B.B. King - There Must Be A Better World Somewhere (1981)

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B.B. King - There Must Be A Better World Somewhere (1981)

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During his decade recording for MCA, B.B. King was generally teamed with overblown accompaniment rather than his regular (and perfectly complementary) traveling band. This CD finds the masterful vocalist/guitarist joined by a more logical backup group than usual (with altoist Hank Crawford, tenor saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman and baritonist Ronnie Cuber in the tentet). The two most basic selections ("There Must Be a Better World Somewhere" and "The Victim") are easily the most successful while the other four are funky, more R&B-oriented and overly commercial; it sounds like B.B. was consciously trying for a hit record. Despite some fine solos by Newman and Crawford, this session was rather erratic, brief (under 36 minutes) and far from essential.

Review by Scott Yanow, Allmusic.com

With all due ease? I can proudly say that I not only appreciated B.B. King before he passed away yesterday as of this writing. But my appreciation has continued to grow since then. Especially having seen the man and Lucile perform on the Bangor Waterfront a few years ago. With an artist who has the longevity and is so prolific in terms of song and album releases? One of my favorite things to do with artists like B.B. King is to explore lesser revered periods in their creative careers. And the period between the late 70's and mid 80's certainly count as that in this case!

"Life Ain't Nothing But A Party" is a churning piano driven late night blues with Hank Crawford delivering a simmering,soulful sax solo along with B.B's trademark cry on Lucile. "Born Again Human" is an 8 minute electric piano based slow jazz/funk workout where B.B.,Crawford and David Fathead Newman all wail away together on an elongated,slinky groove. My favorite on here,in fact. "The Victim","More More More" and the title song are all straight up B.B blues numbers while the closer "You're Going With Me" has a down home,danceable jazz/funk uptempo blues/funk stomp.

It was my happy surprised that this excellent album actually won a Grammy for best blues album of this year. And I can certainly see why. The album has an aural concept,very much in the manner of a tone poem. Even if unintentional. Sounds like a musician with their guitar case in hand,walking to a gig just after the sun has gone down. And the lights have come on around the city streets. And then he gets on stage and plays some serious blues for a cheering,dancing audience. Probably King had done this many times,and it felt natural the music would reflect that attitude. With his 70's era mix of sleek funky jazz and blues still in the mix? This is an excellent B.B. King release!

Review by Andre S. Grindle, Amazon.com

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B.B. King - There Must Be A Better World Somewhere (1981)

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B.B. King - There Must Be A Better World Somewhere (1981)

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B.B. King - There Must Be A Better World Somewhere (1981)

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