As Big Bad Voodoo Daddy are approaching 20 years in the business , the Wall Street Journal has this to say about the band and their new album Rattle Them Bones…
Back in the 1990s, we called this music “retro swing,” so today it would be “retro retro swing.” At that time, if you were a “real” jazz fan, you weren’t supposed to dig this particular jive, and now, for the life of me, I can’t remember why. By focusing on that moment in the mid 1940s when swing began evolving into R&B and then rock, bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy went a long way in the movement to reconnect jazz with the popular audience. They stressed pop energy and accessibility over instrumental virtuosity and historical authenticity, although, as their new album, “Rattle Them Bones,” shows, there’s plenty of that as well. There’s a lot to be said for a band that offers a swinging, danceable mix of Count Basie (“The Jitters”), Randy Newman (“It’s Lonely at the Top”) and Jon Hendricks (“Gimme That Wine”), together with leader Scotty Morris’s engaging originals.
Article Source: WSJ.com