Is He Blue? Lou Rawls Back to His Roots

Lou Rawls has nothing to sing the blues about--precisely because that is what he did on his new album.

His album “At Last” (Blue Note 91937), liberally sprinkled with the blues and jazz elements that marked his entry into the record world almost 30 years ago, is riding high. Last week it was No. 5 with a bullet on the contemporary jazz chart. On Wednesday he will be one-third of the “Hollywood Bowl Full of Blues” concert along with Joe Williams and Etta James.

Back home in Los Angeles last week after his second Japanese tour in two months, he explained how the apparent change of direction came about.

“I knew Bruce Lundvall when he was the head of Epic and I was with an affiliated label, Philly International. Later on Bruce went with Manhattan Records. He told me, ‘I’m taking over Blue Note, which is part of the Manhattan group. Would you have eyes to do something there?’ I said sure, so he put me together with the producers, Michael Cuscuna and Billy Vera, and we started picking out material.”

The change was not made casually; Rawls had been studying the market and felt the time was right. “There is a real resurgence as far as jazz and blues and good music are concerned. The jazz market hit the dust when they went avant-garde in the ‘70s. A guy would get up and play for 20 minutes and he’d say, ‘That was “Blue Moon,” ’ and you didn’t even know it! But now you’ve got your Wynton Marsalises and people like that who are bringing it back to basics.

“As for the blues, it’s never been away. The B. B. Kings and Albert Kings and Bobby Blands will always be around. And lately I’ve noticed that when I would reach back and sing some of the things out of my old Capitol Records days like ‘Tobacco Road’ and ‘Black and Blue,’ the crowd would go wild. In fact, at Capitol, which is now part of the same family as Blue Note, they’re repackaging my old ‘Stormy Monday’ album with Les McCann.”

Rawls makes a valid point that the teen-agers of the 1960s, when these albums were current, are now adults with children of their own who grew up around those sounds. “The kids have gotten to the point where the electronic bombardment has reached its peak. Of course, your teeny-boppers are still into that wild, frenzied heavy-metal stuff, but the older ones from 17 or 18 up are ready for a difference, a release and they’re finding it in some of these sounds they used to hear their parents play.”

This is Rawls’ second step back into the area that first nurtured him, but the first to be released. “I made a blues album, with a small jazz group backing, for MGM Records in 1973, but Mike Curb was in charge there, and after I’d done it, he decided that wasn’t the direction they wanted to take. It was never issued, and I guess it’s still in the can. After that I left MGM--and Mike Curb left to become a politician.” (The MGM catalogue now belongs to Polygram.)

Beefing up the potential for the new album was a galaxy of guest artists. Rawls had no trouble securing Ray Charles for their duet cut (“That’s Where It’s At”), since this was a quid pro quo. “I did a number on Ray’s last album, called ‘Save the Bones for Henry Jones,’ so he was happy to do this for me. As for George Benson, we’d been talking for years about doing something together, so it was a kick for both of us to have him singing and playing on ‘You Can’t Go Home.’

“In fact, most of the people I have as special soloists, like the saxophonist--Stanley Turientine, David Fathead Newman and Bobby Watson--as well as the vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson--really jumped at the idea of being part of this. If I’d told them it was going to be a Philly International commercial thing, they might not have gone for it.”

Along with all these soloists, Rawls had a fellow Blue Note artist, Dianne Reeves, who was in rare form joining forces with him on the title tune, as well as on the old Nellie Lutcher novelty song “Fine Brown Frame.”

In addition to the Japanese tours (which included a nostalgic reunion with his old Capitol compadre, the pianist Les McCann), Rawls has played European jazz festivals--the kinds of dates where he might have seemed out of place during his “commercial” days: Montreux, the North Sea Festival, the Grande Parade de Jazz at Nice.

The public response has been so strong that next year Rawls expects to work the full jazz festival circuit. His only problem has been resistance from some American radio stations. “We’ve had people saying, ‘Oh, that’s jazz, we can’t use it’--and they haven’t even listened to it.

“When you come right down to reality, I’ve tried to maintain my identity through everything I’ve done. Sure, I’ve had strings and full orchestrations on a lot of things, but my style of delivery hasn’t altered.

“The stories that songs tell are pretty much alike--about your heart being broken or you can’t pay the rent or whatever. You think country and Western is gonna change? No! Blues ain’t gonna change, jazz ain’t gonna change--well, they tried to change it with that avant-garde and you see what happened.

“It’s weird, man, but it’s fun. I’m having a good time. I’ve been called a jazz singer, blues singer, folk singer, rock singer, pop singer, message singer, soul singer, fusion singer, and now I’m a jazz singer again. Full circle!”