Jon Cleary is a singer and pianist from rural Kent who relocated to New Orleans at the age of 17 and ended up becoming one of the finest exponents of that city’s myriad musical forms. For many Americans, watching this white Englishman ripping up the music of Professor Longhair and James Booker live is like watching a dog walk on its hind legs. And, rather like a dog walking on its hind legs, it’s a less impressive feat on record. Cleary is a walking inventory of N’Awlins piano – boogie-woogie, junker’s blues and other components of that “Spanish tinge” – but his own original songs superimpose other genres on to that basic 3/3/2 pulse, sometimes overpowering the Crescent City flavour. Pump It Up sounds like a hamfisted 2Tone track, while the socially conscious soul anthem Brother I’m Hungry ends up sounding like a Flight of the Concords parody. Still, the musicianship here, including horn charts by Allen Toussaint, is immensely impressive.
