There are advantages to finding innovative ways to use your organ, and no one knows that better than the Lifetime Grammy Achievement Award-winning musical pioneer and member of Booker T & The M.G.’s, Booker T. Jones. As front man and organist, Jones’ groundbreaking use of the Hammond B-3 organ, used mostly for church music, on the 1962 hit “Green Onions”, had a huge ripple effect on other rock and soul musicians and bands who adopted the style.

Backed here by the always awesome The Roots, Booker T. Jones kicks it off his latest album, The Road From Memphis, with “Walking Papers”, an aural account of Jones’ decision to leave his label Stax Records. It’s a jaunty saunter-walk melody that conjures the image of a man on his way leaving his past behind for something new, something more promising. The blues come swaggering in on “The Road From Memphis”, where Jones’ vocals erode any resistance a body might have had to bobbing back and forth to the groove. According to Jones himself, the concept for “Rent Party” came from parties that took place in Harlem in the 1940s and 50s whose hosts charged admission fees to guests so they could pay their rent. It’s a groovy tribute for sure. Another achievement is “Down In Memphis”, a blues jewel with a subtle but steady spine-thumping bass line.

In a bit of a tangent, Booker collaborates with Lou Reed on a track here called “The Bronx” – I didn’t see that one coming. Even weirder is the cover of Gnarls Barkely’s “Crazy” and a smoldering version of Lauryn Hill’s “Everything Is Everything”, Booker T. and the Roots’ interpretative power is stunning but the emphasis on rendition is still strange.

It is a brute irony that the composition of jazz and blues often seems to create even more bluesy feelings, as more often than not these acts richly deserve widespread attention. Unfortunately, most of these musicians find themselves and their players swimming upstream. Thankfully, Booker T. continues to be a monumental exception to that unjust trend.

4 / 5 bars