Floyd Lee Band - Mean Blues (2008)

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Floyd Lee Band - Mean Blues (2008)

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Biography: Born in August 1933 and given away by his mother when only a few months old, Floyd spent the first 10 years of his life growing up in Lamar Mississippi near Holly Springs. During the summer, he would often hear his adopted father sing blues songs while working in the cotton fields. Going to school in Memphis during the winter months living in a house located in Webbs Alley, Floyd would sneak out at night to watch his father, who was known in the local blues scene as Guitar Floyd, perform with other bluesmen such as young Guitar Slim.
Inspired by his father he would play his guitar when he wasn't looking. He remembers the guitar neck being too big for his hands. "Back in Mississippi, I remember a bluesman that would go from house to house, selling his 78 and would let you listen to it on a wind-up victrola, which he would carry with him. You'd hold up a tin can to your ear that he had hooked up to it and you could hear what he recorded. I don't remember his name." Floyd also recalls, "In Memphis my school was right on Beale Street. There was a park close to the school with a piano in it and there would always be this guy playing it. I would go watch him as much as I could. Then I'd also go down to the New Daisy (movie theatre) and me and my cousins would sneak in the side door."
Floyd left the South early on, put on a bus at the age of ten and sent on his own, with a sign around his neck that simply read "Chicago". Staying with relatives briefly, "right up there under the L train", he earned a living by shining shoes on 43rd and Indiana. "I was always a working man." He spent some time in Flint Michigan before moving on to Cleveland Ohio in 1947.
One of his early memories of living in Cleveland was winning a contest by selling the most newspapers (Cleveland Plain Dealer) to be a batboy for the Cleveland Indians for two weeks. "They won the world series that year. That was 1948. I still remember the lineup."
Floyd sang in the church choir where his talents as a singer were recognized. The preacher thought so highly of him that he gave Floyd his first guitar (a Gibson T125 electric with one pick up in the middle). Floyd converted the pulpit's PA system into a portable amplifier by hooking it up to a battery. This allowed him to play anywhere outdoors where electricity wasn't available. This was quite a novelty in the 1950's.
Cutting his teeth on Nat King Cole songs and later moving into Jimmy Reed material, Floyd made a name for himself around town as a singer and a guitar player at various gigs and rent parties using his portable system. Word got around, eventually landing him some regular gigs with Jimmy Reed, sitting in for Eddie Taylor when he couldn't make it (Eddie was Jimmy's main sideman). One of the more prestigious gigs was a show that included Stevie Wonder, The Supremes along with Jimmy Reed on the bill. "Jimmy would swing by the house and pick me up." While living in Columbus one memorable gig was opening for Wilson Pickett at the Club Regal.
Floyd moved to New York in the early seventies finding work in Spring Valley, eventually settling down in Harlem. Working for twenty-seven years as a doorman at the Normandy Apartments (86th & Riverside Dr.), Floyd continued to play the blues whenever he could and has made himself known around New York City as a true blues original. Floyd Lee has been there and done that. Retiring a few years back, he has been pushing himself harder than ever in keeping the blues alive. He is a self-driven bluesman who follows his own path. He has a distinct style all his own. Known locally as the "King of Harlem" or "Mississippi Delta Blues" or simply "Bluesman", Floyd has played constantly in NYC for the past 30 some years. He was a founding member of the Music Under New York program in the mid 1980's and has performed at such events as NYC Mayor Dinkins Inauguration and entertained visiting dignitaries such as Nelson Mandela. Yet for all these years keeping a low profile… until now when Floyd is ready to take on the world.

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Floyd Lee Band - Mean Blues (2008)

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Review: The blues are inarguably a mature, full-grown art form, and as such have long since left home; these days one's as likely to find artists singing and playing the blues in L.A. and Toronto as their birthplace in the Mississippi Delta. And hopefully we've by now laid to rest questions of one's 'right' to do so. The blues may have been born in the cotton fields of the south, but like any export, their reach is much wider than that.
Still, there's a certain and undeniable depth to blues born in the Delta that practitioners from other lands can at best only emulate. Floyd Lee was born in Mississippi; he actually did pick cotton in his youth. So when he calls his debut disc "Mean Blues," he knows whereof he speaks.
Floyd recalls sneaking out of the house to listen to his father play clubs in Memphis with Guitar Slim; later he worked shining shoes in Chicago before moving to Cleveland, where, as the winner of a contest to sell the most newspapers, he was a bat boy for the Cleveland Indians when they won the World Series in '48. He later spent some twenty-seven years as a hotel doorman in New York while establishing a name for himself on the city's blues circuit. Along the way he worked with Jimmy Reed (contributing uncredited rhythm guitar to Jimmy's classic, "Honest I Do") and Wilson Pickett.
Now in his seventies, this is Floyd's first recording under his own name. It's a twelve-cut collection of the very deepest of blues, all originals written by guitarist, producer, and label honcho Joel Poluck (Floyd co-wrote the chilling opener, "Down In Lamar," a stark tale of a murder/suicide dark as a moonless Mississippi night.)
Although Floyd's a guitarist he's restricted to vocals here, and at that is nothing short of magnificent. He has that all-too-rare ability to convey an extraordinary depth of emotion, to expose nerve endings scraped raw by pain and suffering, yet retain an essential dignity that gives every word he sings a sense of the profound.
But a huge part of the project's success, not surprisingly, comes courtesy of Mr. Poluck. Lyrically and structurally his songs follow twelve-bar convention, but as producer he's managed to make everything sound thoroughly unique. His guitar work (ably aided by Zach Zunis) is unerringlyingly tasteful, and he's coaxed superb performances from all involved, particularly George Beckett, whose biting harp tone provides perfect accompaniment. (There's even a cut, curiously enough for a disc under his name, on which Floyd's nowhere to be found; instead, Joel leads bassist Brad Vickers and drummer Michael Fox through an instrumental featuring his own lap steel).
Production is both warm and intimate; on "See Saw Sally," with Floyd accompanied only by Mr. Poluck's understated guitar, one can hear the creaking of a chair as Floyd shifts his weight. The same immediacy is apparent on the band cuts.
While one might think all's been said and done within the 'traditional' genre by now, Floyd and Joel prove there's still room for a new voice and a new viewpoint. The disc's package says it was originally released in 2001; somehow it seems to have remained largely unnoticed 'til now. It remains nonetheless one of the best releases of this or any year.

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Floyd Lee Band - Mean Blues (2008)

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The Band: Hailing from New York City, the Floyd Lee Band formed in early 2001. Fronted by 75 year old Mississippi bluesman powerhouse Floyd Lee and at his side the dynamic guitarist, Joel Poluck, who represents the next generation of guitar heroes. The Floyd Lee Band has created their own sound and style without compromise and with this release they carry on the tradition of pure, raw blues. Mean Blues is the first release of the Floyd Lee Band for Amogla Records. This album reached #1 on Blues Radio Charts around the world including XM Satellite Bluesville. When it was released Bill Wax from XM Satellite considered it to be the finest blues album in a decade. Hear for yourself.