One Fan at a Time

Berry Jones
Tonight
(Blue Floor Music, 2010)

Track List:
1. Bouffant Bang
2. Philly Night
3. You Don’t Know
4. Your Old Ways
5. Tonight
6. Baby Baby
7. Hold You
8. Work It Out
9. Barrow Bar Blues

‘Tonight’ is a fantastic concept album created by Jim Thomas (Philadelphia based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer) under the name Berry Jones which honors two of Thomas’ musical idols, Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones. With that in mind, it should be no surprise that this album is heavily rooted in the Motown sound with pop elements reminiscent of the late, great Michael Jackson all spanning several decades from the late ‘50s until present day. To say the least, Tonight is a very impressive throwback dance album.

From the moment the beat of “Bouffant Bang” hits you until the album wraps you’ll be grooving along while you listen to this album. “Philly Night” has an energy and feel to it that would make one believe it once was a great Philly summer anthem or maybe it’s destined to become one. Although “Your Old Ways” ultimately carries similarities to the other songs on the album there is something different about that track that I love. It could be the fact that I’m a sucker for semi-slow sad songs with an underlying message of hope. The album ends with “Barrow Bar Blues” a track with a tasteful display of anger and attitude.

Even though Tonight is a fun album and could possibly awaken the dancer in all of us it’s executed in such a serious and professional way that really makes this album work. I’ve listened to this album several times and it simply gets better and better with each listen. The Berry Jones website states, “we play dance music” – oh, yes they do!

Berry Jones ‘Tonight’ was created by Jim Thomas (piano, synthesizer, and Rhodes) with the help of: Nero Catalano (guitar), Jordan Block (bass), Gretchen Lohse (violin and viola), Ryan Williams (vocals), Naeemah Maddox (vocals), Alexander Cummings (saxophone), Shabree Johnson (trumpet), Stephen Williams (trombone), C.J. Gallo (bass), and Skip Diggerson (drums).

Here’s the opening track, “Bouffant Bang” from Berry Jones – ‘Tonight’:

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