When it comes to harmonica-based blues, I’ve never really been
\nthat big of a fan. It’s not that I don’t like the harmonica, it’s
\njust that the material never seems to be strong enough for the
\ninstrument. This is hypocrytical, I know; it might seem like I’m
\nslamming such artists as Sonny Boy Williamson, Charlie Musselwhite
\nor the late William Clarke. And it’s not meant like that; it’s just
\na personal taste.<\/p>\n
In the case of Mark Hummel, he doesn’t resort to the harp that
\nmuch on his fourth album,
\nLow Down To Uptown<\/i>. But when he does, he works some magic
\nwith it. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the material is not the
\nstrongest.<\/p>\n
Hummel assembled a decent backing band for this release,
\nincluding guitarist Junior Watson (also appearing is labelmate Mike
\nWelch). And the band seems to have its chops down very well, no
\nquestion about that. The instrumental piece “Po’ Man’s Shoe Shine”
\nproves this without a doubt.<\/p>\n
The difficulty is that many of the vocal pieces are in a slow,
\nshuffle tempo. There seems to be little variety in the speed of the
\nsongs. The end result is an album that will literally lull you to
\nsleep. (I know – I fell asleep on four occasions when I tried to
\nlisten to this album for review. Otherwise, I would have banged
\nthis out back in July, when the disc was released.)<\/p>\n
And it’s not that this tempo is without merit. Hummel’s duet
\nwith Brenda Boykin, “T’ain’t What You Say,” is proof enough that
\nsuch a combination can work. Other songs, like “Keep A’ Talkin’,”
\n“Ooh La La” and “West Coast Flood,” all do shine. But it eventually
\nis the lack of variety that becomes the Achilles’ heel for
\nHummel.<\/p>\n
And then, there is “In A Sentimental Mood” – easily the crown
\njewel of this set. Taking the old Duke Ellington song and making it
\na harmonica-piano piece, Hummel lovingly delivers the goods,
\nproducing some of the richest tones I’ve ever heard from a
\nharmonica this side of John Popper. In this case, the tempo and
\ndelivery are the keys to the song’s success; I don’t think it would
\nhave worked as well with a full band in tow.<\/p>\n
Hummel is, without a doubt, a talented musician, and his backing
\nband members are no slouches, either. But when the songs all start
\nsounding the same, it doesn’t provide enough challenge for your
\nmind, and before you know it, you’re so far tuned out that you
\ncould pick up Radio Free Europe. What I think Hummel has to do is
\nto experiment more with different rhythms and with different tempos
\njust to break things up a bit. The music itself is good, but it
\nneeds to be taken to that next level.<\/p>\n
\nLow Down To Uptown<\/i> is by no means a bad album, and Hummel
\nhas every right to hold his head up proudly for his accomplishments
\non it. But it doesn’t erase the fact that the same tempo over and
\nover again is just plain boring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7540],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39317","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mark-hummel","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39317"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}