Corky Siegel decided to return to solo recording in the early '90s, prompted by a few reunion concerts with his old partner, Jim Schwall. Instead of taking the easy way out and running through a few standards predictably, Siegel came up with the Chamber Blues project. As the title suggests, Chamber Blues fuses blues with classical music and blues. Specifically, it features a string quartet, Siegel on piano and harmonica, and a tabla player. It certainly sounds intriguing on paper, but it never quite gels, since it's always possible to visualize the scaffolding that supports the music. Still, Siegel proves himself to be more ambitious than the average blues musician, and more adventurous blues listeners may find this worth exploring at least once.
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