Tad Robinson toasts new CD

Local soul and blues singer Tad Robinson, a five-time blues music awards nominee, threw a party Friday at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis to mark the release of his latest CD, "Back in Style."

I'd photographed Tad in February at a more intimate show at Eddy's Neighborhood Bar and Grill at Geist when the ensemble was just Tad and keyboardist Kevin Anker. But on this night, Tad had his full band -- including a two-piece horn section -- and they put on a spectacular show for the partygoers.

Lighting was not the greatest; I alternated between my Canon 50mm f/1.8 and Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, while using ISO levels of anywhere from 1600 to 2000 (with the "nifty-fifty") to 3200 to 6400 with the Tamron. Shutters ranged between 1/80 for the slow numbers to 1/250 when I used the 50mm. A noise-reduction filter in post-processing helped remove a lot of the noise.

But as it turned out, the limited illumination availed me to exploiting some dramatic lighting, especially for images I chose to copy as black-and-white conversions, as I hope you'll agree from the examples shown here. I also shot a 7+-minute video in HD during a blues number in which Tad did a short harp solo, and his guitarist, Paul Holdman, had a prolonged solo. Problem is ... the video is 2.44 GB, and blogger won't allow uploads of any single video exceeding 100 MB, so I can't include that in the post. But it was of very high quality (even better than these stills!)

To see a more complete gallery from the stills shoot, follow this link: Tad Robinson at the Jazz Kitchen.

Tad Robinson ... on the verge of releasing another new CD

On Saturday, Feb. 13, blues singer and harp player Tad Robinson performed along with keyboardist Kevin Anker at Eddy's Neighborhood Bar & Grill at Geist Reservoir on the Northeastside of Indianapolis.

Robinson, who this Friday begins a 10-day tour of Norway, will be throwing a party to mark the release of his new CD, "Back in Style" (on the Severn Records label), at the Jazz Kitchen in Broad Ripple on April 23. Before the Jazz Kitchen party, he'll be back in Indiana -- which he makes his home -- and play several times at Daddy Jack's and a few other places, including a March 18 date at the storied Slippery Noodle Inn, Indianapolis' premier blues venue.

Robinson's previous release, the 2007 "A New Point of View" (also on Severn Records), reached as high as #2 on the Living Blues charts in April and May of 2007 and finished the year ranked by Living Blues as the No. 11 blues album of the year. He is a multi-time recording artist and multi-time blues genre award nominee, including two 2005-06 nominations for the coveted W.C. Handy Blues Awards for album of the year ("Did You Ever Wonder") and male soul/blues vocalist of the year. If you weren't aware, the Handys are the premier annual awards of the genre.

He welcomed the opportunity to be photographed for the show at Eddy's, and this post includes a few images from the performance. A personal aside: I do believe he deserved better than the very tiny floor-level corner flanked by flat-screen TVs (both of which were on and showing the Olympics during the show) that Eddy's gave him for his set-up, but as the good-natured musician explained when asked about that, "Hey, it's a gig!"

Available lighting was abysmal; I tried three "fast" lenses -- two 2.8s and a 50mm 1.8 -- and still had to push the ISO to 6400. The featured image at top was shot with the "Nifty-Fifty" 1.8; the top three below were taken with my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8; the four closeups at the bottom with the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS. The IS came in handy; I pushed the shutter to 1/40 on a couple occasions.

To view a gallery of images from Robinson's show at Eddy's, follow this link to my online gallery: Tad Robinson.