(Blues, Folk, Swing) Samoa Wilson & Jim Kweskin Band - I Just Want to Be Horizontal - 2020, MP3, 320 kbps

Horizontal is the latest in a decade long collaboration between Jim Kweskin and Samoa Wilson. The range of offerings, from tender ballads and raunchy blues to swinging jazz standards, reflects the restless and discerning nature of their musical explorations. Kweskin has been celebrated in his storied career for his love of a good tune as well as for bending and exploding accepted genres. He mentored Wilson throughout her early years. Together they played and sang the songs of the Carter Family, Jimmy Rodgers, Bessie Smith, Mildred Bailey, Mississippi John Hurt, Fred Astaire, Grandpa Jones, and dozens more including many drawn from The Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk music and other sources of traditional folk music, blues and early jazz.
“He Ain’t Got Rhythm” is another fun number, written by Irving Berlin, with some additional lyrics by Jim Kweskin. There is a delightful energy to this track, and in particular to Samoa’s vocals. The album concludes with a couple of songs about the moon, the first being a bright rendition of “I Wished On The Moon,” a song that Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra recorded in 1935 with Billie Holiday on vocals. “Wished on a star/And asked for a dream or two/I looked for every loveliness/It all came true/I wished on the moon for you.” Then we get a beautiful rendition of “Someone Turned The Moon Upside Down,” a song recorded by Tony Bennett in the 1950s. It is a song of heartache and of longing. “All the tales I hear round about/They nearly turn my heart inside out/I try so hard to smile/But nothing seems worthwhile.” (michaelsmusiclog.blogspot.com)