During a lengthy career, Hank Crawford probably recorded almost as many albums as his famous employer Ray Charles. The Memphis-born altoist was part of a dynasty of blues-wailing sax men that included Bird, Louis Jordan, Earl Bostic, Eddie Vinson, Lou Donaldson and Cannonball Adderley, and continues today with David Sanborn, all of whom possessed the ability to connect instantly with the listener. Crawford, along with David ‘Fathead’ Newman were rootsy saxophone players who were an integral ingredients of Ray Charles's band and could handle everything from R&B, through hard-bop to fatback funk. Performed by a small combo, the aptly titled Mr. Blues is mainly riff-based beer stained club blues (‘Smoky City’, ‘The Turfer’) ‘with its roots firmly in LA's Central Avenue, New Orleans' French Quarter and Beale Street in Memphis. Mr. Blues Plays Lady Soul is a truly wonderful homage to Aretha Franklin and captures Crawford at his magnificent best, wailing away gleefully in front of an all-star big band blowing heartedly on a book of 10 fine Arif Mardin arrangements. To put it mildly this is a tremendous album with not one below par moment, so it becomes almost impossible to pick out individual performances, nevertheless check out ‘Baby, I Love You’, ‘Lady Soul’, ‘Since You've Been Gone’ and ‘Going Down Slow’ as appetisers. Rarely have I come across a session where all involved are obviously enjoying the time of their life. One of this year's most welcome reissues – this record deserves to sell in its millions.