Groove Me Baby

by Lady J Huston

Groove Me Baby

Republished courtesy of Blues Blast magazine

Earwig Music/UniSun Productions EWR-4980

Order at LadyJHuston.com

12 songs – 47 minutes

Sometimes, the greatest entertainers are right in front of you but still remain out of sight. That’s the case for Lady J Huston, who finally makes her debut as a recording artist after a career that began in the ‘70s and includes a long run with Albert King and other top talents. The nine funky originals and three covers in this stellar set are certain to launch her into the stratosphere where she belongs.

Born Joyce Ann Huston in St. Louis and the daughter of gospel, blues and jazz legend Loyce Huston, Lady J grew up singing and dancing. Her first taste of the bright lights came early when she started playing trumpet behind Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame keyboard player Johnnie Johnson. At age 18, she started traveling the world in King’s band, as lead horn player then section leader before a long stint as his musical director and opening act while maintaining her position as the only female member of his organization.

Huston spent 25 years in Las Vegas, where she reigned as the city’s queen of the blues while fronting her own band, the Fireballs, opening for dozens of major touring acts when not headlining top showrooms, festivals and more, before returning to St. Louis in 2018.

A fiery, in-your-face alto who accompanies herself on trumpet, flugelhorn and synthesizer on this one, Lady J hit the street running after her arrival. In addition to touring major clubs in the Midwest, she’s also produced the Albert King Alumni Tribute Show, which debuted at the Missouri History Museum, and is hard at work on a documentary about King and the group that will include behind-the-scenes stories about one of the most influential and highly demanding artists of his generation.

Recorded in the Gateway City, the first 11 tracks here were captured at The Midi Room, JBG Audio, Blue Lotus and Red Pill Recording, while the closing number comes from a live set at The Factory showroom. The moveable feast of backing musicians includes Darryl Bassett, Jason Cooper, Ashton Channing Proctor and Paul Niehaus IV (guitar), Jocelyn Rugaber and Wade Long (keys), Ben Shafer and M. Lew Winer III (sax), and Charles Smotherson Jr., Gerald “Pocket King” Warren, James Gugle and Sterling Lloyd (percussion), and Frank Dunbar (bass).

They’re augmented by Anna C. Allen, Adrea Rohlehr, Bwayne Smotherson and Rosetta Y. Blaine on backing vocals, and the 14-piece Jazz Edge Orchestra lead by Thomas Moore sits in on one cut.

A horn flourish opens “Your Call” before the band launches into an unhurried shuffle and Huston expresses her frustration about being alone as she patiently awaits a phone call from her man. Her anticipation is highlighted by a tasty Shafer solo and the expansion of the 12-bar arrangement to include additional horn runs. When they do hook up in “Mean Stud Lover’s Blues,” he makes her toes “curl down in my shoes.” In his case, apparently, he’s “mean” in only the best possible way in the bedroom.

“I Want a Man Like That,” a tune penned by Miles Davis’ keyboard player Chick Finney, swings from the hip to follow as it reinforces the message before the action slows dramatically for the ballad “Tearing Me Apart.” Written about a reunion following a breakup, Lady J remains unhappy because she knows the guy’s going to go back to his wife at the end of the night and realizing she can’t even put up a fight. A cover of “Born Under a Bad Sign” – penned by Booker T. Jones and William Bell and a monster hit for Albert – gets a refreshing update before “Corona, You Make Me Sick,” Huston’s tongue-in-cheek complaint about the pandemic.

Jazz Edge Orchestra joins the action for “Hide-Away” – not the Freddie King classic, but a melismatic burner about the need for a safe space for Lady J to recover from her lover leaving for another, unworthy woman who’s loaded with cash. The mood brightens from the opening notes of the title tune, “Groove Me Baby,” which celebrates continuous longing for the new man at her side.

A second-line beat fuels “Messin’ Around in Da Bayou,” which honors Huston’s Las Vegas drummer, Jimmy Prima, the nephew of New Orleans-born trumpet legend Louie Prima, before the singer updates and breathes new life into the jazzy “500 Pounds Good Gizzay,” a sassy, sexually-charged number written by her mother. A stop-time, mostly instrumental reprise of “Mean Stud Lover’s Blues” follows before Lady J puts her own unhurried, smoky spin on the Etta James classic, “At Last,” singing it to honor newlyweds who were dancing to it in front of a live audience.

This is big-band blues at its best, and Lady J Huston definitely deserves her place in the spotlight. Pick up this one. You won’t be disappointed!

Groove Me Baby