Album of the day: Roosevelt Sykes, “The return of…”

Roosevelt Sykes, “The Return of Roosevelt Skies” (Cd Prestige 1006)

Here we are: this morning I met two pipers in the centre, the decorations in the shop windows are making their appearance together with parcels, parcels and lights in the streets, in short the great Christmas war machine has inexorably set in motion. Let’s try to escape it as much as we can by changing continents and digging up an old record by the pianist Roosevelt Sykes, an old lion of boogie and rhythm and blues who had his first great success in 1936 and was one of the most popular musicians until 1950. of the genre thanks to his percussive and swing-rich pianism, with phrasings directly inspired by the style of pianists such as Ammons, Yancey and Lewis to which Sykes added riffs of even more marked character blues.

His biggest hit was “The Honeydripper,” the title of which stuck with Roosevelt as a nickname. His voice is also very effective and typical of the “down home” style that was widespread within the African-American community in the first half of the 20th century. After a hiatus of more than five years due to a reversal of his recording fortunes (during this period Roosevelt continued to perform in clubs in St. Louis and New Orleans) Sykes was contacted by producer Esmond Edwards of the Prestige label, who immediately put him on contract by releasing several excellent quality albums, the first of which is the one I recommend to you today.

The album sees Roosevelt in the company of a singular group made up of two guitars, drums and tenor sax, played by a band without superstar musicians but with great rhythmic compactness, capable of pushing the groove of Sykes’ piano towards scorching temperatures.

The initial project of the album was to recover the barrelhouse style of the pianists of the beginning of the century, avoiding references to the jazz and rock’n’roll that dominated the clubs in those years. A true handbook of the past, spiced and enriched by some new songs composed by Roosevelt (“Selfish woman”, “Hey big momma”). Sykes’ driving piano again polishes classics like “Driving Wheel” and “Night Time Is the Right Time,” firing bursts of energy on “Stompin’ the Boogie” and “Set the Meat Outdoors.”

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.