Dave Specter - Live at SPACE
- chicagoblueseditor
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Release date: June 6, 2025
Delmark Records
By: Mark Baier
With a career that’s spanned over four decades, Dave Specter has helped define Chicago’s most significant musical export with his graceful and poetic guitar style, bridging jazz with deep urban blues while adding soulful vocals and socially aware songwriting. Many of his recordings are instrumentals, elegant and memorable, emphasizing melodic movement and composition over gymnastic guitar playing. His instrumentals don’t want for lyrics, the music moves with a natural verse, his guitar playing having its own soothing rhyme and pace. It’s a guitar style that has a unique balance and form.
On his most recent Delmark release, his 13th for the label, Specter and his crack band (Brother John Kattke, Marty Binder and Rodrigo Mantovani) offer a set of tunes recorded at SPACE in Evanston IL which demonstrate why Dave Specter is among the pantheon of great modern blues musicians. Live At SPACE is a recording which captures Chicago’s finest blues musicians at one of Chicago’s best sounding venues.
SPACE in Evanston, is more an old fashioned night club than a traditional blues bar. Its high ceilings and sophisticated atmosphere harken back to an era when movies were in black and white and men wore ties when out on the town. The tasteful and debonair ambience makes it the consummate venue to capture Specter’s urbane performance. The recording quality is first class and could easily be mistaken for a studio proof rather than a live show. All the instruments are captured evenly in the mix and have a dynamic which is full of life.
Specter served as producer, with help from Delmark’s execs Julia Miller and Elbio Barilari. Live At Space was captured by recording engineer Freddie Breitberg, who along with Dave, mixed and mastered the project, creating one of the best sounding live performances in recent memory.
But it’s Specter’s guitar that takes center stage. His Fender Jazzmaster swings and stings with beautiful overtones that never need artificially effected gimmickry. It’s pure electric guitar tone, produced by exemplary technique and a straight forward approach. A Fender guitar, a cord and an amp are all Specter needs to coax growling blue notes and sweet delicate melodies. Though instrumentals are Specters forte´, his repertoire has always featured guest vocalists to add dimension to his recordings and this live release is no exception. Long time keyboard ace John Kattke, who has played with Dave for decades, takes the lead vocal on a handful of sides, including the biographical “Chicago Style.” The timely “March Through The Darkness,” with its tale of the struggles of inequity and discrimination in today’s complex world, is a modern R&B classic with its soaring B-3 whirls and smooth guitar lines.
Perhaps the most surprising vocal turns are by none-other than Dave himself. Not normally heralded as a lead singer, after hearing his moving and robust vocals on Otis Rush’s “Homework” and Allen Toussaint’s “On Your Way Down,” it’s clear that at this stage in his career, Specter is as comfortable behind a vocal mic as he is a guitar amplifier.
Standout selections include the dark instrumental “Rhumba & Tonic” and “Alley Walk” which features guitar tones that push the amplifier to the limit while maintaining a delicate control of melody. Dave also takes the lead on a swinging version of the old Grateful Dead chestnut “Deep Elem Blues” and he digs deep on Sonny Boy Williamson's “Bluebird Blues.” Specter’s own “Ponchatoula Way” might be the CD’s hidden gem, a rollicking and catchy number that could've been the marquee cut on a vintage Little Feat record; it’s a really memorable song that begs repeated plays.
In short, Live From SPACE is a standout recording which features one of Chicago's longtime blues stalwarts at the top of his game. His backing band of John Kattke (keys, vocals), Marty Binder (drums) and Rodrigo Mantovani (bass) are the best sidemen in town and they prove it on every cut. Everything about this release is first class and will define Dave Specter and Delmark Records for years to come.
For info, visit: https://delmark.com/2025/03/new-delmark-albums-coming-soon-from-tad-robinson-dave-specter-and-album-release-party-at-daves-space/
