“I think music is a great leveller. A great unifier. A great healer. It’s a uniquely human thing, that demonstrably improves our lives. There are some unfortunate examples where music, politics and hate merge together that sadden me: when music becomes wrongly or unnecessarily associated with a certain mindset.”

Jump 66: Let The Good Times Roll

Every Dog Has Its Day (2026), the new album from Jump 66, sees the band's specially concocted brew of jump blues, vintage soul, hard R&B, and the occasional Jamaican beat, distilled to full potency. The dozen tracks are electric and eclectic, shifting gears from song to song like a long haul driver in and out of a traffic jam. Even when they get heavy, there's still more than a hint of bounce to keep things moving. When Rhod Davis and bassist Paul King started the band in 2008, they were playing a mix of Chicago blues and jump blues, although they leaned into the jump side a lot more. They changed the lineup around a few times, but about three years ago, when lead singer Kis (Paul Kissaun) and drummer Gaz (Richardson) joined, was when they really found their sound. Rounded out by Pete Saunders on keyboards (ex-Dexy's Midnight Runners) and Andy Burns on sax, Jump 66 locks into that magical space where things are tight and loose all at once and the grooves are never ending.

(Photo: Jump 66)

One lesson this album teaches is to expect the unexpected, as a healthy dose of originals nestle comfortably amidst a range of covers they make all their own. Blind Willie McTell's "Ticket Agent Blues" finds new life with a beat that's almost dancehall, and Albert King's classic "Let's Have A Natural Ball" turns into an early rock and roll horn fest that wouldn't be out of place on a Duane Eddy album in 1960. Even current artists like John Nemeth fall under the band's microscope, as "If It Ain't Broke" gets beautifully retooled with a vibe that recalls vintage Gamble & Huff Philly Soul. On the originals side, songs like "Thinking and Drinking," "Out Of Sight" and the title track all sound as if they could have been written at any time since the late 1940s and still work perfectly when they hit 21st century ears. Ultimately, Jump 66's timeless grooves and fine-tuned arrangements make Every Dog Has Its Day a ride worth taking time and time again.

Interview by Michael Limnios                  Special Thanks: Larry Kay (Night Train PR)

How has the music influenced your views of the world? Why is it important to preserve and spread the blues?

Paul: Wow that’s a big question. Music in general has influenced my world view profoundly. Blues and all its descendants are at the heart of that. Personally, music is my refuge, a place free from worry and responsibility. That’s precious. It’s where I can be creative for my own pleasure. Listening to and making music brings me happiness. It’s a pompous thing to say, but it has to be one of the greatest expressions of humanity. And it knows no borders. Go to any gig, club, festival, party, and it’s obvious how music gives people identity, community, joy, relief. Live music is the best for all of those – but it isn’t supported enough. Music of all types has political power too. That can be divisive in the wrong situation, but when it’s used for good, it’s really powerful.

My own musical journey has been endlessly rewarding. First cassette album I bought was Rock Around the Clock (followed by Regatta Da Blanc). I caught the very tail end of punk, then fell for 80s ska in a big way. For years I was into new-wave synth music, but then found Psychobilly. That probably had the biggest influence on me, introducing me to more rock and roll, jump jive and blues / RnB. I lapped up indie rock and grunge in the 90s, became obsessed with experimental electronica and post rock… before a cameo appearance on stage at my own wedding convinced me I needed to find music to play: that’s when I started my journey into the blues in a big way.

Blues is crucial because its one of the foundation stones of popular music. As a listener, or as a performer, it’s the doorway to better appreciation and better performance of so many styles. I think too many people think of blues as a niche, and think only of guitar-based blues rock. They don’t realise how immediate, how familiar, how joyous and free good blues is, and how it can lift your soul. When non-blues fans hear Jump 66 and ask us ‘What IS this music, I love it!’ I know that’s true.

Rhod: Like most guitarists of my age I was exposed to ‘70s interpretations of the Blues (in my case the UK’s Dr Feelgood and Nine Below Zero along with the Allman Brothers and others from the USA) before tracking right back to the original sources. The British Blues Boom of the 60s and the UK’s PubRock movement of the 70s (where American music was respectfully repackaged in a very ‘British’ style) clearly illustrated how interconnected the world was. The very fact that Jump Blues is huge in Scandinavia & Germany is testament to the fact that music transcends boundaries. I can’t think of anything else from the first part of the 20thCentury that remains so cool, exciting and holds its own in today’s chaotic busy technological world as Blues music. Preserving Blues is like preserving an old castle or building – its history for god’s sake!

[Photo: Jump 66, fronted by ex-Flying Picket Paul Kissaun, alongside jazz-drumming legend Gaz Richardson, Pete Saunders on keys (Dexy's Midnight Runners & The Jive Aces), Andy Burns (tenor sax), and founder members Rhod Davies (guitar) and Paul King (double bass)]

How do you describe the band's sound, music philosophy and songbook? What is the story behind the band's name?

Paul: Oh boy. We discuss this question a lot in the band, and we all have slightly different takes. Rhod and I tend to take the lead on the overall direction of the band, though we’re pretty democratic as a rule and try to balance everyone’s tastes. Whatever it is, it represents a big chapter in my personal musical journey. When I first joined the band I’d been searching for something new & double-bass friendly for a while. I was a bit tired of playing predictable Jump-Jive and Rock n Roll music that all followed the same pattern. Rhod was trying to put together something mixing Chicago and West Coast sounds, but I had no idea what West Coast blues was. He sent me a mix tape packed with stuff I’d never heard and it blew my mind. It was blues but not as I knew it – sophisticated, swinging, and hot as hell. I presumed it was all from the 1960s and couldn’t believe it when he said it was all much more recent. He’d introduced me to a whole new world of Jump Blues that seemed like it had everything I was looking for. Hollywood Fats, Junior Watson, Lynwood Slim. Their predecessors – James Cotton, Roy Brown, Big Jay McNeely. And T-Bone.

I’ve never looked back, and it’s opened the door to so many more musical treasures from all over the world. So for me, West Coast & Jump Blues have always been the core of our sound. But as we grew and experimented and the line-up evolved, we branched out, first trying covers, then writing originals that drew on much wider influences. Rhod and I both have a love of Ska and Rocksteady – it’s so easy to trace their rhythms back to Rosco Gordon, even Jimmy Reed, and the early Jamaican RnB pioneers like Laurel Aitken. We love to sprinkle a bit of that vibe into the mix. I love anything that plays with blues forms a bit, introduces unusual chord patterns and arrangements to keep it interesting. So we borrow heavily from 60’s RnB, Soul, Funk and Blues Shouters: Wee Willie Littlefield, Wille Cobbs, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Nappy Brown, Ray Charles. Then there’s the soul: I’ve been a huge fan of the UK’s James Hunter since the 1980s; Rhod and I both love John Nemeth’s Memphis-soul leanings; and more recently we’ve enjoyed the Sam Cooke vibes of the Souldie and Neo-Soul revivals (the Daptone label and bands like the Sinseers, Durand Jones, the Teskey Brothers). Kis brought a new passion for classic soul when he joined … and so we’ve naturally started absorbing a bit of that sound too.

In a nutshell, we play a kaleidoscope of blues-related, retro feel-good music. It makes some venues unsure how to label us, but our special brew always lights up the house! The name is easy – we’re a Jump Blues band. We’ve had Tommy Scott’s ‘Jumping From 6 to 6’ in our set since the start (in a Colin James / Big Sandy style). When we were looking for a name, our drummer at the time (Gerry Barte), suggested that song title, then cut it down a bit when we said it was too long. It’s condemned us to repeatedly being referred to as ‘Route 66’, but you can’t win ‘em all, eh?

“The most important thing for me is to have fun whilst aiming to present the very best product you possibly can in order to leave a ‘quality’ footprint on this planet.” (Photo: Rhod Davis)

When did the idea of "Jump 66" come about? How does your hometown affect your music?

Rhod: I found an old cassette which was a live recording of a Mighty Flyers with Junior Watson gig at The Sir George Robey in London gig (I’d taped it straight off the radio a few years earlier) and I played it to death. I was also listening to lots of Hollywood Fats too so over Christmas 2009 (?) I emailed Dave Dix, a great harp player I’d been in a Blues Rock band with some years previously asking him if he wanted to put together a pure West Coast style Jump Blues band. I wasn’t aware at the time, of anyone else playing this stuff in ‘my hometown’ but pretty soon I found some like-minded guys and that’s when I met Paul – I was adamant that we needed a double bass player. London was (and still is) awash with Blues Rock bands and I wanted to do something different. London certainly affects how I write and how I interpret other people’s Blues and I think I probably write like someone from the UK...and someone of my age who lived through the 70s pre-Punk where Blues and Soul was stripped back and forged into 3 minute hard-hitting, energetic songs.

Are there any memories from gigs, jams, open acts and studio sessions which you’d like to share with us?

Paul: My son plays piano. When he was eight, he’d learned his first blues tune. We played a local outdoor festival and he joined us on stage in front of a big crowd. He nailed it. So proud.

Playing at 4am at a ‘secret venue’ at the legendary Glastonbury Festival will be hard to forget. There were rock stars in the audience, and a totally wild atmosphere. That was our most Rock and Roll moment.

We played a festival in a UK town called Frome a few years back. One of my favourite 80’s bands came from there, led by legendary psychobilly bassist Steve Whitehouse. Mid-set I made a bit of a tongue-in-cheek speech about being on a pilgrimage to the town, and asked the crowd if any of them knew who Steve Whitehouse was because he was one of the main reasons I was up there playing double bass. There was a row of people at the front dressed as a Star Wars stormtroopers (family festival fun…). One took off his mask and looked straight at me. It was Steve. He was real friendly and chatted for ages afterwards about double basses mainly.

Rhod: Glastonbury Festival was amazing for us and proof that we could punch above our weight but I suppose the one abiding memory where I felt really proud was when we played at South London’s Hollywood Boogie in Penge. At one point in ‘Butterside Down’ (an original of mine) I looked out onto the floor where the whole audience were all formation dancing to it...that really made me smile. Our recent recording sessions have been really fun and working with the current Jump66 line-up is so easy as everyone has an open mind, a great technical ability and a wealth of experience...bouncing  ideas off the other guys in the band is a real plus.

“Blues is crucial because it’s one of the foundation stones of popular music. As a listener, or as a performer, it’s the doorway to better appreciation and better performance of so many styles. I think too many people think of blues as a niche, and think only of guitar-based blues rock.” (Photo: Paul King)

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of music?

Paul: The gap between polished, homogenous, commercial pop and independent grass roots creativity is too big today. There are great bands struggling to be heard. To get a gig you need to have a social-media following, which means you need to be your own professional marketing team, and spend at least as much creative effort (or money) on social media as music. I miss tribes: music genres that foster cultural groups around them, kids with identities. They do still exist, I know, but they seem far more niche than they were last century. The masses have become homogenised.

Connected to that is music streaming. It’s had huge benefits for real music lovers (I have discovered and accumulated far more music than I could ever have through CDs and radio). But I think for the majority it just makes music disposable and funnels them all to listen to the same algorithm-curated playlists of singles. Bands like ours do have the opportunity to get our music out directly into the market place – but that market is completely flooded. We all know this.

Rhod: Apart from all the great music of the 70s I miss the British PubRock movement of the 70s & 80s where you could see live blues for free in a pub...and if you didn’t like the band you always could walk across town into another pub and see another blues band...at the time one never appreciated just how lucky we were as there was so many bands and venues in most of the major cities in the UK!. There was an incredible sense of grassroots excitement at that time...which ultimately paved the way for Punk and new Wave. Sadly, a lot of these iconic venues have closed (or been converted into flats by avaricious developers) and its much tougher for bands to get a start these days...the quick-fix generation (who years ago would have had the enthusiasm, the patience and the interest in listening to something that was new to them) now want covers or tribute bands and live music and live blues is struggling to keep it’s head above water. Technology is a real double-edged sword here as whilst AI certainly isn’t helping music - YouTube instruction videos are absolutely amazing!

What is the impact of music on the socio-cultural implications?  How do you want the music to affect people?

Paul: I think music is a great leveller. A great unifier. A great healer. It’s a uniquely human thing, that demonstrably improves our lives. There are some unfortunate examples where music, politics and hate merge together that sadden me: when music becomes wrongly or unnecessarily associated with a certain mindset. I’ve been in the thick of it in with the Skinhead, Rockabilly and Ska scenes. But at the same time there are far more examples where music has achieved great things by spreading a message, unifying people, and giving them happiness.

Rhod: Music reflects society & culture and this has been true of the Blues here in the UK. Blues influenced music made the charts here years ago and it doesn’t now and that fact clearly demonstrates the shift in attitude of the musical consumer which in turn reflects consumerism in all its forms – folk want easily accessible music, tv, news etc, etc...they don’t want to put the work into digging deeper into things that could reward them – they’ve been dumbed down and they’re proud of it! Perhaps there’ll be another Blues boom or revival but I doubt it? I want music to do more than act as mere audible wallpaper and whilst Jump66 aren’t  prophets or protestors it’s great when some kid comes up to us at the end of a gig and says “who did the original of that song?”...if they then go on line and discover Albert King, Little Wille John, Johnny Guitar Watson etc. our work here is done!

(Photo: Jump 66 explode onto stage with a feel-good mix of classic Rhythm & Blues, retro-Soul, jumping-Swing and joyous-Ska. A lively 6-piece with thumping double bass, honking sax and swirling keys, they've honed their performances over 15 years playing London's hottest venues)

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

Paul: It’s almost impossible to make a living playing at anything other than the highest level. On the flip side, playing in a band has to be one of the only hobbies you can get paid to do! Being in a band can make you surprisingly anti-social. An astonishing number of people don’t know what a double bass is. Just because someone likes the same music, doesn’t mean you’re going to agree on everything else.

Rhod: The most important thing for me is to have fun whilst aiming to present the very best product you possibly can in order to leave a ‘quality’ footprint on this planet. If the band is good and the songs are quality then the world can ‘take a hike’ if it’s not for them! In the past 15+ years of Jump 66 the best thing has been the camaraderie of gigging with the guys and the pride in putting on a show that’s better than the band on before you. It’s taken me a long time to learn some things but I do know what it takes to make us stand out from other bands.

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

Paul: We try not to pigeon-hole ourselves, while acknowledging that labelling is a convenient filter for venues and promoters. We try to keep our signature sound eclectic enough to be interesting outside of the stereotyped ‘scenes’, but not so eclectic to be alienating. The record sleeve we used for the new album is intentionally not a conventional blues design. We chose an image that would stand out even on a Spotify thumbnail, and that wouldn’t instantly label us. It’s a fine balance because we don’t want to alienate the core blues fans either!

Rhod: When looking for gigs I’ve struggled to describe our genre to folk who are completely unaware of the Blues tradition but at the same time we’ve also found that audiences (including younger audiences) really  like what we serve up. Whilst our blend of Jump Blues, Soul and Jamaican influences -which I like to  call ‘Jumpsteady’-nonplusses some lazy promoters (who seem to need a hard & fast category to label us with) it works for us and blurring those lines between genres, and reinterpreting Blues from the 30s onwards is certainly one) of our strengths (there are so many great songs out there just waiting to be rediscovered and played live today – our Jamaican Dancehall take on Blind Willie McTell’s ‘Ticket Agent Blues’ and our Rocksteady version of Jimmy Reed’s ‘Honest I do’ illustrates this. We’re certainly not prepared to water-down our influences in order to appeal to the reality TV  generation...we’re finding fans out there.

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(Photo: Jump 66)