Gino Vannelli concert review

[tombo74]

[img]eek.gif[/img] [img]eek.gif[/img] [img]eek.gif[/img] [img]eek.gif[/img]
More tomorrow...

[tombo74]

What a magic moment I had yesterday night!! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]
The little theater was packed and hot. Gino was backed by 11 musicians on a very small stage: drums, bass, guitar, sax/flute, piano, keys and a string quintet! Paul Brochu was expected on drums but I had word that he would have somehow "lost" the chair because he did the Star Academy tour last summer (our version of the" Idols" type of crappy TV show) instead of Gino's gigs. Mark Kelso from Toronto was behind the kit. He played Maple Custom Absolutes and shimmering Paiste's.

Gino's latest CD Canto, although very good, is "orchestral ballads" oriented. With the string quintet on the stage, I was a little worried that the show would be too "soft". The show indeed started very softly with Joli coeur, Living inside myself, Wild horses and Last dance. WHAT A VOICE!! And Gino is the MD on stage; cueing all the musicians for tempos, dynamics, solos...He knows all his intricate arrangements by heart and the band responded at the drop of his hand. Kelso played mostly brushes in this part, being musical and supportive. They started to open the machine with an unrecognizable version of Black Cars. Kinda fusionistic/funk with an incredible build-up which featured a mind blowing bass solo by Alain Caron and culminated in a double kick fest by Kelso with the upright acoustic bass player doubling Caron's lines to produce an incredible and powerful low end groove. WHOA!!!. Then followed Yonder tree and Canto: beautiful music!! After, they played latin and big band versions of tunes (can't remember titles) that were pure joy and showcased Kelso's excellent latin and swing chops. After that Gino sang "Parole per mio Padre" for his father, an emotional moment.

Then "People gotta move". A very groovy/energetic and somewhat close to the original version. Clearly a crowd favourite since everybody stood up and danced! Show finished with "I just wanna stop", THE HIT, and Gino had the audience at his knees.

After a standing ovation, they came back with THE TUNE: Brother to Brother. The single piece was worth the price of the ticket!!! Could'nt believe what I heard/saw, can't really say it in words!! So much going on. The peak was Mark Kelso soloing over neverending combinations of awkward kicks (my favourite type of drum stuff!) with Gino looking at him in the eyes and cueing all the hits. WOW!! Well, Mark Kelso is definitely worth checking out. I would say he's kind of a Weckl/Erskine hybrid type of player. Another very good and very busy canadian drummer.

The second encore had "Crazy life" and again "People gotta move" to turn the theater in a dance floor.
The show was kinda short (1.5 h, including the encores) but was so intense that I didn't bother. The pacing was perfect.

So, CATCH THIS SHOW if you can!!!

T

P.S.: Before the show, my girlfriend and I went to a restaurant in the theater area. We were eating and suddenly she said: "Look, this is Alain Caron!" He was entering the restaurant in kind of a hurry and joined a table at the back of the restaurant. My girlfriend told:"Go see, maybe Gino is there!" I took a look and it looked like Gino's band was having dinner there too, but not Gino. But I thought I recognize a guy, a keyboard player I played wedding gigs with years ago and that I had lost sight of. I thought he's probably a tech or something. Then at the show, to my surprise, the guy was ON STAGE! He's Gino's keyboardist! Hey, I played with this guy and he's now with Gino!!.........and I'm still......well.....you know......in the audience..... [img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

[beat Hit]

Great review!! Thanks!!

PS: I think I know who is the keyboard player you're talking about... His name escapes me right now... Grrrrrrrrr

[Randy walker]

I have a bootleg DVD of this very band and show from Europe. I was wondering whom the drumer was because it was not obviously Brochu whom I was expecting to see. I saw Paul on the Yonder Tree tour, killer.

[peter c]

That's great, Tombo!

Gino's always been a drummer's
inspiration!

[img]cool.gif[/img]

[beat Hit]

Tombo... You're talking about Marco Tessier right?? Great keyboard player...

Randy... That tour exposed me to Otmaro Ruiz and what a player Otmaro is, one of my favorites. I also remember Phil Baker from Oregon who was on Bass and Phil Dwyer on sax... Forgot who was on Vibes... Again, anyone with a Boot Leg of that Tour... Let me know... [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

To get a Vannelli gig you HAVE TO be comfortable playing most styles. Straight Ahead, Latin, Rock and Deep Pocketed Funk... They must have had a lot of fun!!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 08, 2004 01:05 PM: Message edited by: beat Hit ]</font>

[tombo74]

Randy,
Would that be the show shot in Copenhagen last year? If so, I saw it on TV and the drummer would be D?d? Ceccarelli from France. Great musician, also plays with DeeDee Bridgewater.

Beat,
Yeah, that's Marco. I think he grew up in a neighbourhood close to ours. Have you ever met him?

I discovered Gino at the Yonder Tree show in 1996. I was working part-time in a record store where the manager had tickets for all the shows in town from the reps. He would keep them for him except when he considered it as crap. So an afternoon he came to the employees and said: "Who wants to go see this corny Gino has-been tonight?" Everybody laughed and didn't care. Being the new guy, I waited, thought "Why not" and shyly said: "Me". He gave me the tickets with a smile and said: "Have fun!" I took the tickets cause I had noticed my girlfriend had a Gino CD," The best of" (you know, the one with the ultimate "shaggy macho Gino" look of the 70's on the cover!!). So maybe she'll be happy to go. I had only heard "I just wanna stop" and figured that was enough! I thought he was some kind of "Engelbert Humpadick" type of dated crooner. What a young fool I was...My girlfriend was like: "I'll see him in person?!? He's so cute, he's so cute!!"

The show started with Paul Brochu walking to the kit and playing some jaw dropping latin funk [img]eek.gif[/img] ! What the heck is Paul doing there???, I thought. Then he was joined by Otmaro [img]eek.gif[/img] (whom I knew from the Weckl videos on drums/percussion and his stint with Arturo Sandoval) and the other amazing musicians and they started grooving in a fusionistic way. Hey, where am I ??? Is that a fusion or crooner show? Then Gino came in and they played Black Cars this way, I think. I was won!! What a voice and what a show!! Surely in my top 5 best.
I'm a fan since. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 08, 2004 03:28 PM: Message edited by: Tombo 7/4 ]</font>

[Randy walker]

I'm not sure where it was taped, sorry. Whomever the cat playing is it's good.
The Yonder Tree show was excellent by like it's been said, Gino always has exceptional musicians.
Casey, Graham Lear, Vinnie, Garibaldi, Craney and Enzo. Saw the tour with Enzo also and was just jaw dropped the whole night just for the fact they had no bass player and that Enzo was playing to a click. At one point of the show Joe's midi rig went down and they had to take a 10 minute pause, so while Joe was rebooting Gino was talking to the audience and kind of pissed Joe off forcing Gino to leave the stage so as to not distract a nervous Joe.

[eaglebeat]

Gino Vannelli - Brother To Brother (Live in Montreal)

[beat Hit]

Tombo...

Marco was finishing his last year in College when I started my first one in Percussion. Let's just say that he was one of those guys with a reputation... Being a killin keyboard player. I've never met him personally.

Eaglebeat... Thanks for posting the Clip! [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] Solid player... Amazing to see how many great drummers there are out there!! [img]eek.gif[/img] So you guys are saying he's playing to a click?? [img]eek.gif[/img]