Jimmy Burns & Soul Message Band — Full Circle

Jimmy Burns is a Chicago bluesman with a secret prior life. Soul Message Band are four of the city’s coolest cats, whose burbling 400-pound enforcer is not so secret. Unite them, and their combined mysteries unlock over the course of 50 mentholated minutes.

Burns sits upon a small mountain of blues records, predominantly cut with the hometown Delmark label. That history kicked off in 1996, when the singing guitarist was already in his 50s. Leaving Here Walking, his very first long-play debut, was a straight-up blues album that reflected his Mississippi origins on the outskirts of Clarksdale. (Dublin, to be exact; also the birthplace of brother/Detroit bluesman/John Lee Hooker collaborator Eddie Burns as well as harpist Little Willy Foster.) Camouflaged among hard-nosed Delta stuff like “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and “Catfish Blues” were Jimmy’s originals, including the entrancing title track. Subsequent albums witnessed his flexibility to break off solo and acoustic (“All About My Woman”), partner with a bank of blastoff horns (“Long As You’re Mine”), hold church (“Wade in the Water”), harmonize a shot of street-corner doo-wop, and get the Rolling Stones to stomp. Not even “Cold As Ice”—yup, Foreigner’s 1977 rock blockbuster—was out of his reach. Burns is a man of many layers.

Plus there is that “secret” twist tied to Jimmy and, in turn, to this new record.

Here, the robust 82-year-old returns to square one, looping back to when he first broke into the business six decades ago. Truly coming Full Circle.

Burns, you see, used to be a soulman. Specifically, his business was Northern soul music—to differentiate from the Southern species classically associated with the likes of Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and James Carr. “Through All Your Faults” kicked off his run at fame in 1964. Soon, “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” and a real throat-scraper by the name of “I Tried” piled on, helping to cobble together a name for himself from a string of one-off 45-rpm singles. But that run only lasted for a brief while. By the early 1970s, domestic life came calling, consuming the devoted family man’s time at the expense of singing. An extended hiatus set in until that reemergence—and rebirth—in 1996 as a valid bluesman.

Now, not only does Full Circle stir personal nostalgia in Burns, which pours out in the liner notes as vivid remembrances: “World of Trouble,” for example, is tied to seeing his idol, Big Joe Turner, at Chicago’s Regal Theater in 1961; “I Really Love You” affiliates with fellow soulful Chicagoans, The Chi-Lites. The setlist goes one better by rewinding the clock on a handful of those very tracks he cut during the early glory years. A real treat, for sure. But was there a way to elevate such an already special session all the more?

Cue Soul Message Band.

With maestro Chris Foreman’s beastly Hammond B3 organ serving as their funky, heavyweight nucleus, setting fires that burn oh-so-cool comes naturally to the group. Tenor saxophone (Geof Bradfield) and guitar (Lee Rothenberg) bring differing textures and added soloing capacity. Greg Rockingham’s drums motor everything along. An alto saxophone (Greg Jung) and baritone saxophone (Steve Eisen) supplement here and there. Sometimes when the temperament turns soulful, Typhanie Monique’s backing vocals play off Jimmy’s lead by adding a little butter to his grit. And rest assured that the band is built upon a foundation of seasoned experience: The near-40-year lock between Foreman and Rockingham includes eight years of opening for Steely Dan in their past incarnation as the Deep Blue Organ Trio.

A pair of divergent instrumentals lets the Soul Message Band do their thing on their own. “Ain’t That Funk for You” recalls B3 jazz grooves of the 1960s, such as Shirley Scott’s “The Soul Is Willing,” Jimmy McGriff’s “All About My Girl,” Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis’ “In the Kitchen,” or Jimmy Smith’s “Back At the Chicken Shack.” Diametrically opposed is “Since I Fell For You,” the sax-led torch song.

It doesn’t take long, though, for the communal funk to hit the fan. Punctuated by emphatic yeahs and grunted unghs, Burns and company bust out Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street

Rhythm Band’s “Express Yourself” from 1970. It’s a call to the dance floor that twitched and jiggled its way up both the Pop and R&B charts that year. And then duked it out for 1971’s Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, which The Delfonics’ “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” ended coming away with. The perfect gatekeeper for Full Circle.

Still, the real déjà vu sets in as Burns freshly reactivates his personal vintage soul discography. “Give Her to Me” hasn’t lost an ounce of friskiness. Still bounding high and low, Jimmy’s voice yearns with enough conviction to get the horns blasting and that B3 organ to turn cartwheels in the sunbeams. The misty malaise of “It Use To Be,” a Jimmy original, updates to a snazzy, uptown guitar as well as the beefier Hammond organ in place of the Farfisa organ used in 1966. And good news: “I Really Love You” is back surging once again.

In spite of how bouncy those throwbacks are (including “Too Much Lovin’,” a finger popper from the “5” Royales), don’t get the impression Full Circle only swoons. No, the killjoy blues rears its head by stressing out the midnight slink through a laid-back “World of Trouble” as well as making Burns pose the sinking question of “Where Does That Leave Me?” through tear-stained eyes. Pillowy chords billowing from the B3 help soften the blow.

And listen to how “Rock Me Mama”— the nightlong carnal anthem associated with Muddy and B.B. but likewise pleaded by Jimi and Jimbo to Ike and Tina to Blue Cheer—chills out when swung by hepcats in cahoots with a soulman-turned-bluesman-turned-soulman-with-the-blues.

Label: Delmark

Release date: 9/19/25

Label website: Delmark Records

Reviewed by Dennis Rozanski