t Refuse/ Meet Me Baby

The is the first CD from Detroit-based drummer Spangler's Blue Four, in collaboration with keyboardist Bill Heid it mixes r&b, swing, and blues. In addition to Spangler on drums and Heid on keys, the quartet includes Pat Prouty on string bass and Keith Kaminski on sax. Trumpet and baritone sax are added on several cuts and Detroit guitarist Johnnie Bassett is featured on three tracks.

Pianist/singer Bill Heid and drummer R.J. Spangler are veteran blues/jazz musicians; they’ve been playing music together for about 25 years, all over the USA and Europe. Bill Heid grew up digging jazz, blues, and doo wop in his native Pittsburgh, while Spangler hails from Detroit. Except for Heid’s composition ‘Boogie For Mr. B’, all of the songs are covers of numbers that R.J. and Bill perform regularly on gigs.

Standout cut for me has to be their cover of Sonny Boy Williamson’s ‘Ninety Nine’; with Heid really digging in on piano, a super chorus from Bassett and fine stickwork from R.J., it really is a belter! There is a brace of Floyd Dixon compositions, ‘Red Cherries’ and ‘Baby Let’s Go Down To The Wood’. Hinting at early Ray Charles, ‘Red Cherries’ is a funny, slightly risqué number, while ‘Baby Let’s Go Down To The Wood’ is a wee hours of the morning slowie.

There is also two Jimmy Witherspoon compositions on board, ‘Failing By Degrees’ is in the same vein as ‘Going Down Slow’: ‘Well I’m failing by degrees and I know my time ain’t long, well my breath is getting shorter and my strength is almost gone’ – I know the feeling partner! ‘Times Getting Tougher Than Tough’ is probably one of Witherspoon’s best-known compositions, and so relevant today. The instrumental ‘Boogie For Mr. B’ is a showcase for Heid’s top notch piano playing.

Also recommended are a lazy take on Pete Johnson/Joe Turner’s ‘Piney Brown Blues’, with bluesy sax from Kaminski and growly trumpet from James O’Donnell, and a bouncy ‘You Know I Can’t Refuse’ (with Bassett reprising his guitar part from the original release by the Five Dollars [Fortune 826]). Ending with a swaggering, bouncy run through Rudy Green’s Chance waxing ‘Meet Me Baby’, with a bluesy, boppish chorus from Kaminski.

Throughout R.J. displays his perfect time keeping, without resorting to theatrics, and Heid is a truly superb piano player and pretty decent singer. This is a release worth investigation. <http://eastlawnrecords.com/>

Phil Wight

Blues & Rhythm Magazine (UK)

[Jim Alfredson]

This is a goodun'! Y'all need to pick it up!

[RJ Spangler]

Thanks much Jim! The CD is now being played on 25 stations from Alaska to NYC.