CD review: Cow Bop’s “Route 66”

The California-based group Cow Bop touts itself as playing “the best in cowboy jazz” or “the best in Western bebop.”

But after listening to Cow Bop’s enjoyable new album, “Route 66,” I reckon the best way to describe the group as “channeling the spirit of Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing.” And that’s perfectly fine, too.

Cow Bop’s nucleus is founder and jazz guitarist Bruce Forman and singer Pinto Pammy. But the album features nearly a dozen other musicians on piano, clarinet, saxophone, cello and fiddle.

The link to Wills becomes apparent in the way Cow Bop plays. Pammy essentially plays the role of Tommy Duncan, Wills’ longtime lead singer, in laying down clear, torchy vocals to anchor songs. Above a solid groove, the rest of the musicians are allowed plenty of solos to show off their chops, stretching songs past the five-minute mark. Under Wills, it didn’t matter whether his musicians were playing jazz, blues, pop or country — as long as it sounded good. Cow Bop’s music doesn’t have anything resembling Wills’ spontaneous hollers, but otherwise, the same aesthetic applies.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find any material on the “Route 66” CD newer than 1950. Most come from the Great American Songbook, such as “Back in the Saddle Again,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” “When the Bloom is on the Sage,” “Mood Indigo” and, yes, “Route 66.” And at least two songs were recorded by Wills — “Time Changes Everything” and “Whoa Baby.”

Yet those long-familiar tunes retain freshness because of the sense those solos are being played on the fly. And those grooves help, too.

The only song resembling a misstep is “Route 66 (Road Version).” In it, you hear Forman and Pammy driving down the Mother Road while their version of Bobby Troup’s signature song plays in the background. Their chat-chat occasionally proves amusing, and their shout-outs to several landmarks on the road are welcome. But it’s not as interesting as the music their music.

Cow Bop is undertaking a Route 66 tour on May 17-26. Gig locations haven’t yet been announced; check here for updates.