SR5028: Celebrate the Journey   -- Erwin Helfer and the Chicago Boogie Ensemble

In early March 2020, The Sirens Records gathered some of Erwin Helfer's closest friends and musical collaborators to record a jam session. Through the years, the band members, John Brumbach, Davide Ilardi, Lou Marini, and Skinny Williams, developed and honed a magical musical comraderie with Erwin. All of them, accomplished musicians in their own right, shine even brighter when working with Erwin. They groove, they swing, and they show their love and admiration for this piano master. On this disc, Erwin will charm you with his distinctive blues and jazz piano style: creative, crafty, dexterous, and fun. This recording celebrates Erwin's lifetime achievements in Chicago boogie-woogie and blues piano as well as his upcoming 85th birthday in January 2021. This session captures the good time party atmosphere and, as you listen, you share in the celebration.

Press / Music CD Reviews

At 85 years old, Erwin Helfer remains the staunchest and most dedicated exponent of the venerable Chicago boogie-woogie piano tradition. Mentored by some of the greats including Cripple Clarence Lofton, Little Brother Montgomery, Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Walker, and Blind John Davis (as well as vocalist Estelle "Mama" Yancey, widow of the legendary Jimmy Yancey, with whom he worked for many years). Helfer carries the torch they handed down to him with unfailing elegance and grace, as well as a buoyant enthusiasm that might challenge that of a man 65 years his junior.

He's joined by some of the Windy City's most redoubtable sidemen, and the result is a characteristic Helfer excursion into a blues-enriched landscape of musical eloquence and playfully gritty uplift, deepened by a feel of hard-earned, sweet nostalgia. Offerings include three Helfer originals along with a few standards, as well as a casually hip remake of Sonny Rollins' Doxy. Tenor saxophonists Skinny Williams and John Brumbach aren't quite the bebop firebrands Rollins was in his prime, but he [sic] digs deeply into the bluesy heart of the song as Helfer, bassist Lou Marini, and drummer Davide Ilardi swing with low-key but unerringly focused ease.

Doxy sets the tone-this isn't a showcase for egotistical displays, but rather a celebration of musical blood-brotherhood. Songs like Down By the Riverside and Alexander's Ragtime Band, as traveled as they have been over the years by funny-hat pseudo- "Dixieland" abominations, are resurrected here and re-infused with their original, unselfconscious celebratory brio. Helfer's own creations, such as Pooch Piddle (on which the influence of New Orleans masters like Tuts Washington, Professor Longhair, and Archibald-whose work Helfer studied during his early tenure in the Crescent City-makes itself joyfully apparent) and the richly elegiac Day Dreaming invites us into the heart and soul of one of blues piano's most eloquent living practitioners-meaning that they also invite us to honor the spirits of the ancestors whose legacies and gifts Helfer celebrates every time he sits at the keyboard.

… Erwin Helfer at the piano in early March 2020 at age 84 - his keyboard touch, his economical phrasing, the whole feel of his music connect this white conservator of blues and older jazz styles with African American piano masters long gone. There aren't many left who do what Helfer does with such unshowy authority.

… Erwin Helfer doesn't carry his knowledge like a burden. He has some fun with it, as on a jam session with some bluesy buddies heard on his album "Celebrate The Journey."

… Erwin Helfer quoting there from Thelonious Monk's "In Walked Bud," just as he sneaks bits of the same composer's "Blue Monk" and "Misterioso" into other solos here. Monk tunes aren't exactly new music, but they're a little more modern than the pre-World War II styles the leader favors. He may be old school, but it's not like he lives in a cave. For Erwin Helfer, vintage piano dialects are living traditions, not museum exhibits. Sincere thanks to him for helping to keep those traditions alive and for passing that knowledge on.

Hear the full review at NPR

A beloved fixture in the Chicago blues and jazz community for the better part of seven decades, Erwin Helfer observed his 85th birthday in January, but kicked the celebration off in style in March 2020 with this magical CD - an all-instrumental jam session with several of his closest friends and longtime collaborators.

Recorded almost in concert to the coronavirus shutdown, this is Helfer's tenth release on The Sirens imprint in a career that began in 1957, when the Windy City native was living in New Orleans and produced Primitive Piano, an LP that featured the recently rediscovered Speckled Red, Big Easy keyboard innovator Billie Pierce and Doug Suggs in his only recordings. …

Helfer rose to prominence backing vocalist Estelle "Mama" Yancey and made his debut recordings in 1964 when he teamed with keyboard master Jimmy Walker on Rough and Ready: Boogie Woogie for Four Hands on Testament. A mentor to multiple generations of keyboard talents, he's also enjoyed stops at Big Bear, Flying Fish, SteepleChase and Red Beans, too. This disc is dedicated to Barrelhouse Chuck, one of his most famous students, guitarist Pete Crawford, his partner in Red Beans, and Max Dolins, father of Sirens owner Steven.

Erwin's backed here by John Brumbach and Skinny Williams on tenor sax, Lou Marini on bass and Davide Ilardi on drums - a lineup that played together on Tuesday nights for two years prior to COVID at the Hungry Brain, a popular club on the North Side of Chicago. This highly polished, but relaxed set features material from their regular set list.

The parallel tenors kick off a sweet take on Sonny Rollins' jazz classic, "Doxy," which swings from the opening bars, allowing the horns plenty of space to shine before yielding to Helfer for extended, two-hand-fisted solo with light touch that clearly demonstrates him to be at the top of his game. Brumbach and Williams trade leads and give way to a rhythm section break before the ensemble work together to close.

Helfer's sweet, deliberate attack turns Jimmy Witherspoon's familiar "Ain't Nobody's Business" into a delightful ballad to follow. Things heat up a little with individual horn and bass solos before Erwin lays down tasty runs to close. Then the traditional gospel number, "Down by the Riverside," gets full-on New Orleans second-line treatment before the keyboard master launches into his original, "Poodle Piddle," a dazzling minor-key pleaser executed with delicate, rapid-fire stride and barrelhouse attack on the 88s.

Two more numbers with Big Easy and Tin Pan Alley roots - "St. James Infirmary" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band" - feel brand new thanks to modern arrangement despite being first played more than a century ago. Erwin's well-modulated, minor-key break in the former breathes new emotion in the classic while the uptempo take on the latter will have you bopping, too.

Two more Helfer compositions - the unhurried "Big Joe," in which the horns lay down the groove and Erwin filling in with the melody, and "Day Dreaming," a tour-de-force solo effort on the keys -- close the action and leave you with the desire to hear more, more more despite its 49-minute run.

Celebrate the Journey truly is a party among friends with Erwin providing his bandmates all the space they need to demonstrate their immense talents, too. It's a treasure. Highly recommended for anyone with a love for classic, sophisticated stylings at the intersection of jazz and blues.

I just never know what the postbag will deliver when the time comes around for the next batch of review releases from Blues Matters. This month is no exception to the rule. I have never played anything by Erwin Helfer on my radio programme before however following the arrival of this, his 85th birthday celebration album, I will most certainly be doing so in the future. Surrounded by his fine ensemble of mates John Brumbach tenor sax, Skinny Williams tenor sax, Lou Marini bass and David Ilardi drums we are treated to a trip through some fine Jazz classics and three originals fronted up by Erwin's boogie woogie piano style. The whole thing works a treat. Who knows how many times Sonny Rollins Doxy has been covered let alone played and here it has the prime slot on this collection getting things off to a fine start before Ain't Nobody's Business ambles along. The latter is so laid back as to be almost horizontal but man is it smooth. It is a fabulous cut indeed and so redolent of a smoky club somewhere. Down By The Riverside swings us gently by the hand into Gospel territory and by this time you are a firm believer in this album. Pooch Piddle (don't ask me folks!) with fine interplay between sax and keys. A melancholy St James Infirmary follows before the pace quickens again on Alexander's Rag Time Band. I wonder what Irving Berlin would have thought of this interpretation? I don't doubt his feet would be tapping. Big Joe and Day Dreaming, two originals, close out this collection. Should you want an entry level experience to boogie woogie jazz piano then look no further.