R.J. SPANGLER

A LIFETIME IN DETROIT JAZZ & BLUES – VOL 1

Eastlawn Records

R.J. Spangler, drums/bandleader; Alberta Adams & Joe Weaver, vocals; Doug Deming & Paul Carey, guitar; Al Hill, & Phil Hale, keyboards; Tim Marks, electric bass; Ben Luttermoser, string & Electric bass; Keith Kaminski & Joe Piccolo, tenor saxophones.

R.J. Spangler’s new release is a big-time blues party!  It’s a double CD set, featuring Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.  I will be reviewing the first part, “A Lifetime in Detroit Jazz and Blues” featuring Alberta Adams & Joe Weaver as lead vocalists and blues masters.

This project is also meant to celebrate drummer R.J. Spangler’s 70^th birthday and his over five decades spent in the music business. These recordings represent a series of limited-edition EPs that document Spangler’s long career in music.

Detroit based, R.J. Spangler spent his first fifteen musical years as a member of the Sun Messengers, where he played congas and timbales. Other members were Rick Steiger, Paul Carey, James O’Donnell, T-bone Paxton, Kurt Krahnke, Bob Sweet and Akunda Hollis. This group developed into the Sun Sounds Orchestra that also included musicians like the legendary Lyman Woodard, Jerome Spearman and Terry Thunder.

R.J. honed his trap drum skills playing with a bunch of blues legends who lived and worked in Detroit, Michigan.  He learned from folks like Johnnie Bassett, Alberta Adams, Bill Heid and Dezi McCullers. Chris Codish was sometimes the pianist with those blues groups and fondly recalls Spangler perfecting his blues shuffle licks during their performances. Spangler remembers touring with Bassett all over the U.S., Canada and Europe. They cut an album together in the Netherlands.

Spangler not only is a drummer and percussionist, he is a bandleader.  He co-led the Sun Messengers and was good with business. So good, that Alberta Adams asked him to be her manager.  This was around 1995 or ’96 when he started booking blues singer, Alberta Adams.

Vol. 1. Features the great Alberta Adams and R.J.’s Blues Crew.  It opens with the familiar “He May Be Your Man” written by the legendary Helen Humes. Alberta puts her vocal mark on this familiar and well-covered blues tune.  She follows this with her own composition called “Remember Me” that features an outstanding solo by Keith Kaminski on tenor sax. The song is very similar to a Leroy Carr recording titled “Six Cold Feet” recorded some time ago in 1928.

The second half of this EP features Joe Weaver, who shuffles on the scene next to sing, “It Hurt So Bad.”  It tells his story of broken hearts and disillusioned love. R. J. Spangler sure knows how to lay down a groove on his trap drums.  He makes me want to grab a partner and bop across the dance floor. Weaver closes his portion of this brief EP recording with “Sugarlove Baby.”  It too has a 1970 R&B shuffle groove.

1. J. Spangler will celebrate his birthday in November. This box set will include historic Detroit Blues and Jazz musicians and vocalists, along with another recorded volume featuring organist and pianist, Bill Heid. Spangler’s only pressing about 100 each of this “Lifetime in Detroit Jazz and Blues” artists box set, including himself on drums and bandleading, along with his popular Blues Crew. I guess we’ll have to attend his birthday celebration to receive this gift of Midwestern jazz and blues history. Or, on second thought, he could go ahead and release these entertaining treasures as a complete CD for the world to hear.  I’m just saying …

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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