MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: DAVID VEST - DAVID VEST

Here's another act appearing at my hometown festival this week, the beloved Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival. The festival can rightly brag about bringing in some the best, and some of the hottest acts on the continent each year, a mix that includes Sturgill Simpson, Mavis Staples and The Magpie Salute this time. But it never fails to promote Canadian talent too, and why not, when some of the best current blues and jazz players hail from all over this fair land. For example, the awesome piano player/performer David Vest is taking the stage Saturday.

Vest is Canadian by choice, which kinda makes me like him even more. He was born in Alabama way back in the 40's, but he's no heritage act. He's the 2018 Maple Blues Award winner for piano/keyboard player of the year, an award he's grabbed a few times. His most recent album, self-titled, shows why. It's filled with rollicking boogie and New Orleans-flavoured tunes, most by the man himself, along with a couple of tasty covers and a great instrumental around the old country hit Gotta Travel On.

Vest has a easy-going feel, with a good-time mood to most of the material, but he and the band can toughen it up when needed too. Renoviction Man is old-school nasty and deep, with sharp acoustic bass from Ryan Tandy. And he really brings the blues up-to-date with the excellent lyric in Decolonize Yourself, a little social activism for the mix. Lomax, the album closer, is a mood piece, piano only, a sad torch tale that shows another side to Vest's talents.

Check out this unique Canadian talent at the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival Saturday, Sept. 15, 9 o'clock at the Cox and Palmer Blues Court, along with the Kendra Gale Band, Buck Tingley and Ross Neilsen.