Review: Ernie Story's Meditation Blue is a catnip record for serious collectors. Many have longed for it to be reissued and made more readily available and now they get the wish thanks to Japan's Groove Diggers series on P-Vine. This was originally a private press record which explains its scarcity after it was recorded in 1997 in Minneapolis as the one and only album by the singer-songwriter and producer Ernie Story. It's a seamless fusion AOR meets modern soul with laidback grooves and a hint of gospel to really elevate it. A must-own record for soul collectors with plenty of emotional high points.
Review: American jazz singer, guitarist, violinist and songwriter Lonnie Johnson is widely recognised as a pioneer of jazz guitar and jazz violin, at the storied late 1950s cutoff point where blues crossed into "jass". Known as one of the first, if not the first, blues-jazz players to ever play the electric violin, this new retrospective record, documenting his best works with fellow guitarist Elmer Snowden, sadly nonetheless does not feature this remarkable feat, although it does scout an impressive terrain through Johnson's versatility on electric guitar and vocals. Though masterful, these performances still flaunt the make-do character of the Toronto native's musical upbringing. Take 'Blues For Chris', a rather avant-garde domestic tease of a track that only faintly pulses through the blues form, as Johnson janks and picks at the guitar whilst seeming to tell a premortem joke.
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