Jose Ramos And The No Way Jose Band swaggered into Smoken’ Joe’s last night and treated the audience to several jammed out renditions of R&B and blues classics. Ramos’s bag is to gather a handful of top players and let them go to town during the instrumental portions of his song selections. This made for a good batch of impressive music that played out around Ramos’s natural instinct as an entertainer and crooner.
From the start, they created a warm, amiable vibe. Ramos and No Way opened with Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Walk When I Walk,” a folksy blues number that let Ramos showcase his smooth honey flow vocal and the band’s ability to swiftly develop a gentle bopping groove.
Next up, the boys went into Bill Wither’s “Who Is He(And What Is He To You). Ramos finessed the lyrics around the groove with his artful ease. He’s just one of those singers who is cool in his ability to work his ever so smooth vocal. Saxophone player Lomar Brown blew his grooving line along the same path as Ramos’s delivery, making a double pleasing sense of movement in the song. This band really worked well together last night. Guitarist Noe Socha unleashed his own personal fire, playing, bending, sustaining notes with an energized flow. His phrase, here and on other numbers, couldn’t be traced to any particular genre. He was just on fire, and you couldn’t pigeonhole him into any particular style.
Ramos sang in a mellow, easeful style on B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone.” His swaying style made the song accessible while Socha’s bluesy guitar riffs created a spark beneath the mellow vibe. Socha eventually turned up the heat several degrees with a fiery phrase, one that zig zagged like lightning, beautifully played but with an intimation of danger in the tone. Horn man Lomar Brown was something else here too, his sax lines loaded with swinging energy.
Ramos and his No Way Jose boys slid into a Bobby Blue Bland number, “I Ain’t Doin’ Too Bad.” The individual parts of this song came together perfectly. Brown played spinning intervals of notes that danced merrily around the beat, sweet injections tugging at the ear with a warm chirpiness. Socha glided in with a zesty harmonica line, notes flying out at an accordion like tempo. Bass player Tim “Foxx” Gibson held up everything going on melodically while also moving it forward. He can make his bass lines wide enough for anything to cross over on top of them.
Bobby Womack’s “A Woman’s Gotta Have It” was another good R&B vehicle for Ramos to show off his smooth, soulful vocal flow and to do his charismatic, finesse the delivery thing. Socha’s phrasing created waves of guitar melody, a fluid motion of sound that curled into greater, larger waves. The young guitarist, currently studying at Berklee College Of Music in Boston, hails from Italy. Socha slammed out the rhythmic twists on the night’s hippest number, Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “A Real Mutha For Ya.”
Drummer Shawn Dustin’s solo was a snappy, rapid expansion of all of the tight, in the pocket playing he displayed throughout the night. Dustin is simply a very tasteful drummer, respectful to the material, never over or under playing the song, ever sensitive to what each song needed.
The ubiquitous Sir Cecil showed up at the end of the evening to stand in for Ramos on a couple of numbers. Sir Cecil’s “Georgia On My Mind” was a beautifully rendered ballad and his funked up version of “I Saw Her Standing There” certainly moved the audience’s feet. Yet, Ramos was back in command to close out with Albert King’s “Call My Job,” a humor laden song that everyone can relate to at one time or another, played with knobby rhythms under Ramos’s handsome vocal applications.
Jose Ramos is a natural entertainer who belongs in front of an audience. His vocal interpretations of blues and R&B standards was solid, and he brings a crack team of players along for the fun.
