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Archaeological Park of Cuma - Via Dell'Acropoli 1 - 80078 Pozzuoli (NA)
GINO VANNELLI feat. Michiel Borstlap
Gino Vannelli: vocals, Michiel Borstlap: piano and keyboards, Boudewijn Lucas: bass, Erik Kooger: drums. Probably Gino Vannelli can boast one of the most qualified and at the same time enthusiastic audiences you might encounter at a concert, so don't be surprised if you spot Vittorio De Scalzi and Nico Di Palo of the legendary New Trolls, quietly gathered, dispensing ecstatic comments about this extraordinary crooner who, for one evening, colored the evocative ruins of Cuma with his incredible voice.
The Neapolitan concert, his first ever, revived the sophisticated sound that has characterized the last decade of the Canadian artist, increasingly drawn to "combo jazz" atmospheres, now benignly accepted even by some nostalgic fans of Vannelli's 70s jazz fusion. Vannelli's artistic integrity and rigor, to which he has sacrificed a more lucrative career, are proverbial and can even be found in the nuances of his performances. In fact, before the concert, he dedicates himself to a long and meticulous soundcheck in search of precise sounds which first put the rushed sound technicians to the test, and then enhanced the show dominated by his extremely powerful, versatile, and nuanced vocal abilities, allowing him to literally stroll along the notes, climbing to unexpected tensions, and then relaxing into lush vocalizations.
Classic hits from his more pop past are radically transformed with daring arrangements, sometimes dry and edgy, and harmonizations that primarily highlight Michiel Borslap, a talented Dutch pianist (previously with Les Paul, Roy Hargrove, and Jimmy Haslip and the creator of personal projects including the beautiful "Body Acoustic," an acoustic reinterpretation of Weather Report by the late Joe Zawinul), as well as the very young Erik Kooger, who enchanted the attentive audience with his polyrhythms, and the skillful Boudewijn Lucas on bass; but perhaps the most distinguishing feature of the Cuma performance was a masterful use of dynamics that delighted the audience with the alternation of frantic bebop phrases with deadly break stops, clusters of chromaticism, and hypnotic electric piano voicings.
Gino Vannelli's concert prudently avoided dwelling on past hits, delving instead into the new songs included in the upcoming CD created by Vannelli with this ensemble, presenting himself more as the frontman of a group than as a true solo artist, thus leaving ample and deserved space for the instrumental talent of the musicians. For example, the splendid ballad Don't Give Up on Me or the pulsating Knight of the Road unfold all his abilities as a composer, arranger, and chameleon-like performer, in his own way an "orchestra conductor" with Davis-like insights, where jazz, soul, and melody are transfigured without boundaries of genre or fashion: his live music is absolutely unpredictable from moment to moment. The music unfolds with naturalness and charm until the closing, which of course is left to I Just Wanna Stop in a slow version sang with the audience, the only real concession of the evening to his pop past which, as he sings in one of his new songs, "I buried six feet under my castles in the air and my fifteen minutes of fame."
Only a small flaw in an efficient organization for the about six hundred people who attended, an unusual brevity of the show (about an hour and a half) for an artist always very generous, but who then engaged with the ritual of photos and autographs with his always very enthusiastic Italian audience, trying to echo a "where is Joe?" (the keyboardist brother, symbol of the pop period) or asking for old pieces, but he smiles patiently and kindly, and with a wave of goodbye disappears into the dressing room.
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