Mose Allison

Fri.-Sat., Nov. 5-6, 8 and 10 p.m., $25-$55, Roller's Flying Fish, 8142 Germantown Ave., 215-247-0707, emusictime.com.

by K. Ross Hoffman

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Published: Nov 3, 2010

[ jazz/blues ]

It's hard to imagine someone more fully steeped in roots musical traditions — he grew up picking out jukebox boogie-and-blues tunes by ear in the Mississippi Delta. But 82-year-old ivory- (and rib-) tickler Mose Allison is also a perennial noncomformist, forever straddling the blues-jazz divide without settling comfortably in any category, while his darkly witty lyrics and bone-dry, Beat-inflected delivery have made him a hipster hero to generations of musical outsiders: covered by The Who and The Clash, championed in song by the Pixies, with spiritual progeny including Tom Waits, Randy Newman and Nellie McKay. The Way of the World (Anti-), his first studio outing in 12 years, may find him wryly lamenting his rapid neuron decay, but he's still in razor-sharp, all-too-rare form.

Fri.-Sat., Nov. 5-6, 8 and 10 p.m., $25-$55, Roller's Flying Fish, 8142 Germantown Ave., 215-247-0707, emusictime.com.

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