Jump City Band

"Goin' Downtown"

BY PETER "BLEWZZMAN" LAURO, © SEPTEMBER, 2005

CD's from good, swing-blues bands are the hardest bands to write reviews on. Once I start the review, it seems to take me forever to finish. The problem is I either have to stop typing 'cause I'm jumping all around in my chair or I find myself trying to type 87 words a minute to keep up with the music and it the review comes out looking something like this - ljjellsd kssiels, wrighsfopr kqzxyelsdjf.

"GOIN' DOWNTOWN" by the JUMP CITY BAND is one of those CD's. The disc is filled with lots of hot music that's impossible to sit still to. The JUMP CITY BAND consists of KIP LONDON on lead vocals, guitar and back up vocals; PETE KELLY on bass guitar and lead vocals; BOB ENIK on guitar and slide guitar; GARY EDELSON on drums; and JIM WARSHAUER on sax.

Hailing from Massachusetts, the JUMP CITY BAND has that New England swing thing down pat. Their suave, groovy sound is a bit reminiscent to the sound of some of their neighboring predecessors - Roomful of Blues and the Love Dogs are two that immediately come to mind.

Although there is only one original on this disc of 13 tracks, the music is all quite good. I don't think I'll ever live to hear a version of "UNCHAIN MY HEART" that can compare to the late, great Ray Charles' version, but the guys do a real nice job on it. The vocals are excellent and the job that JIM does replacing the piano with the sax is awesome.

"MELLOW SAXOPHONE" is very nicely done. It makes several jumps, back and forth, from a mystical, ritualistic beat featuring some great drum work by GARY to a hot rocking number with JIM wailing on sax. The track is highlighted by some very cool scat from KIP. There is nothing mellow at all about this one.

A Henry Mancini piece called "SHOT IN THE DARK" was a very nice retro sounding track from the Ventures era. Unfortunately, this 2:33 track, as well as with a few other good tracks on "GOIN' DOWNTOWN", was just a little too short.

"SICK AND TIRED" is exactly the type of song I made reference to in the opening paragraph. This one had me bouncing. The rhythm section is all over this one with the slide guitar, lead guitar and sax take turns tearing it up. Another very well done number.

"PUT YOUR LOVE AWAY", the discs only original song, features lots more great slide work by BOB. The song has an eerie resemblance to one of my favorite tunes - Leopard Skinned Pill Box Hat.

"RUNNING ON A BLUE FLAME", and "HIDE AWAY are the discs two instrumentals, and they are also two of the discs highlights. On these two tracks you get a taste of just how good everyone in this band is. Pete does some very nice bass work and everyone is just tuned into each other on these. Good stuff.

"GOIN' DOWNTOWN" is an excellent effort from the JUMP CITY BAND. If they can stretch out some of those great jams they get into past an average of more than 3:30 and come up with a few more original songs, who knows....... their next CD may just find them "HEADIN' UPTOWN"