This album doesn’t warm you up ... it FIRES you up! Ross possesses a distinctive voice you remember long after the song has ended; penetrating your soul with an expressive style, driven with passion and a sense of charisma. So much of the retro-swing craze is defined by its dynamic performance aesthetic; and this live gig album makes sense in ways that a studio can’t capture. This “Live from Chicago” Mighty Blue Kings album is lusty and athletic; a vocally dominant, more jazzed-based Chicago sound. Ross Bon, an excellent blues-harp player (who contributed to a 1996 Willie Smith album) fronts his band with decisive, adult vocals and a watch-me-work-people onstage attitude. He pulls it off! The audience contributes almost as much on “Buzz, Buzz, Buzz” as the band. “Manic Depression” has an inclusive, big-band feel, while the clarinet moments on “Big Mamou” round off a boisterous valentine to rock and roll that could have topped charts in the 1960’s. “Live From Chicago” featuring cuts from studio releases “Meet Me In Uptown” and “Come One, Come All” is a timely and intelligent move in the timely and intelligent career of the Kings, who are competent and savvy enough to outlast the bangles of the fad and ride the rails wherever it goes from here.