Omar Coleman & Igor Prado

OLD, NEW, FUNKY & BLUE isn’t the first time Omar Coleman and Igor Prado have demonstrated that when music brings kindred souls together, it can’t be constrained by national, geographic or even musical
borders. But this release presents a fully realized partnership, pushing each other to noteworthy heights.

Coleman (born 1973) has been known as Chicago’s funkiest blues harp player and vocalist for a couple decades, with Junior Wells as a primary inspiration. He heard and saw artists including Bobby Rush perform at his mother’s west side club at Madison Laramie and became aware of the local harp legends. He was a barber practicing harp in his shop when customers from the blues community recommended he go to jams. That and some early work with John Primer launched him on his way. His recording debut came in 2005 as part of Severn Records’ Chicago Blues harp project DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH. Since then he has done five albums, most recently 2024 STRANGE TIMES (Color Red). His recordings have featured a heavy dose of originals, an appreciation of both traditional and contemporary sounds, and a heady blend of blues, funk, soul and gospel. As Coleman says “it’s all blues-based.” It’s made him an international fixture.

Self-taught Brazilian southpaw guitarist Igor Prado (b. 1982) has also established himself (and his band featuring drummer and brother Yuri, a year younger) worldwide as a top echelon blues-rooted guitarist with an old soul and a broad palette. Igor and Yuri have generated a hefty catalog of recordings loaded with illustrious guests, and logged countless miles.
Igor’s highest profile in the U.S. came in 2015 with a star-studded collection of Brazilian recordings released as WAY DOWN SOUTH on Delta Groove, which climbed to the top of the Living Blues radio charts and earned Igor a Blues Music Award nomination. (Delta Groove had also released a CD of Lynwood Slim with Igor and band in 2010.) One of those guests on WAY DOWN SOUTH was Omar Coleman.

Ten years later, here we are again with a complete Made In Brazil album from the alliance. This is not an album of shuffles and “lumps” (think Jimmy Reed). It’s more a record full of funky, infectiously danceable grooves that make the listener want to, as guitarist Melvin Sparks put it, “boogaloo all night long.” The grooves range from slinky to greasy and grinding, with harp playing blues and soul singers Wells, Bobby Rush, Syl
Johnson and Memphis’ Hi Records as key underpinnings along with the individual touches of the participants. All are slathered with loads of piledriving Prado blues guitar licks; one can hear echoes of Albert King (Cut You Loose), Albert Collins (Answer Your Phone) and Ike Turner’s maniacal whammy bar assaults (from the first lick). Igor too has always had funk to spare, as he has showed us partly through his three albums with Austrian organist Raphael Wressnig.

On OLD, NEW, FUNKY & BLUE, the core band is Igor, Yuri and bassist Ted Furtado (a Gospel Black Legend in Brazil). Igor’s ever-present blues shadings shouldn’t overshadow his role in service to the songs throughout. Horns and keyboards augment the quartet on many songs, and Eduardo Belloni joins Igor on acoustic guitar for two stripped down tunes. Omar and Igor co-wrote six of the eleven songs. Coleman is the primary singer, but Igor’s background vocals are integral. Coleman lends his wailing harp to four songs. The originals Moving On To Better Days, Answer Your Phone, Cut You Loose and Don’t Give It Away are all scorchers; Brown Nosin’ Man is also an amusing, toe-tapping (at least) portrait. The opening tone-setter Leaving My No Good Woman epitomizes the elements of the album title.

It’s as if Willie Mitchell brought Syl to Hi to record with Ike Turner on guitar, which shows how seamlessly the new material and adaptations blend. The five covers come from Syl and Bobby. The acoustic tunes are a Syl ballad (I Let A Good Girl Go) and an original with a Howlin’ Wolf vamp vibe (Blue Line To Chicago). It’s easy to view this pairing as “Chicago meets Brazil,” but it also offers strong evocations of Memphis soul and the ‘50s St. Louis R&B scene.

2026 CHART UPDATE
 

The album's impact extended well beyond the recording studio. OLD, NEW, FUNKY & BLUE reached #3 on the Living Blues Radio Chart in both February and March 2026, ranking among the most-played blues albums on American radio for two consecutive months. This achievement further underscores the international appeal of the Coleman-Prado collaboration, bringing together the deep traditions of Chicago blues, the irresistible grooves of Memphis soul, and the unmistakable musical identity of Brazil.