The jazz guitarist who played in Chuck Mangione’s band and wrote the catchy theme songs for sitcoms Mike & Molly and Two and a Half Men returned in 2022 with Blooz, an instrumental jazz-blues album featuring some heavy hitters. Trumpeter Randy Brecker guests on the gospel-flecked “Preach,” and tenor saxman Tom Scott adds a decent dose of soul to “Fat Back.” Blues guitarist Robben Ford slays on “Robben’s Hood” -- a playful tune Geissman wrote specifically for Ford -- and Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith serve up tasty guitar solos on the smokin’ and aptly titled “One G and Two J’s.” Then there’s the percussion-driven, Latin-centric “Carlos en Siete" with pianist David Garfield, which departs from the other cuts here by reimagining how Carlos Santana might sound were he a bluesman.
Of course, Geissman doesn’t always need to call in the big names; he does just fine with his tight band of session players on cuts like “Side Hustle.” In fact, all of the musicians on Blooz deliver top-notch performances. As Kirk Silsbee writes in the entertaining liner notes about this album, which was recorded just after the COVID-19 shutdown ended: “The musicians [Geissman’s] assembled here play with the abandon of prisoners whose sentences have been commuted. … Remote Zoom jams during the shutdown had all the visceral satisfaction of a kiss through a screen door.”
For this record, Geissman played vintage instruments -- including a 1954 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, a 1958 Fender Esquire, a 1966 Epiphone Riviera and a 1981 Valley Arts Strat. But even if you don’t care about details like that, it’s hard not to get caught up in the pure joy the guitarist and his musical pals bring to these original compositions.
Track Listing:
1. Preach (with Randy Brecker)
2. Side Hustle
3. Carlos en Siete (with David Garfield)
4. Time Enough At Last
5. Fat Back (with Tom Scott)
6. Rage Cage
7. Robben’s Hood (with Robben Ford)
8. One G and Two J’s (with Josh Smith and Joe Bonamassa)
9. Stranger Danger
10. Whitewalls and Big Fins (with John Jorgenson)
11. This and That (with Tom Scott)
12. Sorry Not Sorry
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