The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Joint’s still jumping after 50 years
The faces in Roomful of Blues may have changed some over the past five decades, but the music always cooks.
So if you haven’t seen the Rhode Island-based jump blues institution in awhile and you go to see them Friday at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, you may or may not recognize everyone in the band. But don’t expect just to sit still and listen. This is dancing music.
You might say Roomful has been around the block a few times. But the ensemble, which has been together almost as long as some of the vintage blues it celebrates — going on 51 years — keeps churning out big, room-filling blues.
Touring constantly in support of its 2013 live album, “45 LIVE,” the band once was one of the frequent staples at Toad’s Place in New Haven, among other venues. Now an eight-piece band, horndriven as always, ROB is led these days by guitarist Chris Vachon and sax player Rich Lataille, who is the only remaining member of the band who goes back as far as 1970. Roomful has had more than 50 members over the years.
Vachon has been in the band since 1990, ably filling the role once played by better-known blues guitar superstars Ronnie Earl and Duke Robillard, who founded the band with former pianist Al Copley in Westerly, R.I. Phil Pemberton has been Roomful’s vocalist since 2010, when he replaced Dave Howard.
Over the years, Roomful has won more awards than most people can count, including five Grammy Award nominations, seven Blues Music Awards and two selections as Best Blues Band in the DownBeat International Critics Poll.
The Kate, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. Friday, May 11, 8 p.m. $36-$32. 860-5100453, thekate.org