Rent Party was one of the best British R’n’B/Jive act of the mid 80’s. Their singer, Jackson Sloan later moved on the jazz scene but resurfaced a couple of years ago with Oo-Bop-Sh’Bam, and proved he still had his warm voice. He’s now releasing an album under his own name featuring 12 original numbers. It’s rhythm’n’blues at its best, with a bit of boogie too and even a gospel. He’s backed by a terrific combo made of hot musicians namely Mike Thorne (Big Town Playboys), Richard Studholme (Blue Devils), Pete Pritchard (Flying Saucers, Scotty Moore and the list goes on…), Gunter Kurmayr (Ray Gelato) and Ray Gelato in person who also wrote the arrangements.
Do I really need to add something after that to convince you? Well I can say that the sax is juicy when it needs to be, mellow on the slow numbers and it screams and honks like no tomorrow when the tempo fastens. The whole album for me is one of Gelato’s finest performances ever. The guitar is gritty just like it needs to be and the rhythm section sets the perfect groove. And on top of all that, like a cherry on top of a giant cake, you have Jackson’s voice, a true lady’s trap. And when Gelato describes him in the liner notes like a “modern day Joe Turner and Wynonie Harris”, you just need to listen to the first few bars of the first song to fully agree with him.

Now the choice is yours: buy it or buy it!

Fred "Virgil" Turgis