Cover of the album being discussed (from the Amazon.com Web page)
At the beginning of this week, Ruzztone Music released Caribbean Blue, a jazz album led by guitarist Russ Spiegel. The album title is also the title of the third of the ten tracks, all of which are original compositions by Spiegel. To be fair, the tracks are not limited to Caribbean styles, since one of them is entitled “The Streets of Milan,” “The Underdown Groove” is a “response” to the “call” of Australia, and, while “E. 22nd St.” is a samba, it was written when Spiegel was living in Brooklyn.
Spiegel leads a trio, whose other members are organist Jim Gaslor and Lucas Apostoleris on drums. However, there are a generous number of “guest artists.” The most interesting of these is Hendrick Meurkens on chromatic harmonica for three of the tracks, including both the title track and “E. 22nd St.” Other supporting instruments are trumpet (Brian Lynch), tenor saxophone (Tim Armacost), and trombone (Javier Nero), along with vocalist Ben Beal on the track entitled “Inquietude.”
As of this writing, the album is available from an Amazon.com Web page but only for MP3 download. All efforts to find a source for a CD release have thus far been in vain! Taken as whole, the album is both diverse and engaging; but I probably will not be making many further visits over the course of the near future.
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