Jad Tariq brings swing into the present

Album review

Precious Company

Jad Tariq

Release date: September 18, 2026
Label : MoMojo Records
Tracks: 10

Before you even put Precious Company on the turntable, its cover gives you a pretty good idea of what you’re about to hear. Jad Tariq loves the blues, swing and rhythm and blues of the 1940s and 1950s. You can see it, and you can hear it! On his second album, the Memphis-based singer and guitarist delivers ten original songs. He knows his classics, that much is clear, but he has stories of his own to tell and his own path to follow.

The cover has won us over, so onto the turntable it goes. September Moon draws us in straight away. I Want a Mean Woman and Room for Two keep the romance going, their tales of the heart carried by upright bass, piano and horns. The worlds of T-Bone Walker and Louis Jordan are never far away. James Hunter Six comes to mind too, of course. Still, Jad Tariq finds his own place, playing guitar in a way that gives the other musicians room to breathe. Poor Me picks up the pace for the dance floor. On Half Measures, Jad Tariq tells, with a sense of humour, the story of a friend who couldn’t afford to keep up with his partner’s lifestyle. Then Inflation’s High Blues puts money troubles back on the table. The sound may hark back to another era, but the subjects are very much of today.

As a singer, he moves from blues shouter to crooner. Around him, Kirk Smothers’s saxophones, Marc Franklin’s trumpet and Wyly Bigger’s piano matter just as much as the guitar solos. The album was recorded in Memphis, at the studio set up in Jad Tariq’s home, with the whole band playing together. These songs need momentum and room to breathe. The musicians play as one, and you can almost imagine yourself sitting at the bar, listening to them in an American blues club.

To My Used to Be closes the album with an acoustic waltz. After the jump blues and the horns, Jad Tariq moves closer to the country of Willie Nelson. Behind the guitarist who makes his band swing and gets your foot tapping is a songwriter who knows when to slow down and get to the heart of a song.

Precious Company is a welcome surprise, carried first and foremost by its songs rather than displays of technique. Jad Tariq has fine influences and an excellent band, but he doesn’t leave anyone else to do the work for him. When the record ends, that may be what makes you want to play it again: you get the feeling it will grow on you with every listen.