Brian Setzer Orchestra's The Dirty Boogie

By Joseph Tuzzo

Best known for his work with The Stray Cats (the '80s band with enormous pompadours and a '50s rockabilly sound), accomplished guitarist/musician Brian Setzer has just released a swing album entitled The Dirty Boogie. Backed by his big band, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Setzer offers up a hodgepodge of rock 'n' roll, jazz, country, and every possible combination of these. The album rocks, swings, and does whatever it is that country albums do. If Bobby Darin had recorded an album with Marty McFly on that fateful day in 1955, it would have sounded like this.

The Dirty Boogie works best when it forgets to be a model for transgenerational and cross-genre modern music. Setzer's classic rockabilly fingerpicking makes for the most innovative moments on the record. In particular, "This Old House," the classic by Rosemary Clooney, contrasts country guitar with bluesy brass phrasing particularly well. And pieces with more standard swing arrangements, such as "Jump Jive An' Wail" (the Gap commercial song) and "As Long As I'm Still Singin'," allow room for Setzer's guitar talents to shine, though his voice can't match the intensity of Louis Prima or the suavity of Bobby Darin.

As for Setzer's own compositions, Stray Cats fans will want to hear the big band version of "Rock This Town." But most of the new tunes, while still strong rock 'n' roll songs, suffer from confused (and confusing) arrangements. Songs in which the orchestra merely ornaments Setzer's hyper yet dazzling guitar are successes. The title cut, for example, contains a great call and response section between vocal and guitar, with orchestral punctuation capping off each bar. Unfortunately, this happens rarely and the listener is often left with muddled progressions where Setzer's guitar competes with the horns for prominence. Less guitar and more careful arrangements would have benefitted these pieces.

Both elements appear on "Hollywood Nocturne," a sultry ballad of sleazy electric guitar, a lazy, sexy sax solo and lyrics straight out of Tony Bennett's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Other worthy points are Setzer's arrangements of Santo and Johnny's "Sleepwalker" and The Skyliners' "Since I Don't Have You," and No Doubt's Gwen Stefani's able vocals on "You're the Boss." Still, many of Setzer's originals on The Dirty Boogie leave you wishing Setzer made the big band a little smaller. (Interscope)

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