Search - Rufus Thomas, Bill Doggett, Chuck Rainey :: Bluesiana Hurricane

Bluesiana Hurricane is the fourth in producer Joe Ferry's series of Bluesiana albums and the first without an obvious Louisiana connection. Like its three predecessors, though, Bluesiana Hurricane assembles blues, rock, soul, and jazz musicians who have never worked together before just to see what happens when artists from different genres interact. This time the cast includes singer Rufus Thomas, organist Bill Doggett, trumpeter Lester Bowie, saxophonist Bobby Watson, guitarist Sue Foley, drummer Will Calhoun, and bassist Chuck Rainey. Thomas and Doggett are best known from the R&B world, Bowie and Watson from the jazz world, Foley from the blues world, and Calhoun and Rainey from the rock world, but they all cross boundaries with the greatest of ease and sound quite comfortable on each other's turf. As a result, Bluesiana Hurricane sweeps categories aside and finds the deepest, most exultant currents in American music. --Geoffrey Himes