The French ambassador of American Blues delivers an album rooted in both the Bay Area tradition and his native Europe

Frank Goldwasser is a man who wears humility more comfortably than pride, but his first CD under his given name is loaded with qualities that would make any blues artist proud. It's a tasty blend of skill, eclecticism, deep respect for the tradition and history of the music, originality, style, toughness and feeling. His own powers as a composer, singer and guitarist are beyond question, and he's joined by the guitar of Phillip Walker, J.J. Malone on piano and the tabla mastery of Souhail Kaspar (Kronos Quartet, Sting). "BLUJU" reflects a conscious effort to bring more than the classic blues elements into play, with the incorporation of African rhythms into several songs.

A cosmopolitan outlook on music should be no surprise for a native of Paris. Born there on January 6, 1960, his initial blues inspiration came from Hound Dog Taylor's "NATURAL BOOGIE" LP. After he worked his first professional job at age 21 in support of Sonny Rhodes, he accepted Rhodes' invitation to move to the San Francisco Bay Area. Arriving in 1982, he was hired by Troyce Key (who gave him the stage name of Paris Slim) to play in the house band at Key's legendary Eli's Mile High Club in Oakland. He eventually assumed leadership of the group while Key took a professional hiatus, and became deeply immersed in the area's still-vibrant blues scene, which he evokes nostalgically with Malone's help on "Three Sisters." He racked up three years touring with Jimmy McCracklin, as well as positive reviews for appearances at most of the prominent local venues with a distinguished roster of blues talent including Lowell Fulson, Percy Mayfield and Charlie Musselwhite. Four years after his first single was issued in 1984 on San Francisco's Backtrack label, his CD debut "BLUES FOR ESTHER" appeared, a strong outing which received a nomination from the prestigious W.C. Handy Awards. Its follow-up, "BLEEDIN' HEART", was co-produced with Joe Louis Walker, who guested along with Sonny Rhodes. An ongoing list of other sessions and frequent European touring (most prolifically as part of the Fedora Records house band behind Clay Hammond, Jimmy Dawkins, Homesick James and others) commenced before he moved to Southern California in 1998. Though his music has acquired considerable breadth, he still wants it to reflect the time and place where he honed it. "I was privileged to experience the Bay Area blues scene; I caught the tail end of it, when it was still a breathing, living thing. If somebody should listen to my stuff and hear an Oakland Blues thing in it, I'd be very pleased." He need have no fear. Whether it's the East Bay heritage reflected in his guitar style, the McCracklin musical trappings of "Feels Like Home," the Lowell Fulson composition "Back Door Key", Malone's piano playing or the atmospheric tribute "Three Sisters," the hallmarks of the Bay Area blues style and gritty club scene are one of the main cornerstones of "BLUJU."

This project germinated in fall, 1999, when L.A. impresario Rand Chortkoff was knocked out by Frank's work as a leader and sideman at one of his events. Chortkoff had a profile as organizer of a series of Little Walter tribute shows, and as the producer of well-received CDs by Billy Boy Arnold, Finis Tasby and King Ernest. Under his auspices, Goldwasser went into the studio in October 2000, with outstanding results. Having written the bulk of the songs, his chosen motifs run from no-frills Mississippi-Chicago stylings like "Well, Well, Josephine" and Jimmy Reed's "I'm A Love You", through the blends of those down home elements including Mississippi Delta-style slide guitar on "Homesick Blues" --- which utilizes a beat borrowed from a song by Somalian pop star Maryam Mursal --- and the Ali Farka Touré-inspired "Don't Take Away My Love", to the contemporary, radio-friendly compositions "Feels Like Home", and "I Can't Stand It", co-authored by drummer John Hanes and featuring Souhail Kaspar's scintillating tabla work. Elmore James' "Twelve Year Old Boy" is a blues waltz in 9/8 time, driven by John Hanes' propulsive, deft drumming and by Dave "Woody" Woodrow's idiomatic horn arrangement and tenor sax work. Goldwasser's fretted guitar work is adventurous and fluid, blending jazzy tinges with tortured West Side bends, achieving maximum impact thanks to a keen sense of blues history. "Well, Well, Josephine", with its elemental early Howlin' Wolf ambiance and manic Robert Nighthawk-inspired guitar solo, and the instrumental "Melba's Bump", with its shifting rhythms, are both about Goldwasser's cats (the woman metaphor of "Josephine" is no coincidence). On "Don't Take Away My Love", a desperate plea and an ode to a companion taken by cancer in 1989, Frank switches to an electro-acoustic mode, conjuring a tribal chant with the aid of hand percussions and a call-and-response between the vocals and bottleneck guitar. "Petit A Petit (L'Oiseau Fait Son Nid") [French for "Little By Little (The Bird Builds His Nest)], set to a New Orleans funk groove à la Neville Brothers, utilizes a series of metaphors to tell of a man's realization that "things ain't what they used to be" in his relationship. The chorus ("Oh, oui, y'a un joker dans ta vie") features a a catchy guitar hook originally written by Bay Area guitar great Lafayette Thomas. The title track, a rousing guitar duel between Goldwasser and Los Angeles guitar ace Alex Schultz, pays homage to the exotic grooves of Jimmy Dawkins' first album "FAST FINGERS". Rocking to a relaxed, syncopated boogaloo, it also suggests early Albert Collins. Gulf Coast blues giant Phillip Walker goes toe to toe with Goldwasser on a remake of the vintage instrumental "Playing In The Park," which he originally cut for the Elko label in the 1950's. Of his cameo appearance, Walker said: "I was honored to be asked to redo one of my old numbers with Slim. We had a blast!" With Walker leading off the way, the soloists go at it full steam ahead, eventually trading fours while the band lays down a rambunctious shuffle groove. Keyboardist Jim Calire gets in on the action with a raucous tenor sax break.

Goldwasser is a truly international figure in the contemporary blues world, rooted in both the Bay Area tradition which he adopted and mastered and his native Europe where his heart remains. His hope for "BLUJU" is that "it will sound fresh and appeal to people who normally listen to blues, but not just as a rehash or a recitation of what's already been done." Goldwasser's guitar playing aspires successfully to be "very traditionally oriented but with an openness and a certain amount of risk-taking that takes it outside the blues vocabulary." To his credit, "BLUJU" is certainly that and more: a significant accomplishment with obvious reverence for its diverse antecedents, and a finely wrought personal statement.