The Daily Freeman, May 14, 2010
by David Malachowski
Run-ins with blues giants in Greenwich Village inspired Big Joe Fitz path — in the '70s he played with Smokin' Sal Cafiero; and in the '80s he moved to the Hudson Valley and established a long-running show on WDST.
"This Is Big" shows the fruits of decades in the blues. Produced by Robert Bard, the album features the extraordinary Mark Dziuba on guitar, Tim Walen on drums, Bard on bass and Jumpin' Jack on piano.
From the jazzy blues of "Leap Of Faith" (which would make T-Bone Walker proud) Fitz gives Dziuba a lot of rope, and he uses it superbly with a melodic solo, while Fitz impassioned vocal hits hard.
Harlan Howard's "The Chokin' Kind" mines the same groove. Ray Charles' "Hard Times" plays like a late Saturday-night blues while Charles Brown's "I Cried Last Night" plays like is even later.
Fitz is simply overflowing with heart and soul and his bandmates play like brothers. Long a champion of others, this is his turn to shine — and that he does. Oh! He does.
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Roll Magazine, October, 2010
by Crispin Kott
I'd rather not know where Big Joe Fitz picked up his name, because somewhere in the middle of the first song on This is Big it hit like a ton of bricks. He'd already won me over even before his voice suddenly took on the power of a thousand soul singers, but then came that moment.
It's not worth trying to pinpoint where that moment came, because frankly the album is full of moments like that. And maybe there was even a moment like that way back somewhere in Fitz's own early years, when his smooth R&B croon suddenly rattled his very bones and scared the crap out of him.
Let's be clear lest anyone think otherwise: This is Big is a covers album, a dynamic soul-jazz triumph, but not one of original material. Even so, as Fitz and his band lay waste to more celebrated blue-eyed soul singers like Mick Hucknall (Simply Red), familiar tunes like "Hard Times" and "Imitation of Love" become very much their own.
"Get it While You Can," written by Jerry Ragovoy and Mort Shuman, sounds like it was found in a vault originally closed in 1967, Mark Dziuba's stunning guitar evoking Jimi Hendrix during those moments he settled back and proved why blistering solos were only part of his repertoire.
It's absurd to admit this, but I can't bring myself to look at the photos in the album sleeve, especially the one where Fitz is standing alongside his band with a friendly smile on his face and an angular beret atop his head. I just can't believe this voice comes out of that guy. It's my failing, I'll grant you, but it's not going to prevent me from continuing to spin this terrific album.
Read the review on their website.
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