Doug Wamble - Country Libations (2003)

Many jazz musicians play the blues as if it were an abstract concept free from references to any specific time or place, but not guitarist and songwriter Doug Wamble. The compositions on his debut CD Country Libations are restless and expansive but even when they verge on the avant-garde, there's no forgetting they are deeply rooted in the Delta blues of the 1920s. Wamble does more than just mimic earlier guitar styles. "Libation #4--Ain't Quite Four This Morning," for example, starts out as an almost clichéd blues song--he's broke and his baby's left him--but Wamble's soulful, gospel inflected singing and nuanced guitar picking save it from descending to the level of mere pastiche. Wamble's band includes pianist Roy Dunlap, bassist Jeff Hanley, drummer Peter Miles, and violinist Charles Burnham, who used to play with James Blood Ulmer, while Branford Marsalis appears on two tracks. Doug Wamble's music has deep roots, which gives it the strength and vitality to branch out in surprising new ways.