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Reviews of Gaye's music and performances . . .
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"For Saffire and Piano Fans, (05/11/05)
Founding member of Saffire, The Uppity Blues Women, Gaye Adegbalola continues her historical exploration of Blues women like Bessie Smith, Sippie Wallace, Alberta Hunter, Ma Rainey, and Memphis Minnie.
On this outing Roddy Barnes provides prodigious piano counterpoint to Ms. Adegbalola's powerful vocal stylings. His training at Berklee, studying under such notables as Rita Sloan-Gottlieb and Francois Rene Duchable, as well as time spent playing in New Orleans, has polished his considerable technique and arranging skill. Barnes has had a number of his original compositions covered by Saffire.
Their versions of "Ma Rainy's Black Bottom" and "Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning" are highlights as are, the originals and added lyrics by both Gaye and Roddy. The respect and love for this music is evident by the joy just dripping from your speakers.
If you are a fan of Saffire and fantastic acoustic piano work, this CD is a must purchase."
Beardo, senior contributing editor at BluesWax ezine
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"Gaye has just released "Neo-Classic Blues" on Hot Toddy Music and sings old and original blues songs with Roddy Barnes' confident, sensitive piano accompaniment. Gaye's voice is instantly recognizable; she's made the classic songs her own and her own songs classics."
Bob Margolin, Blues Revue Magazine
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"(Opening for Zachary Richard) was Gaye Adegbalola who gave us some great moments at the Cognac Blues Passions Festival in 2001 here in duo with Roddy Barnes at the piano. Gaye Adegbalola is a singer, guitar player, but also an advocate for women's rights. Since 1984, she has been a member, along with Ann Rabson, of the American acoustic female trio Saffire -- The Uppity Blues Women.
She sings, dressed in spectacular white attire, the classic blues of the 20's and 30's accompanied only by the pianist, Roddy Barnes (dressed all in black). It is superb. A repertoire which pays homage to the great blues divas such as Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, and Ma Rainey but also with excellent original compositions. With the obvious grand sense of showmanship this lady possesses, a voice made for singing the blues, and the simplicity of the duo, this act made this concert a wonderful moment of pure emotion."
www.bluesfeelings.com
Blues sur Seine, November, 2004
Espace Maurice Begart - FRANCE
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"A chanteuse with a raucous voice, a pianist packed with talent, this summarizes the work of Gaye Adegbalola and Roddy Barnes ...
From one selection to the next, Gaye Adegbalola and Roddy Barnes effortlessly offer spontaneous emotion to fit the song -- with finesse and class. Aficionados of intimate evenings in piano bars -- sensual, ethereal and smoky -- it is to you this brilliant album is destined ...
From boogie woogie to ragtime, jazz to blues, (they) give us a whole
spectrum of emotion that is captured in the genre of the blues ...
Accompanied by short, relevant explanations, the twenty songs compiled here are as many pebbles thrown on the oldest roads of the blues which will allow any lost soul on this road to find his path again and better understand the origins of contemporary music -- rap included. This work has the power to be pedagogical without being boring and deserves to be a reference in schools of music, to show future virtuosi what spontaneity brings to art. Well done!"
Fred Delforge, Zicazine E Magazine
FRANCE
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"Gaye Adegbalola played The Loft three times in 2004 and both she and it came up "Best." Accompanied by Roddy Barnes, the Saffire star boogied with the ballads and the blues. This was not your party band at work; it was a shining star treating her hometown to something very very good."
Best Live Performance, Readers' Choice 2004
Front Porch News (Fredericksburg, VA area's city paper)
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"What is really cool about this are her live performances at The Loft and how they expanded her audience beyond the fan base of the legendary Saffire. When Gaye dons that white tux, she's straight off of Broadway."
Best Singer, Readers' Choice 2004
Front Porch News (Fredericksburg, VA area's city paper)
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"Everyone who missed this show missed one of the best performances I've seen by Gaye -- with her sultry voice and exciting dance moves. Roddy is a Jerry Lee Lewis or better -- you would not believe someone could get that much out of a keyboard. He's a wonder to watch! These two entertain the entire show. Hope we can continue to get this high caliber 'family' show here in Richmond."
Wanda Fears, RLF Newsletter
Club Performance Review, Babe's in Richmond
January, 2005
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". . . Introduced by Roddy Barnes, her French-speaking pianist, Gaye quickly took the stage, her hair piled high and dressed in a very elegant outfit of white tails, then launched into a repertoire of her own compositions, but especially those of the grande dames of the blues, Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, to name a few. Only the most knowledgeable noted passing references to Duke Ellington's "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" or Marilyn (sic) Johnson's "Press My Button and Ring My Bell," but everyone cheered the amazing "Hound Dog" made famous by Elvis Presley, some of whose charisma Gaye inherited. . . Punctuated by explanations in French from Roddy Barnes and Gaye herself, the duo's brief hour of music charmed everybody in the audience, which was captivated by these Americans who, they said, did not vote for the villainous, warmongering idiot from Texas."
Fred Delforge, Zicazine E Magazine
Concert Review, Blues sur Seine Festival
FRANCE, November, 2004
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"Gaye has always been the ultimate modern realization of this breed of blues great (classic blues women). . . She continues to be a pathfinder to the truth in all its naked wonder. . . (Roddy) is the ultimate barrelhouse sideman. I'm sure Robert Jones (Detroit bluesman and DJ) would underscore my glowing recommendation to this extraordinary collection."
George P. Seedorff
Big City Blues Magazine
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"From the opening moments of "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" to the last notes of Roddy Barnes' "Summer Sky," they treat us to some exquisite performances. . . This is simply a marvelous disc of blues performed with so much heart and panache that it is unreservedly recommended."
Ron Weinstock
D.C. Blues Society Newsletter
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"Primarily devoted to the "classic blues" era of the '20s and '30s, the duet performances celebrate the seminal role women played in making the music popular, enduring and in some cases, indelible."
Mike Joyce
The Washington Post
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"Having been a fan of the music (classic blues) for forty years, I have heard all of the well chosen covers performed by the original artists, and found these covers absolutely delightful. Beautifully performed, passionate and showing the utmost respect to the original artists, Gaye and Roddy breathe new life into timeless classics."
Bill Wilson
Billtown Blue Notes
Williamsport, PA
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Note: This is the first international review we've received. It is printed in its entirety because it fully describes the interplay between the voice and piano and how both use various techniques and styles on different songs.
"Gaye Adegbalola will be familiar to most readers through her association with Saffire the Uppity Blues Women; but, on this CD, she is joined by pianist Roddy Barnes in a set that is inspired by classic blues divas and pianists.
There are twenty tracks on this set, drawn from the recordings of artist like Ma Rainey, whose "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" features Adegbalola's strutting vocals, laced with growls and coos with coy overtones, underpinned by Barnes' barrelhousing piano; and Alberta Prime (Hunter), whose "Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning" is an almost physical embodiment of pathos and resignation.
Georgia Tom Dorsey's "Black Eyed Blues" is a tale of violence against women and how to extract revenge, but the mood is lightened by the humorous, almost vaudeville approach that Adegbalola adopts, and Barnes' bouncy stride piano. Duke Ellington's "I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good' is inspired by Big Maybelle's 1959 recording, Adegbalola purring intimately to Barnes' jazz inflected piano; Memphis Minnie's "Nothing In Rambling" finds Adegbalola rocking out with animated vocals riding Barnes' rumbling piano; whilst Lucille Bogan's "Sloppy Drunk" is a master-class in gin-house piano and vocals. Adegbalola's fascination with Bogan is also evident in her rendition of "BD Woman's Blues", where her strident vocals "tell it as it is" to Barnes' rattling piano accompaniment.
Not all of the numbers on this set are covers, Adegbalola's own songs fitting seamlessly into the CD's theme; "It's Alright For a Man To Cry", written to ease her son's emotional pain, is a deeply soulful paean in the classic style, enhanced by Barnes' rolling left hand and cascading right hand flourishes; "How Can I Say I Miss You" is a bouncy ragtime piece with animated, character filled vocals, with barrelhouse and vaudeville overtones; whilst "Twisted Mind Blues" is a melancholy blues about a woman's resignation with the violence in her relationship, accentuated by Barnes'
cascading piano.
Add in the resignation and poignancy, laced with defiance, evident in Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues", and the thundering boogie piano and strident vocals that fire Memphis Minnie's "Pigmeat On The Line", and you have a set that belongs in every serious blues collector's collection."
Mick Rainsford
Blues in Britain Magazine
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" . . . Smart, savvy, witty, and unabashedly outspoken, Adegbalola continues the Saffire tradition on her solo debut of calling attention to some pretty severe social issues with sympathy and incisive clarity . . ."
Amazon.com review
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"Adegbalola possesses a classic blues singer's talent to breathe life into mere
words. It's the combination of prodigious singing, timely material and exquisite
production (courtesy of Block) that raises this effort above any mere "women's
blues" label . . . Her identification with humanity's daily struggles--and her
ability to articulate them--secure Adegbalola's place within the tradition."
Blues Revue
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"Adegbalola combines an impish sense of humor with hard-nosed feminist mettle;
her effervescent theatricality allows her to infuse even her most politically
righteous statements with life-affirming zest."
Living Blues
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"Adegbalola is so supremely connected to her music that one feels the joy, beauty,
and pain as if it were one's own."
The Washington Blade
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"Outspoken, yet introspective, Adegbalola's blues are essential listening material!
It's enlightening, entertaining and effectively effervescent!"
Blues Connection
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"Like a love potion, there's something special, unnamed about the voice of this
woman that makes you want to listen to her again. Sure, there are plenty of fine
singers out there, powerful, technically deft, but few I've heard lately sound
as joyously elated singing the way Adegbalola does. She doesn't simply deliver
a good line--she sings her heart out, letting herself go with the flow of a phrase .
. . This is no Evita on a balcony, this is the March on Washington!"
fab! (magazine)
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"By far the most challenging songs of the evening, demanded plenty of grit and
guts from a vocalist, qualities that Gaye Adegbalola consistently mustered, sometimes
almost effortlessly . . . some of the frankest and funniest songs in their repertory
are Adegbalola originals, songs in which a liberated woman looks on love with
the rueful eye of experience and the saving grace of good humor."
The Washington Post
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"Gaye Adegbalola -- A gifted writer, vocalist and performer, her lyrics speak
of the human condition with as much eloquence (earthy street talk, of course,
qualifying) as one could want. "Learn To Settle For Less" may be one of the poignant
and honest self-assessments of one's life ever recorded. .....this song is probably
as close to someone else's soul as we will ever get. (She tells it like it is . . . Adegbalola
is one of the most electrifying blues performers around . . . "
The Sacramento Blues Society
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" a vocal range that varies from the lubriciousness of Sarah Vaughn to the crisp
sonority of Nina Simone."
The Boston Phoenix
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"Adegbalola just keeps getting better and better as a songwriter . . . the songs can't
be pigeon-holed as women's songs -- they're people songs."
The Buffalo News
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