Not a threesome

Not a trio, but a quartet, or at least a guitar trio with a singer out front. And not really jazz, although it was advertised as that. This was straight down the line blues. The band was playing Sonny Boy Williams. The guy out front was switching into blues harp from his gravelly singing and presentation. Then blues and jazz are often confused. They might be from similar sources and influence each other, but they are clearly different streams. But this was gushing. This was dirty, telling stories of seduction and love gone wrong, mostly through SBW’s poor sexual manners. Singer Ricardo told me afterwards that SBW’s birthday wasn’t even certain: he was clearly from the poor, post-slavery black South. It’s some excuse. Whatever, I though Ricardo did it with conviction and I loved that strong, deepish, gravelly voice and his harp playing was nicely convincing, too. The encore was Bye bye bird, as done by SBW solo in concert in Europe in his peak. It was convincing. The band was guitar, e-bass, drums. I was especially impressed by drums, always on the spot. And this was the Bauers: 5-stars, very close to Piazza San Marco and with its own Grand Canal frontage. Read expensive. So apart from being way beyond the Harmonie German Club (and no better than the best players there), it cost a motza and the atmosphere was strangely restrained, sitting in leather bucket seats with waiters waiting and generous nibbles and, I guess, not many in the know about SBW. But that’s how it is in entertainment. I liked Ricardo’s take on his hero, but I’ll take the Canberra Blues Club for the cheaper beer. But isn’t that the blues?

Despite the program, Ricardo Grosso (vocals, blues harp) led a quartet playing the music of Sonny Boy Williams at The Brauers, Venice. His offsiders were Martimo Cargnel (guitar), Loris Tagliapietro (e-bass) and Mario Bonutto (drums).