Review: Kenny Blues Boss Wayne 'Blues From Chicago To Paris: A Tribute To Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne

By Mike O’Cull

Fans of true, old-school boogie woogie and barrelhouse piano will jump for joy over Canadian music legend Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne’s new record Blues From Chicago to Paris: A Tribute to Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon. Set to take flight March 4th, 2022 via Stony Plain Records, the record is a heartfelt tribute to two masterful musicians who helped shape the music we love and also gives listeners a taste of the vibrant post-war blues scenes in Paris and Chicago.

“Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon were a team, and their styles worked great together,” Wayne says of the artists behind the album’s inspiration. “Out of many other blues piano players I’ve listened to, I found a unique playfulness between these two men, unlike the many other great blues pianists.” Wayne produced the set himself and focused it on the period in the late 50s and early 60s when Slim and Dixon toured together internationally. He selected 17 songs to represent the powerful pair and invited Russell Jackson (acoustic bass, vocals) and Joey DiMarco (drums) to help him knock them out. The resulting tracks are an absolutely rollicking good time and make for a big breath of fresh, guitarless air in our six-string-dominated world.

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne is a JUNO-Award-winning piano player and vocalist and a member of the Boogie Woogie Piano Hall of Fame. He’s also won several Maple Blues Awards and keyboard awards from Living Blues Magazine. He’s six decades into a recording and performing career that began with his preacher father’s gospel music and continued on to include jazz, Latin, R&B, soul, swing, bebop, and standards. At 77, he’s still a pounding force on the piano and has a lifetime of grooves and licks in his hands that will take you with him wherever he goes.

From the first notes of the opener “Rock and Rolling This House,” you can tell that this party is about to bust loose. Wayne drives the piano hard, comping and filling under his vocal and displaying an infinite vocabulary of hot licks in his solos. Russell Jackson’s bass solo is dynamic and cool and Joey DiMarco swings hard on his drums. You can’t help but move as soon as you hear this all going down.

“The Way She Loves A Man” is a Dixon song that rocks a big, steady pocket designed to stimulate your every molecule. Wayne has an inherent sense of joy in his playing and singing that you can’t help but be attracted to and feel in everything he does. He’s one of those special performers who carry their own light into the room and it shines brightly here.

Another Dixon tune, “African Hunch,” is a solid, mid-tempo boogie destined to get hips shaking anywhere it gets played. Wayne hollers out the chorus and puts on another master class on how the piano should be handled. He has a wonderful touch in both clefs and his phrasing is light-hearted and expressive. The rhythm section puts down a fine beat behind him and, temporarily, all is right with the world.

“After While” is a jumping track that’s all about the whiskey and some sweet harmony vocals. It’s the kind of sophisticated, swinging blues that pre-dates the classic Chicago sounds and shares some genetic material with the Big Band style that was winding down after WWII. It’s a brilliant cut, in any case, and is sure to make blues fans happy. Other outstanding moments on Blues From Chicago to Paris: A Tribute to Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon you won’t want to miss include “Somebody Tell That Woman” and “I Ain’t Gonna Be No Monkey Man.” Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne is indeed large and in charge on this wonderful collection of blues music and he deserves a spot in your 2022 listening rotation. Highly recommended.

Listen to “Rock and Rolling This House”