Your Complete Guide to the Chicago Blues Scene
|
Your Complete Guide to the Chicago Blues Scene |
|
HOME ABOUT THE GUIDE ●bands ●radio shows ●record labels ● EVENTS NEWS FEATURES REVIEWS ●Live Shows CONTACT
|
The
Return of the European Blues Cruise
September 11-15, 2018
New
cruise line, new ship, same great blues!
Toronzo
Cannon & The Chicago Way, Carl Weathersby, Nora Jean Bruso, Liz
Mandeville, Wayne Baker Brooks, Rip Lee Pryor, Fabrizio Poggi,
Enrico Polverani
By
Glenn Noble
With a
year’s break since the last cruise, some big changes have been made
to the fourth ever European Blues Cruise. A new option was made
available to choose departure/arrival port, with departures from
either Genoa, Italy or the French cities of Nice and Marseille and
vice versa on return.
This year also saw a major transition to a new cruise line
operator in the shape of Italian-based cruise giant MSC Cruises, and
consequently the experience of a whole new, bigger, ship to play on!
Aptly named for a musical voyage, our ship
MSC Orchestra can
luxuriously accommodate up to some 3,200 passengers on its 13 decks,
each named after a musical instrument.
After boarding during the baking heat of a Provence afternoon, by 5 p.m. the Orchestra slipped away from the Marseille quayside and nosed into the inviting blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The pool deck was already filled with loungers and swimmers when the opening performance of the Blues Cruise hit the poolside stage with a bang. Big voiced chanteuse Nora Jean Bruso stepped up and took us on a blues voyage of her own, from Mississippi to Chicago. From the very start of Nora Jean’s set, the basking crowd were lured out of their loungers and swimmers climbed from the pool, and filled the dance floor, swinging to the hot vibe Nora Jean was putting out.
In an unusual supporting role, man of the moment Toronzo Cannon, acting this trip as musical director, briefly stepped forward to wield his signature “Chicago Way” guitar and add a few cutting licks. Handing over to the legendary Carl Weathersby to turn up the heat even higher, things got so hot in fact that Toronzo had to fan Carl with his trademark hat! Between Nora Jean’s big, operatic voice and her heartfelt delivery, plus Carl’s sizzling guitar, this was an outstanding opening show that really set the party off with style.
From a
Mississippi girl turned Chicago blues singer, we now turned to a
member of one of Chicago’s favourite blues dynasties,
Wayne Baker Brooks, son
of the late, great Lonnie Brooks.
In the glitzy, sparkling surroundings of the R32 Bar, which
was more reminiscent of a reborn Studio 54 in its disco heyday than
a blues joint, Wayne and the band did their very best to give us the
real Chicago club feel - and they succeeded!
Among some of the more familiar Chicago standards, Wayne paid
a rocking tribute to his father, a slice of real old school R’n’B
from his Guitar Junior days, “The Crawl”. In Wayne’s words, it was a
way of explaining “Where I’m from and where I’m at” introducing some
of his own more contemporary take on the blues. In any event,
whether old songs or new, it was more than enough to persuade the
audience to hit the dance floor and show their appreciation.
What a great opening day!
Day two
and the featured attraction was
Carl Weathersby,
occupying the grand space of the “Covent Garden Theatre”, an
imposing two story theatre style room.
Guitarist and singer, Carl has been a fixture on the Chicago
scene through his many years as guitarist for Billy Branch’s Sons of
Blues and subsequently his long running solo spots at the world
famous Kingston Mines. Carl’s style is easy, unhurried and fluid -
he has a way of creating space in a song to let the full expression
of the soul of the music grow.
An example; during “I’ll Play the Blues for You”, a string
broke. What might cramp another player’s style gave Carl freedom to
let his mellow vocal take over and dropping low and gentle, he drew
and teased the audience into focusing all their attention on each
note and phrase - -it
really felt like he was playing for each individual listener. So
when, with guitar string replaced, he dialed the intensity and
volume back up, it hit hard, letting loose a torrent of blues from
the low and middle range rather than screaming from the top frets.
Wonderful, awe-inspiring stuff - and it wasn’t only the
audience appreciating the artistry; I could see drummer
Pooky Styx exchanging
grins and headshakes of enjoyment with keyboard player
Luca Chiellini. Another
intense moment in Carl’s reading of “I’d Rather Go Blind” - epic,
funny and moving all at once - I’m sure there were few dry eyes in
the house as the crowd rose to their feet to acknowledge a wonderful
performer.
A
nightcap in yet another venue (this ship was certainly blessed with
choices) - “The Shaker Lounge” - with the sounds of one of
Chi-town’s most glamorous performers, the charming
Liz Mandeville. Looking
(and sounding) sassy and sparkly Liz kicked off a lively, engaging
set of rock’n’roll-tinged blues with
Toronzo Cannon providing
some additional muscle in the guitar department.
Liz is a great storyteller in between numbers, and when she
shared her story about staying at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale,
and sleeping in Muddy Water’s bed...well, I won’t spoil the
punchline but you had to be there! As well as guitar and vocals, Liz
also plays a mean frottoir and used it to good effect in a promenade
around the crowd, setting the room clapping to an infectious Cajun
beat. And not to leave out the only member of the house band not
mentioned so far, Liz pulled out a cover of “All About That Bass”
for the rock steady bassman
Dave Forte. An uplifting end to day two.
One of the
fun features of holding a festival on a cruise ship is the closeness of
the fans and the artists, literally we are all in the same boat! The
Pro-Am jam is another way to share a bit of love for playing the blues
and the fans really appreciate the chance to show off some licks on
stage with the professionals.
Thanks to Joe Harp, Dave the Drummer from Barcelona and even your
humble reporter for stepping up with Toronzo,
Fabrizio Poggi and the band.
There was
an additional treat after the jam.
Nora Jean Bruso had not been
scheduled to perform again until Friday, but by popular demand from the
people disembarking on Friday in Genoa, her set was brought forward so
that they could hear her again - they were so knocked out by her short
appearance earlier they wanted more!
Nora Jean did not disappoint, easily overcoming unavoidable
announcements over the PA as the ship left Palma de Mallorca.
Where the large dance floor in front of the stage might have been
something of a barrier earlier, Nora Jean claimed the space as her own,
getting up close and personal with the crowd occupying the low,
comfortable booths scattered around and equally getting down with those
moved to dance. Nora Jean produced the highlight of the day - a
show-stopping, indeed heart-stopping, extended rendering of John Mayer’s
“Gravity” pulling in Gospel influences - shades of Mahalia Jackson - and
for 12 golden minutes Nora Jean held the room in a spell. What a
remarkable performance - once again there could not have been a dry eye
in the house.
Well, there
was nothing if not variety on offer from the Blues Cruise lineup.
Moving out of the softly lit Shaker lounge into the brightly
sunlit R32 lounge, its position perched upon the stern of the ship
providing 270 degree views of the wide-open Mediterranean was like
waking from a dream. Fortunately the music was no dream, with recently
Grammy-nominated harpist
Fabrizio Poggi in the chair, accompanied by fellow Italian guitarist
Enrico Polverani. Fabrizio’s
2017 nomination was for the album
Sonny and Brownie’s Last Train, recorded with Guy Davis and the love
for Sonny Terry was evident. It was easy to imagine sitting on a front
porch in the summertime in Carolina as Fabrizio rolled out a pure, sweet
harp tone. It was also a great background for the guitar playing talents
of Carl, Toronzo and Wayne to jam along to. A very mellow, pleasant
afternoon indeed. As
afternoon and evening melted into night, the search for the Piano Bar
was on, rewarded by the sight and sound of the remaining European
contributor to the bill, Italian maestro
Luca Chiellini.
Now resident in Chicago, Luca
treated us to an hour of grand piano-mashing, audience-clapping,
rug-cutting blues and boogie-woogie, pretty much single-handedly (not
counting a rare tambourine turn by Wayne Baker-Brooks!). And so to bed…
Our port of
call at the beginning of day four was the busy Italian seaport city of
Genoa, historically known as the home of Christopher Columbus. It was
interesting to ponder what kind of blues might have been if he hadn’t
made those voyages 500 years ago. Coming back to the present, the
Ligurian coastline provided a stunning backdrop through those wide angle
glass walls of the R32 Lounge as we once more headed out to sea to the
sound of Rip Lee Pryor, son
of Maxwell Street School harp master, Snooky Pryor. Rip brought some of
the feel of that legendary Chicago location to the boat, accompanying
himself on guitar, harp and stompbox just as earlier generations of
sidewalk performers would have done.
As all
things must pass so the last day of the 2018 cruise came along, but not
before one more big blowout - the now traditional Big Jam, featuring all
the artists, in turn and all together.
Marshalled by the untiring Toronzo Cannon, a procession of
artists took their turn.
The ladies went first, Nora Jean
Bruso and (Liz Mandeville
backing up on frottoir) sharing the dance floor with happy dancing
couples, then Rip Lee Pryor
arrived turning up the harmonica heat, he in turn giving way to
Wayne Baker Brooks rocking
round the dance floor and eventually
Liz Mandeville working the
mojo, until the entire cast took the stage all together in a glorious
cascade of music.
Once more
the European Blues Cruise team, under the leadership of Lisa Panoyan,
director of the Marseille Blues Society had created an exciting, varied
program featuring some of the best blues talent from Chicago and beyond,
presented in an enjoyable, friendly atmosphere. The festival is still
young and things are evolving every time, but the fundamentals of good
music, great performers and a supportive audience are all there.
Roll on 2019!
|
|
|
