Bruce Katz Band
Get Your Groove!
American Showplace Music
Get Your Groove! is the latest release from the Bruce Katz Band and follows up their tasty 2016 record, Out From The Center. An industry veteran, Katz himself has worked with everyone from Ronnie Earl, John Hammond and Little Milton to Gregg Allman, Jaimoe and Delbert McClinton. This latest release was co-produced by Katz and Ben Elliott, and it combines blues, jazz, soul and funk into an eleven-song “jam-blues” record that sizzles from beginning to end. Katz is truly a master keyboardist and delivers a huge sound every time his fingers nimbly sail over his instrument of choice, whether it is Hammond B3, piano or organ. In addition to Katz, the trio is comprised of guitarist/vocalist Chris Vitarello and drummer (and recent Buffalo Music Hall of Fame inductee) Ray Hangen, who are all joined by Matt Raymond on bass for six tracks as well as founding Allman Brothers Band drummer, Jaimoe, on three tracks. Nine of the eleven songs were written or co-written by Katz.
Opening strong and showcasing Katz’s dynamic keys and Vitarello’s guitar finesse, the jazz-blues laced traditional song, “Hesitation Blues” offers a fun nod to Sleepy John Estes’ “Diving Duck Blues” (“if the river was whiskey, and I was a duck, you know I’d swim to the bottom, lord I’d never get up”). More than half the record features funky instrumentals, such as “Beef Jerky” and “Rush Hour,” but there is also the slower, dreamy “Zone 3” and the jazz-infused “The Bun.” The instrumentals that are the real crowning jewels, however, are the steamy, blues-drenched “River Blues” and the Allman-Brothers Band-inspired “Freight Train,” written by Katz for original Allman Brothers Band drummer, the late Butch Trucks and featuring Jaimoe on drums. The nine-minute plus opus swirls with Allman Brothers Band colors and textures and has a distinct nod to “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed” (Dickey Betts/Allman Brothers Band). Katz and Trucks had been touring together as part of two bands, Les Brers and Butch Trucks’ Freight Train Band, and Katz could not have done Trucks more proud with his composition to honor his friend.
There’s a great deal of heart and soul on this record, and the live performance is even better. The trio is currently on tour in Florida – get out and catch them if you can.
