LYNWOOD SLIM& THE IGOR PRADO BAND "BRAZILAN KICKS" Source: Blues Revue Magazine Date: 02/2011 Writer: Eric Thom

There is a blues scene in Brazil that stretches across the South American giant. Harmonica masters Steve Guyger, Rick Estrin, Mark Hummel, Gary Smith, Mitch Kashmar, and R.J. Mischo have sojourned there on several occasions and have been backed by the São Paulo based Igor Prado Band. Lynwood Slim’s latest will definitely heighten domestic awareness of what Brazil has to offer in terms of blues bands. Fans of the California native’s career know Slim as an excellent harpist and one of the smoothest vocalists in the blues, a cool, confident, versatile crooner like Sugar Ray Norcia.

The epiphany here is the uncanny Igor Prado Band whose average age, when this was recorded, is 23: guitarist Prado, drummer Yuri Prado, acoustic bassist Rodrigo Mantovani, (alto, tenor, and baritone) saxophonist Denilson Martins, and guest pianist Donny Nichilo. Three guitarists have astonished me in the last year: Matthew Stubbs (with Charlie Musselwhite), Matt Daniels of Mikey Jr. & the Stone Cold Blues, and Prado, but none more so than Prado. He plays a left-handed guitar, left handed, upside down and his electrifying style, filled with sizzling solos and deft, expansive chords, reveals an encyclopedic knowledge that belies his age. The predominant moods are jump blues and jazz with several nods to Chicago blues (Little Walter’s “Little Girl” and two Walter-esque originals, “Maybe Someday” and “Going To Mona Lisa’s,” an instrumental).