Here and Now

Ike Turner was a musical giant who’s been largely excised from rock history because of his rather objectionable past personal habits (i.e., snorting Himalayan-sized mountains of blow and smacking around then-wife Tina). Of course, we live in a culture of forgiveness, so it was inevitable old Ike would rise again. Here and Now is his first record in two decades and despite the title, there’s little about it that sounds very here and now. In fact, its charm lies in the fact that its swaggering R&B groove sounds almost completely unaffected by the last 45 years of musical history. “Tore Up,” a rollicking slab of B.B. King–style classic blues, shows off Ike’s talent as both a bandleader and a knife-edged guitar player, while the down-and-dirty “Catfish Blues” finds him equally adept at roughing up some country blues. He’s also a helluva piano player (“Ike’s Theme”). But it’s a re-recording of his early rock’n’roll classic “Rocket 88” (which predated Elvis’ arrival by almost five years) that makes it shamefully apparent that Ike, at least as a musician, is a man overdue some respect.