Bruce Katz – Three Off the Ground (Hybrid-SACD, Audio Quest)

It is said that Bruce Katzen has one leg in jazz and the other in blues. But these are not the only styles that the organist and pianist has mastered; rock, soul and gospel are also part of his repertoire. All these influences can be heard on Three Feet Off the Ground, making the album rockier and more offensive than its predecessor Mississippi Moan. While Katz is an extremely talented pianist, his organ-playing here overshadows everything else. His earthy sound ranges between Jimmy Smith and Booker T. Jones; his Hammond B-3 dominates the album and is a reminder of how delightful this instrument is. Three Feet Off the Ground is a recommendation for everyone who likes blues, jazz and rock.

The blues label AudioQuest Music was founded in the late 1980s and is now operated by Valley Entertainment under the name Sledgehammer Blues. The mission of the responsible producer Joe Harley was to produce the best audiophile recordings at the cutting edge of technology. Analogue technology with tailor-made tube electronics was used for this and any noise suppression, compression, equalizer or limiter was avoided. The realistic, spontaneous sound of the recordings, which lacks any overproduction, is characteristic of the result. By inviting the most talented artists to record, AudioQuest Music’s tracks are still some of the most interesting blues recordings available on the audiophile market. Bernie Grundman re-digitized and remastered the analog tapes for the SACDs.