|  By
Cornbread
 Porky
Cohen – Rhythm & Bones
{June 18, 1996 | Bullseye Blues}
Porky
Cohen played with the Grammy-winners Roomful
of Blues from 1981-1987, prior to that
he recorded with jump-blues greats Big Joe Turner,
Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Jimmy Witherspoon
and Earl King. From 1942 to 1950, Porky played
with the big bands of Charlie Barnet, Tommy
Dorsey, Lucky Millinder, Benny Goodman and more.
Zalman "Porky" Cohen was born June
2, 1924, in Springfield, MA and died April 14,
2004 Providence, RI. His career covered jazz,
blues, swing, big-band and Dixie-land.
Porky’s
tracks are:
1. Don't Lose Your Cool (Albert
Collins) – rock solid bass, great guitar
playing. The song has a swing feel to it.
2. Jim Dog – a bit reminiscent
of the 40’s swing.
3. Sent For You Yesterday -
featuring Sugar Ray Norcia (Count Bassie) –
classic rockabilly swing.
 4.
Day Dream (Duke Ellington) –
a mellow jazzy tune with nuttin but horns and
some tasty chops on the piano.
5. Red Rock – jump blues
swing and it's mighty fine.
6. Slidin' Horns – excuse
my brief absence mama walked by, grabbed me
by the hand and we danced briefly.
7. Walkin' with Mr Lee –
I really like this track, there are two horns
playing (kind of an echo effect), not like dueling
banjos, tasteful and fast paced with bass shuffle.
8. Cloudburst is a Dixie-land
tune, very Mardi Gras like.
9. D'Natural Blues –
excellent bluesy piano shuffle with horns in
lieu of vocals.
10. P.D.Q. Boogie – another
fast paced tune, blues folks will dig the guitar
parts.
11. Trombone Porky - featuring
Michelle Willson – a sultry trombone jazz
piece with playful vocals.
12. Do Anything You Wanna –
Big Band Swing with clean muted horns that are
far from dominating and over powerful.
13. Porky's Blues – is
the 9th instrumental, this one is slower than
the others, yet one of the better songs on the
CD.
Porky
plays well, very well, there is plenty of soul
on these 13-tracks and first solo album that
spans his memorable career. Yea, maybe I’m
a lot biased, a Porky Cohen review written by
Cornbread Cohen, but I have more than good reason
to be. I’d classify this as big band blues.
Don’t go and get this if you’re
looking for red hot Chicago blues, get it if
you like horn playing, big band sounds and excellent
trombone that put Porky in a league of his own.
This
review is dedicated from Cornbread & Porkchop
Cohen to Porky Cohen, may he forever play on.
Ciao'
for now, peace.
Peter 'Cornbread'
Cohen, CBP
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