Guitarist Calvin Newborn played at B. B. King's first recording session in Memphis (and many of his subsequent ones). He's a part of what is considered the First Family of Memphis Music; his father Finas was a talented drummer who played with Jimmie Lunceford and his brother Phineas was considered a musical genius on piano (There's an informative chapter on the Newborn family in Stanley Booth's quintessential book on Southern music, Rythm Oil). Calvin Newborn began playing guitar in Memphis as a teenager and was renowned for his flamboyant performances. A youngster named Elvis Presley stole some of his guitar licks as well as some of his moves. Newborn moved to New York in the mid 1950's, where he performed and recorded with artists like Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Forrest, Charlie Mingus, Hank Crawford, and Earl Hines. Over the years, Newborn has battled back from substance abuse and has continued to write music and perform, eventually settling in Jacksonville, Florida. Criminally under-recorded as a frontman, Newborn has emerged with a beautiful album of jazz and blues instrumentals called New Born (Yellow Dog Records). Newborn's style of playing brings to mind the recordings of Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, and the 60's and early 70's recordings of George Benson, but though the majority of the eight tracks on New Born would be considered jazz, Newborn's playing is deeply rooted in the blues. This is really apparent in a couple of songs, including his cover of brother Phineas' "Newborn Blues" and "After Hours Blues," which has a strong T-Bone Walker vibe. In addition, there is a gorgeous cover of Duke Ellington's "Lush Life," and Newborn's jazz lineage is on display on the ethereal "Spirit Trane/Omnifarious" and the closer, "Blues & Beyond." Newborn's band gets ample opportunity to shine, and Scott Thompson (trumpet), Herman Green (sax/flute), Donald Brown (piano), and Charlie Wood (organ) make the most of their solo time. Bo-Keys bass player Scott Bomar produced the session, which was done at Sam Phillips Studio in Memphis. It's nice to have Calvin Newborn back on the recording scene and hopefully there will be more to come.

In addition to Calvin Newborn's new album, Yellow Dog is also releasing one of Newborn's previous solo releases from the late 1990's, UpCity. "Up City" is the nickname given to Newborn by jazz legend Miles Davis. The CD was originally released on Newborn's own Omnifarious Music label, but suffered from limited distribution and was largely unheard, which is unfortunate. UpCity features even more of Newborn's meaty guitar, which demonstrates that the line between jazz and blues guitar is a thin one. The album was recorded in two sessions; the Memphis session features mostly an organ trio, with Tony Thomas on B-3 and Tom Lonardo on drums, and the New York session features Bill Mobley (trumpet, flugelhorn, arranger), Tony Reedus (drums), Jamil Nasser (bass), and Bill Easley (sax, flute). The Memphis session is definitely more blues-oriented with Thomas' funky B-3 fills nicely complementing Newborn's guitar, particularly on "Vision" and "Seventh Heaven." As far as individual songs go, the title cut sounds like Kind of Blue-era Miles Davis, while "Them New Blues" is a contemplative piece that will bring to mind Wes Montgomery, and "Song For Basie" gives a nod to the good Count. For good measure, there's another reading of Phineas Newborn's "Newborn Blues." Fans of Wes Montgomery or Grant Green will find a lot to offer here. Hats off to Yellow Dog Records for getting this fine album back into circulation.