...The band was formed only halfway through 2006 when Jan Ieven (in a former life bass player with El Fish and now with The Rhythm Junks) and Patrick ‘Mr. Jim’ Cuyvers (vocals, piano, Hammond; playing with Hideaway…) decided to play juicy sixties and seventies funk music in New Orleans style, the kind you can still get from Allen Toussaint, the Neville Brothers, John Cleary a.o.. Jan and Patrick took on guitar player Rob Vanspauwen (Voodoo Boogie, Big Mama’s Kitchen…) and saxophone player Igor Maseroli (Bass Papa, Rusty Roots…) for their project. They were so clever to add percussionist Gert Servaes (Blues Lee, Big Mama’s Kitchen…) to master drummer Steve ‘Dynamite’ Wouters (Last Call, Big Dave, Bass Papa…) to make up for a firm and formidable rhythmic basis. Kristof Michiels alias DJ 4T4 produced this first CD.
The sound splashes out of the speakers in the very best Crescent City tradition. The tasty, second line rhythms, the saxophone riffs and breaks, the catchy guitar licks, the Hammond, the soulful vocals of Mr. Jim, the occasional backing vocals, plus the usual alternation of a quick one and a slow one in these twelve covers and originals, make ‘Black Box Allegations’ a well made, varied CD full of infectious tunes. A bit more classic in approach than The Rhythm Junks, sometimes reminiscent of Blue Blot (‘A Lie Is A Lie’, ‘The Table’) and not that far away from where Bass Papa is operating, Jim Cofey has all the trump cards to become the Belgian equivalent of, let’s say, the Average White Band…although they will probably call on different role models: The Meters (‘That Ain’t Bad’, ‘Seems Like Yesterday’), The Neville Brothers (‘Four Corners’), the Dirty Dozen Brass Band/Rebirth Brass Band (‘She’s So Guilty’), Dr. John/Dr. Professor Longhair (‘Kinky Reputation’) or even Booker T & The MG’s (‘Fat cakes’) You can see and hear them perform in the course of the next months at the Belgium Rhythm & Blues Festival in Peer (where funky Little Feat also plays), at the Gentse Feesten, at the Varenwinkel blues festival, all major stages. Don’t miss the opportunity: Jim Cofey live must be a smasher! | |
