Burn Your Bridges: Tom Walbank and Arthur Migliazza, Self-Release
Bridges are not the only things that burn on this recording. It kinda starts off at full-stomp and just stays there. The intensity never wavers, not for a second. Yeah, it burns, it smokes, it rocks, it howls, it swings and best of all it was created by two major stalwarts of the blues that live right here in good ol' Tucson.
It's a largely improvised recording, one of those throw up a couple mikes so you can hear the room ambience, hit record, and GO. Sounds like a house party, just without the crowd noise.
Arthur Migliazza, who was a monster as a youngster, has developed into a major talent on the piano. He creates the foundation, with rhythm, bass and melody lines for harpist Tom Walbank, to skip over the top of, and to weave in and out of.
Epic talents, both of these guys, and this full-length is as loose as it is fun.
There are mostly instrumentals on this disk. Even on the vocal numbers there is only the sparest of lyrics to be found. Walbank is on growl and moan mode here, he even does some falsetto on one song.
The first track, "B Street" is a mid-tempo "Trouble In Mind" affair with great interplay between the two. Then it's off to Basie-land with a jazzy almost gospel-feeling piece, "Sassy Miss." Then there's an up tempo boogie until finally the record closes with some more up tempo boogie! Just kidding, the CD is actually quite diverse, it's just that it rocks, hard, pretty much all the way through.
The one slower track, "Sinkin' Down Blues," lets Migliazza throw in some Chicago "Last Night" Spann stylings. They then head on down to New Orleans for "Valley Fever" that has some great whoops by Walbank. At times it sounds like Migliazza must have an extra set of hands! Some tambourine thrown in for good measure, and you have a Fifties house rent party on a nice silver compact disc.
These guys are just making it up as they go along, and they do it so capably, that even during the most crazed parts they swoop and fly like one unit.
My assessment: It doesn't get any better, nor will you be able to get enough of this.
Check out Migliazza and Walbank on Saturday, January 2 at Club Congress. The duo is one of the Southern Arizona Blues Heritage Foundation Blues Challenge winners who will be competing on a national level at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in late January.
