CD Reviews

Ike & Tina Turner | Sing The Blues

Acrobat (2008)

By GUSTAVO TURNER | October 29, 2008

4.0 Stars

Aretha grew up in church, with a doting father guiding her prodigious talent, and ended up longing to be a classical pianist. Tina grew up on the road, with an abusive jerk svengali-ing the shit out of her, and ended up selling Pepsi with David Bowie and counting her millions in Switzerland. But around 1969–1971, when the recordings on this surprising reissue were released by the legendary Blue Thumb label, their paths did not look so divergent. Here’s Tina tackling Stax/Volt standards (along with Eddie Boyd and Chuck Willis tunes and the ancient blues repertory), and it’s amazing what her sweaty-sheets swagger can do to the familiar Memphis sound of the Queen and Otis. In Tina’s hands, “I’ve Been Loving You So Too Long” is an overheated tour de force arranged like Side 1 of Abbey Road. The band’s take on Jimmy Reed’s “Honest I Do” is some of the best black country music ever recorded — the kind of sound Mick Jagger would have given up a testicle to achieve on Exile on Main Street. It is now a commonplace (particularly after his death last year) to give Ike his musical due and try to rescue his artistry from the Larry Fishburne/Tim Meadows buffoonery engraved on most people’s perceptions; but the uncomfortable truth is that Tina did her best work during their troubled partnership. It’s unclear what love — or hate — has got to do with superior music, but chances are you’ll be spinning this long after you’ve forgotten your copy of “Private Dancer.”

Topics: CD Reviews , Celebrity News, Entertainment, Music Stars, More

| More

ARTICLES BY GUSTAVO TURNER

IAN KING | PANIC GRASS AND FEVER FEW | March 16, 2010
Just a few weeks after we reviewed the belated release of African Head Charge's latest, another, more recent gem from the always rewarding sonic laboratory of Adrian Sherwood arrives.

JOE CUBA | EL ALCALDE DEL BARRIO | March 09, 2010
Fania kicks off 2010 with what is sure to end up being one of the year's most important archival releases of Latin music.

ALEJANDRO FRANOV | DIGITARIA | March 03, 2010
Alejandro Franov is an Argentine multi-instrumentalist who's been involved in the more serious, and often experimental, side of the Buenos Aires music scene since he was a teen in the late 1980s.

THE SOULJAZZ ORCHESTRA | RISING SUN | February 23, 2010
We're living in the middle of a veritable renaissance of "Spiritual Jazz."

AFRICAN HEAD CHARGE | VISION OF PSYCHEDELIC AFRICA | February 09, 2010
UK dub guru Adrian Sherwood and adventurous percussionist Bonjo I have been releasing their sonic experiments as African Head Charge since the early 1980s.