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Blues Boy
By Bruce Robinson
It started with a single record album. Robben Ford was barely a teenager in Ukiah, a saxophonist who was also "kind of noodling around on the guitar," when he found inspiration in the local record shop. "It was the first Butterfield Blues Band album," he recalls. "They had one copy. It sat on a stand behind the counter for months, because the owner's son thought it looked cool.
"One day I bought it, just out of curiosity, and it changed my life."
Inspired by Mike Bloomfield's fretwork, Robben got serious about his own guitar playing. In rapid succession, he heard and assimilated the widely influential music of other stellar guitarists: pre-Cream Eric Clapton, B. B. King, and later, Jimi Hendrix. As his skills advanced, Ford's listening preferences veered into exploratory jazz, with bebop jazz saxophonists in the lead: Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter with Miles Davis.
"That music really started influencing my playing a lot," he says. "That's where I found my own thing. There really weren't a lot of electric guitar players who were playing with a jazz influence, but with a blues tone."
From his earliest professional days, backing Charlie Musselwhite (along with his brother Patrick on drums) at the age of 18, through his stint as a featured soloist with the contemporary jazz quartet he founded, the Yellowjackets, blues has remained a core part of Ford's musical expression. "I'm very familiar with that turf," he acknowledges by phone from the set of Stephanie Miller's new TV talk show, where he is spending the week sitting in with the one-man house band. "I love the music.
"It's at the center of most of what I do."
That's demonstrated anew on his recently released third "solo" album, Handful of Blues. The new recording consolidates Robben's recent concentration of vocal music, which has been a progressively larger part of his solo work over the course of three albums. "I came to a place where I wanted my voice to be as good as my guitar playing, because it's just as much out there," he says. "I would say that I'm finally starting to sing well."
He displays his refined vocal chops to excellent effect on a sultry, slowed-down reading of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You," and a smooth, jazz-inflected version of "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" that is beginning to garner airplay.
Like its predecessor, Handful of Blues was recorded with Ford's backing duo, the Blue Line (Roscoe Beck, bass and drummer Tom Brechlein), but the set also features guest appearances by renowned session guitarist Danny Korchmar, who produced the disc, Yellowjacket Russell Ferrante, and Ford's younger brother Mark, on harmonica, who also appeared on Robben's two previous records.
"When it came to this album, I thought about other possibilities, because Mark doesn't really do it professionally, he does it for pleasure," Robben says. "But when it came down to it he was the only guy who could come in and play in a variety of styles and also play his butt off. He's the most versatile harp player I know, so he was the best guy for the job."
Mark, Robben, and Patrick reunited briefly last summer, resurrecting their Charles Ford Band (named for their father) at the Sonoma County Blues Festival at the county fair in a show that was their first performance together in more than nine years. "We could have used a little more rehearsal," Robben said, looking back, "but the people were just great.
"You got the feeling that they were just glad we were there and it didn't have to be the tightest thing in the world."
Robben Ford revisits his roots
Robben Ford and the Blue Line will perform Wednesday, Dec. 6, at 8 p.m. at the Mystic Theatre, 21 Petaluma Blvd. North, in Petaluma, with the Soul Drivers. Advance tickets are $13 or $10 for SSU students; $15 at the door. 765-9211.
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