There’s a good reason
Steve Franco adopted the stage name “Mr. Boogieman” – because
whenever he sits down at the ivories, no matter the tune or the
tempo he’s playing, he always proves that he can stone-cold
boogie!
What do we mean by
“boogie”? In the rock’n’roll era, we’re talking about the
high-stepping, rhythm-pounding riffs of Johnnie Johnson, the
keyboard man behind the inimitable Chuck Berry (and so it makes
perfect sense that Mr. Boogieman closes this program of 15
smokin’ hot selections with a lickety-split version of the Chuck
Berry classic, “Johnny B. Goode”).
But Steve Franco also
demonstrates he can apply the Mr. Boogieman method to a wide
range of music, from the swinging “Route 66” to a classic
Beatles medley, from Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train” to Bob
Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.”
The first half of this
recording features The Boogieman all by himself, rampaging over
an electronic keyboard instrument with a resonant, gently
chiming tone. Along the way, he tears through “Watermelon Man,”
gently caresses another jazz standard, “How High the Moon,” and
brings it all back home in funky fashion with his own “Moslo
Blues.”
On “New Orleans
Boogie,” a transitional cut, he duets with Crescent City
keyboard whiz Davell Crawford -- grandson of James “Sugar Boy”
Crawford, the 1950s R&B artist who was the first to record the
well-known “Iko Iko” as “Jockomo.”
The final four tracks
showcase The Boogieman on vocals and keyboard backed by bass and
drums on tunes that include Cannonball Adderley’s “Mercy, Mercy,
Mercy” and his own “Slomo Blues.”
Throughout, Mr.
Boogieman demonstrates the range of boogiewoogie piano and
asserts the kind of creative inspiration that makes you want to
boogie all night long.