Description

Gary Clark Jr. LIVE is a collection of his brightest global exhibitions, but more valuably one of the richest live albums in recent decades. Clark has the incomprehensible ability to fuse genres, distort styles then blend them, all to serve up his own black fruit punch.

Catfish Blues alchemizes the mud of the Mississippi Delta with the hip-hop swagger of The Marcy Projects. He approaches the endangered art of improvisation with a subtlety and homage. Only Clark would add the bottom of the Jackson 5s Can You Feel It bass line to Aint Messin Around or reheat his Next Door Neighbor Blues with dashes of Sly Stone, Bo Diddley and RZA.

It aint clean eating, but still purist catnip. Masters like Miles Davis, Dr. Dre, John Coltrane and Gary Clark Jr. are essentially decades of musical evolution in the human form of genius. These days, they hatch maybe once per decade, but the moment they first greet your ears, youre reminded of who they are and were. They step on stage without a set list and tell complete strangers, Youre gonna know my name by the end of the night.