The assembled Club Quattro audience had turned up in anticipation of a night of raw blues, and wouldn't be disappointed. 
First up was Jungle Hop, who wasted no time whatsoever tearing straight into nuclear powered blues featuring some of the most controlled and yet out of control blues harp I've heard in a long time from Fumio Ishikawa. Right from the off we were treated to a blistering bass solo by Hojin Egawa, which the crowd seemed to really appreciate, and from then on the frenetic pace continued unabated, with liberal sprinklings of blues harp and more high profile and very tasty bass solos. Jungle Hop were obviously having a great time, and deviated only briefly from the power R&B menu to deliver a great tune evoking Talking heads at their most soulful. They played only a short set, but it was intense enough to leave both the band and the crowd breathless and eager for more. |
| More wasn't too long in coming, the stage set up being changed very rapidly, and in no time at all the Texas Eastside Kings were up to lay down a few introductory numbers, including "Let The Good Times Roll", which turned out to be a fairly prophetic title, as roll the good times certainly did, especially once Little Joe himself came on stage. And no, I am not going to refer to him as Marion in this review, even if that is his name. |
 With James Kuykendall and Wes Starr nailing down the rhythm section, there was a more than stable platform for Joe to cavort about as insanely as he pleased. And cavort he did. Seemingly able to change his guitar sound from a cacophony of screeches and wails to a mellow seventh chord in an instant, it was very obvious that he was simply enjoying himself to the full, much to the amused bewilderment of Connolly on the piano who appeared not to know what was coming next, one clue from Joe being simply "you know you're getting an old one when your hear a B-flat", followed by, yes, you guessed it, a nice B-flat seventh chord. |
The first thing to note was his unorthodox playing style. Eschewing the use of a pick, not in itself extraordinary, he plays exclusively with his thumb, but holding on to the bottom of the guitar with the rest of his right hand as if his life depended on not losing possession of it. Mind you, stories abound of Little Joe having to hock his guitar on a regular basis, so maybe that's how he honed his technique. Anyway, there seemed to be no prearranged structure to this gig, and at the end of each number you could almost sense Nick Connolly's air of expectancy as he tried to anticipate Joe's next call (I'm going to G!!).  |
There were moments of hilarity too numerous to recall, but Little Joe enjoys his time on stage as much as any performer I have ever witnessed. Ending up in a complete tangle trying to remove his hat, he played the subsequent song with his guitar simply strung over his right shoulder, and upon trying to rectify this situation got his stage pass caught up in the guitar which led to a slightly weird space sounds improvisational passage, all accompanied, of course, by Joe's infectious manic grin.Any chance he got he was playing the guitar with his teeth, and although Jimi regularly did this with a pick in his mouth, I am at a loss as to explain how it was done here, there being no pick in evidence. 
But the thumb and teeth are not our hero's only tools of pluckage. Liberal use was also made of the top of his head, bum, belly and, er, other parts. Towards the end of the set he figured that the mic stand would make an ideal slide, but almost inevitably that also got entangled, and so the final song was performed with his guitar now functioning as an overly large pendant.
Oh, and I nearly forgot, just to ensure enough fun was had, Little Joe jumped up on the piano at one point, and played that with every part of his anatomy as well. But it sounded pretty good!! And as was to be expected, the hat was passed around at the end, with Joe claiming "I ain't got no money". |
| report by sean and photos by hanasan |
| photos : Little Joe Washington : part 1 | 2 / Jungle Hop |
 mag files : Little Joe Washington Can I play another song? It won't be a long one! : (05/06/16 @ Shibuya Club Quattro) : review by sean, photos by hanasanphoto report : (05/06/16 @ Shibuya Club Quattro) : photos by hanasan |
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The official site Little Joe Washngton unknown The Label Site http://www.bls-act.co.jp/ The latest album  "The Blues Reality" ( 国内盤 ) |
previous works "オリジナル・ヒューストン・ブルース・ギター・ブラスター" ( 国内盤 )
"Houston Guitar Blues" ( US import )
check the albums? |
 2005Can I play another song? It won't be a long one! : Little Joe Washington & The Eastside Kings with Jungle Hop(16th June. @ Shibuya Club Quattro)Stapling iit Together : Jack Johnson with G.Love & Special Sauce (2nd June. @ Tokyo Kokusai Forum)2004Not just along for The Ride : Los Lobos (7th Oct. @ Liquidroom Ebisu) |