

J'ai tout d'abord découvert ce 45 tours il y a trois ans quand je plongeais soir après soir, nuit après nuit dans les listes sans fin d'un certain Alexsoul09, avec lui youtube devenait le plus grand pourvoyeur de Sweet Soul.
Malheureusement le son de ses vidéos était aussi crade que son contenu était lumineux. C'est pourquoi, inlassablement, je rangeais ces petites perles dans un coin de mon PC.
Dernièrement je consultais le site de Paul Collins (Rare Grooves Modern Soul) et je tombais sur un hommage à Paul Thrower mort quelques jours avant, que ne connaissais pas, mais où se trouvait, en sa mémoire, cette perle venant de Chicago.
La version que j'ai trouvée est légèrement meilleure mais on peut déjà apprécier ce qui différencie un vrai morceau de Sweet Soul d'une simple ballade : tension, électricité, passion aussi mais celle ci est retenue, enfermée dans un carcan pour se briser le plus souvent comme un vase ... !
C'est mon hommage à tous ceux qui ont disparu cette année. Partir ... Why Baby ?
Why Baby :
Whole Lot Of Woman :
Mais ou est passé Jo Jo ? :
" Chicago-based blues and R & B vocalist Jo Jo Murray has a great sound--a sweet and gritty tenor that he complements with his fluid, sharp-toned guitar playing. But few people have heard it, at least on record. Murray cut his first single, "Why Baby," for the tiny Sound-O-Riffic label in 1971, and a 1989 LP, Real Man Steppin' Out, on I.B., went almost as unnoticed. In the early 90s he started his own label, GBM, to release another single and, a few years later, a CD entitled Song of Love. Although these days Murray promotes himself as a contemporary blues artist, his material recalls the "light soul" sound of much 60s and 70s Chicago R & B. "Some Kinda Lady"--his GBM single, reprised on Song of Love--is a catchy bit of fluff sung in a buoyant croon, and the disc's title tune, which rides billowing strings and cascading choral backing, is rescued from bathos only by the unadorned sincerity of his delivery. Murray delivers the workingman's lament "Here I Go Again" with tender resignation, and "You Lie to Me," despite its angry lyrics, lopes along in a Bacharach-like groove. But 12-bar blues like "Hey Hey Lonely Lady" and "I'm Gonna Let My Hair Down" reveal his slightly harder side: his sure-fingered guitar leads can approach the knife-edge glitter of Albert King's. Onstage Murray occasionally overdoes his favorite trick--covering standards in spot-on imitations of the masters' voices--which may further account for his lack of recognition outside the local club circuit. He's at his best when he relies instead on his own unpretentious elegance. Friday and Saturday, 9:30 PM, Rosa's Lounge, 3240 W. Armitage; 773-342-0452.
DAVID WHITEIS "
Source : http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/jo ... oid=898230