Still active and releasing new material periodically is Pat Travers, a guitarist well covered here at Glory Daze. We look at his 2019 effort ‘Swing’ this time, and acknowledge it’s quite a bit different from his usual hard-rockin’ blues.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Pat Travers
ALBUM: Swing
LABEL: Purple Pyramid
SERIAL: CLO1312CD
YEAR: 2019
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Pat Travers – guitars, vocals * David Pastorius, Tim Franklin – bass * Eddie Metz, Tommy Craig – drums * Michael Franklin – melodica, piano * Brian Snapp – alto sax, baritone sax * Doug Spoonamore – tenor sax * Pat Gullota – trombone * Brian Santon – trumpet
TRACK LISTING: 01 Song Sing Sing * 02 Opus One * 03 Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby * 04 In The Mood * 05 Take The A Train * 06 Let The Good Times Roll * 07 Apple Honey * 08 Tenderly
RATING: 85/100
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Still active and releasing new material periodically is Pat Travers, a guitarist who has been well covered here at Glory Daze over the years. We look at his 2019 effort ‘Swing’ this time, and acknowledge it’s quite a bit different from his usual hard-rockin’ blues. On this latest 8 tracker, Travers covers ground that Pat Boone did on his groundbreaking 1997 CD ‘In A Metal Mood’.
On that album, Boone delivered big band/swing versions of many of the standard-bearer songs of the rock/metal movement over the decades. Our review of that album is tagged below (Pat Boone). On this album however, Travers goes the other way, playing old big band standards from the 40’s and 50’s and applying a hard rock sheen to them, or at least interpreting them in a modern context.
The Songs
The most famous and best-remembered track here is the Glenn Miller chestnut ‘In The Mood’, a World War II standard from the jazz era. What else have we got? We get the well-heeled Duke Ellington ‘Take The A Train’, Benny Goodman‘s ‘Sing Sing Sing’ which sounds great when Pat let’s loose his guitar solos behind Tommy Craig’s rumbling drum work.
Then there’s Woody Herman‘s Orchestra and’ Apple Honey’, and the slinky black cat cool of Louis Jordan‘s’ Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby’. Jordan also provides ‘Let The Good Times Roll’, Pat putting his own modern signature on top of it. The album concludes with the lovely evocative ‘Tenderly’, a cover from the Chet Baker Quartet.
In Summary
All of these original songs incidentally can be found on YouTube. ‘Swing’ is an interesting exercise, not the usual fare you’d expect from Travers, but the attention to detail is very good, and the tribute to all those artists who came before is an honorable one. For 30 minutes it’s light on quantity, but Travers has got tons of music in the locker, so do some more digging. You’ll be there awhile.
Pat Travers on Video
In The Mood (Glenn Miller)
Click to go to YTM album page.
