Artist:     Ted Hefko and The Thousandaires

Album:     Gas Station Guru

Label:     Onager Records

Release Date:     3.23.2018

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BUY PHYSICAL

This is the fourth album from this roots and rhythm aggregation of fourteen musicians (four of whom are guests) on select tracks led by saxophonist/guitarist Ted Hefko, who was formally trained in jazz from the University of New Orleans. Originally hailing from Wisconsin, Hefko has shuffled back and forth between New York and New Orleans before settling in the Crescent City. Playing in jazz jam bands, he’s seen the big stages opening for acts with the Funky Meters, Rebirth Brass Band, and the North Mississippi All-Stars, to name a few.

Mostly, Hefko has a knack for good songs, and he concocts a gumbo of sounds that draw from blues, R&B, jazz, and that swampy vibe that is NOLA. Hefko himself sings, plays tenor sax, clarinet and acoustic guitar, and his eight-piece band features two keyboardists, two background vocalists and a trumpet. Guitarist Mem Shannon guests on “Two Vices.” Pianist Sherman Bernard colors “Ten Dollar Hat” and two members of the Cajun band T’Canaille appear on “The Next Train.” Six of the nine tunes are originals, with covers of Billy Joe Shaver’s “Ride Me Down Easy,” the blues standard “Ain’t Gonna Give You None O’ My Jellyroll,” and Steve Goodman’s classic “City of New Orleans.”

As you may have gleaned already, the song titles give an indication of the interplay between the clean and dirty. Hefko’s songs, typified by the R&B rave-up “The Roofer” capture the vibrancy of New Orleans, a place filled with drifters, hustlers, and solid blue-collar types who epitomize the “work-hard- play hard” lifestyle. He’s got a good sense of humor too: “You only got one vice, make the second one me.”

Shaver’s tune, at ballad tempo, offers a break from the funky R&B-infused first three tracks. “The Next Train,” featuring some Cajun instrumentation, rolls along more as a piano-driven tune than as a Zydeco tune. “Ain’t Gonna Give You None O’ My Jellyroll” is rendered in vintage New Orleans fashion, with hints of Dixieland, as Hefko features his clarinet. The funky beat reemerges in “Ten Dollar Hat,” punctuated by short crisp horn bursts. “Stop Sayin’ Unless” is a horn drenched slow blues. Goodman’s iconic tune is slowed down to sound hymn-like before the electric guitar solo and the building enthusiasm of the chorus. Unlike the others, it lacks jazzy elements; it’s treated like a singalong. Hefko’s band is versatile, informal, joyous and purely NOLA.

—Jim Hynes