This album offers as fine a rendering of traditional Chicago R&B as you're likely to hear anywhere on the planet. Led by trumpet player
Don Tenuto
and sax man
Terry Ogolini
, with the larger-than-life
Ernie Peniston
handling most of the vocal chores, this band lays down one killer tune after another. R&B legend
Gene "Big Daddy" Barge
not only produced this gem, but also pitched in a couple of awesome vocals and some very sweet sax work. This is the band who backed
Larry "Big Twist" Nolan
during the heyday of
Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows
, and they're still the same flawless cats working a skin-tight, just right, R&B groove. It takes some moxie for a group to call themselves
the Chicago Rhythm & Blues Kings
, but this crew can walk their talk, especially with a CD that's surely as good as any traditional R&B album released in the '90s. ~ Philip Van Vleck