Lionel Young
Kansas City Blues & Jazz Festival
July 18, 1999

Review by Paul "El Dormido" Taylor

Lionel Young's performance at the Kansas City Blues & Jazz Festival is not like you'd expect after hearing his CD, "As the Sun Goes Down" (Lionel Young Band #FLIO1027CD). The recording is an eclectic mix ranging from blues standards (One Way Out), originals (Brown Cloud over Denver), a novelty take (Hey, OJ), but overall a searching, experimental reach overlaid with Lionel's blues vocals holding it all together and sustaining the Blues sensibility of the music.

Lionel Young live generates a forceful sound from his electric violin, almost a physical pressure against the body, something like a low rumble. It's a sound unlike any other electric violin I've heard, unlike Papa John Creech, Jean Luc Ponty, Ornette Coleman, or Molly Nova.

Lionel definitely has his own instrumental voice.

Lionel will finger pick the violin as well as bow the instrument, all the while traveling that rich, dark tonal landscape he's creating. The sound is reminiscent of the '60s style of fuzz tone guitar but the sustain on the tone, the slightly higher and broader pitch gives it a richer timbre.

The festival performance itself came on strong with the first number, "Sissy Strut", a jazz tune that caught my attention right away as not the usual Blues opener, no, but that forceful violin commanded immediate attention. I was thinking Mahavishnu style jazz.

The band slipped into "Caledonia", and then went on to do that New Orleans Mardi Gras tune, "Iko Iko", and now I'm thinking cross genre blues. Lionel's violin is generating this low toned fuzz rumble behind a flute solo. The music was simmering sensuality. The trumpet player soloed on an amplified conch shell. And this was all fitting together seamlessly.

They did another tune that was a percussive, abstract rhythmic excursion, and Washboard Chaz Leary saunters across the stage, picks up his washboard and adds another layer to the sifting polyrhythms. v Lionel takes the band down to a trio for a low down, slow, distortion blues that creates the perfect setting for his vocal styling, definitely a blues voice. His phrasing goes back and forth from the vocal to the violin, extending the song past just a reading of the lyric.

During one tune he walks down off the stage and along the fence fronting the audience.

Lionel's show is definitely festival friendly. He carries a unique sound, a rich mix of styles and tunes, and he's an engaging performer. But still, what fascinates me is his sound, his translation of disparate musical styles through a blues sensibility, creating an unique place on the modern blues landscape.

I was trying to come up with words to describe Lionel's sound. I kept coming up with the word 'guttural' to capture the visceral impact of Lionel's performance, but it didn't quite seem right. I called Washboard Chaz to get his take on it since he had a pretty good perspective, having sat in with Lionel for a couple of numbers. He wasn't too sure about that word, guttural, either.

He said, 'Well, maybe like a deep, low rumbling from the throat… maybe like the way Howlin' Wolf sang…" I think that's about right.

Chaz said I should just ask Lionel himself about his sound since Lionel just happened to be hanging out at Chaz' place. Lionel had to stay over in KC due to a cracked engine block in his Subaru so he was visiting Chaz, a longtime compatriot back in Chaz' Boulder, CO, days.

Lionel explained that he uses strings that are an octave lower than usual for the two bass strings, and he adjusts the two upper strings accordingly. He uses this tuning to match the violin's tonal range with his vocal range. He also uses several pedals to modify the amplified sound he gets.

He also explained the application of forte in his musical style. Most people equate forte with loudness, but Lionel explained that in classical music, forte means playing forcefully, not necessarily loudly. He likened forte to the way Koko Taylor sings. He pointed out that while Koko Taylor may sound like she is singing loudly, what she is doing is generating more force with her voice within her throat, thus achieving a greater impact rather than just sheer volume.

So Chaz was right on when he suggested that Lionel's sound was akin to that low rumble in the throat, like Howlin' Wolf. All of which says to me that Lionel, as wide ranging as his musical stylings are, is nevertheless firmly rooted in the blues sensibility. Lionel definitely is on the leading edge of modern blues.

Even more than that, he is a marvelous performer who is entertaining and exciting. And definitely satisfying to the blues jones.

--Paul "El Dormido" Taylor