Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Dave Weld & the Imperial Flames: Burnin’ Love

Dave Weld & the Imperial Flames: Burnin’ Love

By Nic Jones
October 16, 2010
View read count

Dave Weld & the Imperial Flames: Burnin’ Love

Dave Weld has the blues, which means he stands out from a lot of the today's practitioners, who regard it as an excuse for guitar overkill. In the past, he's played gigs with

J.B. Hutto

b.1926

" data-original-title="" title="">J.B. Hutto, which puts the seal on it, because Weld's blues are as heartfelt and pure as that slide maestro's.

Consequently, he's not capable of turning out anything contrived. The jangling rhythm guitar on "She's Mine" is life-affirming and, while Weld perhaps lacks some of the vocal weight of his forebears, it's also clear that he means what he sings. When he solos, he does so with a telling appreciation of economy that puts a lot of his contemporaries to shame.

The romp that is "Ed's Boogie" has

Khalil Shaheed

trumpet
1949 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">Khalil Shaheed on vocal and guitar, his presence cementing the Hutto connection. Both he and Weld take guitar solos—Weld taking the single-string option, while Lil' Ed's slide solo teeters on the very brink of the histrionic, before withdrawing back into more telling musical territory.

"Ramblin" is, at the same time, clean and dirty, with Weld bemoaning the cost of living in Chicago in a fashion rife with precedents. Tenor saxophonist Abb Locke delivers a solo with a personal tone: an amalgam of the uptown and the greasy, calling no one to mind so readily as

Stanley Turrentine

saxophone, tenor
1934 - 2000

" data-original-title="" title="">Stanley Turrentine.

Weld claims that Monica Myhre can sing her butt off in the liner notes, and she proves it on "Listen To Mama," which is as greasy as anything here. Myhre's voice has a telling element of sass, and it's clear she knows enough about the blues to realize it's about a whole lot more than declaiming. She doesn't have any of those irritating little affectations either, which ensures she gets the message across. Locke and Weld also contribute solos for good measure, and the resulting five minutes just wouldn't be enough if this band didn't know so much about economy.

"I Got Mad" addresses one of the perennial battles between the sexes, but Weld's a practitioner skilled enough to make something out of such a hackneyed theme. He and his band hit the spot—which, on the basis of Burnin' Love, is second nature to them.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Sweet Shiny Brown Eyes; Ramblin'; Burnin' Love; I Got Mad; She's Mine; Talk Dirty; Donnie Lee; Ed's Boogie; Peace Of Mind; Listen To Mama; All Of These Things; Things Are So Slow; She's Lyin.'

Personnel

Dave Weld & the Imperial Flames

Dave Weld: vocals, guitar; Abb Locke: tenor sax; Harry Yaseen: piano; Dave Kaye: bass; Jeff Taylor: drums, vocal (4, 11) backing vocals. Monica Myhre: vocal (6, 10) backing vocals, tambourine; Bernard Reed: bass (4, 11); Herman Applewhite: bass (13). Lil' Ed Williams: rhythm guitar (1-4, 6-7, 10-12), vocal (8).

Album information

Title: Burnin’ Love | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Delmark Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Impromptu
< Previous

Duo Fusion
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.