JAZZ REVIEW : Witherspoon Sings the Blues

The blues, as we all know, is said to predate the wheel, and there are those who will claim that Jimmy Witherspoon antedates them both. Certainly he is a survivor who, in almost half a century at his craft, has honed this venerable art into a totally personal message, one that he delivered Wednesday at the Nucleus Nuance.

Spoon, as he is generally known, has lived through the big-band era, the impact of rock ‘n’ roll, the frightening experience of throat cancer, to emerge with a sound as gritty and gutty as he was on those old 78s back around 1945.

He still sings essentially the same lyrics, most of which were picked up from such long-gone masters as Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing. If he hasn’t learned a new song in decades, it could be because his audiences come to him expecting the familiar: They want to be reminded that he is about to move to the outskirts of town, that it ain’t nobody’s business what he does, and finally, in the most poignant blues of all, that he is going down slow.

This time around, he didn’t simply rely on the songs. Backing him was a quartet with pianist Roy Alexander, drummer Maurice Simon, Swiss bass player Isla Eckinger and a real find in the person of one Dan Weinstein, a.k.a. Daniel Bone, who alternated between trombone and violin, distinguishing himself in these very disparate disciplines. The group cruised compellingly through an opening instrumental, “Straight No Chaser.”

As is so often the case at this club, the audience yakked endlessly; a few couples even danced, and one Nucleus square asked for “Happy Birthday to You.” Spoon and his cohorts obliged by pouring a gallon of blues over the salutation, and it came out just fine.