World Music Blues
Joe Bonamassa – Live at Carnegie Hall : An Acoustic Evening (CD & DVD)
Joe Bonamassa – Live at Carnegie Hall : An Acoustic Evening (CD & DVD)
"Is this not his sixty-sixth live release?" quipped a friend when FabricationsHQ carried the announcement of Joe Bonamassa in acoustic clothing at the Carnegie Hall earlier in the year.
"I think it’s actually his sixty-seventh" was the obvious and somewhat cynical reply to what has become a conveyor belt of Bonamassa live product (Live at Carnegie Hall : An Acoustic Evening is Bonamassa’s tenth live offering in the last five years, including one with Beth Hart).
That said such prolific issue or market saturation is fine and dandy if the quantity comes with quality and, at the end of the day, you pays yer money (or receives yer promotional copy; it’s a dirty musical reviewing job but someone’s got to do it) or choose not to hand over the readies; it’s that simple.
The benefits of checking out this latest Joe Bonamassa live release are obvious and plentiful.
Six-string smokin’ Joe is known first and foremost as a fully electrified, and electrifying, blues rock guitarist but his acoustic skills (here more chords than solos, in keeping with the songs’ full bodied, big band arrangements) along with his songs in an acoustic setting, are facets of his repertoire you miss at your peril.
Secondly, on the 2016 acoustic shows Joe Bonamassa had a world class band supporting him with this particular concert (recorded on the 21st January 2016) filmed at one of the most beautiful, prestigious and historic theatres in not just New York but the world (the acoustics, fabric and shape of Carnegie Hall also lend themselves perfectly to such a performance).
And for world class band read also classy band from around the world – joining Joe Bonamassa’s regular US musical troops, the brilliant Reese Wynans (piano) and Anton Fig (drums), were fellow American and multi-instrumentalist Eric Bazilian, acclaimed Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy, Australian vocalists Mahalia Barnes, Juanita Tippins and Gary Pinto and the supremely talented, absolutely dazzling, Shanghai born Tina Guo on cello and erhu (the Chinese two-string bowed instrument).
The star of the show and the name on the billboard may be Joe Bonamassa but make no mistake, Tina Guo was an integral and captivating part of the ensemble and a major reason why this tour went well beyond the musical boundaries of acoustic blues – this was a Bonamassa set restructured as world music with a blues theme (which also meant there was probably as many intrigued and delighted by the prospect as there were purists or naysayers crying in their traditional blues bar beer).
The fifteen song performance was based around Joe Bonamassa’s last quartet of studio albums (including four from current release Blues of Desperation), a couple of choice covers and a wonderful reimagining of Black Country Communion’s Zeppelin-esque epic, 'Song of Yesterday.'
Opening with 'This Train' (building from Reese Wynan’s rather appropriate 'Locomotive Breath' piano intro), the nine musicians vocally and musically roll down the acoustic tracks taking in stops that include 'Drive' (given a dusty, eastern roads feel courtesy of subtle but highly effective percussion and some beautiful erhu playing from Tina Guo), 'Dust Bowl' (recently back in the electric sets and working equally well in heavy acoustic folk mode) and 'Driving Towards the Daylight' (cello and acoustic guitar in blues tinged harmony, complemented by perfectly pitched backing vocals).
In between such stops you’ll find individual performances that add to the whole but also stand out as true highlights – Tina Guo bows the blues bejesus out of her cello on 'Blue and Evil;' Eric Bazilian's forlorn saxophone cries and Reese Wynan’s barroom piano give 'Livin' Easy' a cool, jazz-blues café vibe; Mahalia Barnes and Juanita Tippins give it the full gospel on their vocal cameo’s on 'How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?'
Strong as such performance are, the finger picking pace and frantic but precise bowing on 'Woke Up Dreaming' (incorporating 'Flight of the Bumble Bee') is worth the admission fee or purchase price of Live at Carnegie Hall on its own – Joe Bonamassa and Tina Guo’s rapid fire attack creates the fastest six and four string duelling in the west (and, given Miss Guo’s heritage, the east).
Closing out the show are a delightful cover of Leon Russell’s 'Hummingbird' (unsurprisingly closer in arrangement to B.B. King’s rendition) and encore number 'The Rose,' Bette Midler’s signature song making for the perfect end to an auspicious acoustic occasion.
Sixty-sixth or sixty-seventh Joe Bonamassa live album? Actually, at last count, it’s his fifteenth.
But the number is of no consequence; the only fact that matters is Live at Carnegie Hall : An Acoustic Evening may well be Joe Bonamassa’s best to date.
It’s certainly like no other.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ
"I think it’s actually his sixty-seventh" was the obvious and somewhat cynical reply to what has become a conveyor belt of Bonamassa live product (Live at Carnegie Hall : An Acoustic Evening is Bonamassa’s tenth live offering in the last five years, including one with Beth Hart).
That said such prolific issue or market saturation is fine and dandy if the quantity comes with quality and, at the end of the day, you pays yer money (or receives yer promotional copy; it’s a dirty musical reviewing job but someone’s got to do it) or choose not to hand over the readies; it’s that simple.
The benefits of checking out this latest Joe Bonamassa live release are obvious and plentiful.
Six-string smokin’ Joe is known first and foremost as a fully electrified, and electrifying, blues rock guitarist but his acoustic skills (here more chords than solos, in keeping with the songs’ full bodied, big band arrangements) along with his songs in an acoustic setting, are facets of his repertoire you miss at your peril.
Secondly, on the 2016 acoustic shows Joe Bonamassa had a world class band supporting him with this particular concert (recorded on the 21st January 2016) filmed at one of the most beautiful, prestigious and historic theatres in not just New York but the world (the acoustics, fabric and shape of Carnegie Hall also lend themselves perfectly to such a performance).
And for world class band read also classy band from around the world – joining Joe Bonamassa’s regular US musical troops, the brilliant Reese Wynans (piano) and Anton Fig (drums), were fellow American and multi-instrumentalist Eric Bazilian, acclaimed Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy, Australian vocalists Mahalia Barnes, Juanita Tippins and Gary Pinto and the supremely talented, absolutely dazzling, Shanghai born Tina Guo on cello and erhu (the Chinese two-string bowed instrument).
The star of the show and the name on the billboard may be Joe Bonamassa but make no mistake, Tina Guo was an integral and captivating part of the ensemble and a major reason why this tour went well beyond the musical boundaries of acoustic blues – this was a Bonamassa set restructured as world music with a blues theme (which also meant there was probably as many intrigued and delighted by the prospect as there were purists or naysayers crying in their traditional blues bar beer).
The fifteen song performance was based around Joe Bonamassa’s last quartet of studio albums (including four from current release Blues of Desperation), a couple of choice covers and a wonderful reimagining of Black Country Communion’s Zeppelin-esque epic, 'Song of Yesterday.'
Opening with 'This Train' (building from Reese Wynan’s rather appropriate 'Locomotive Breath' piano intro), the nine musicians vocally and musically roll down the acoustic tracks taking in stops that include 'Drive' (given a dusty, eastern roads feel courtesy of subtle but highly effective percussion and some beautiful erhu playing from Tina Guo), 'Dust Bowl' (recently back in the electric sets and working equally well in heavy acoustic folk mode) and 'Driving Towards the Daylight' (cello and acoustic guitar in blues tinged harmony, complemented by perfectly pitched backing vocals).
In between such stops you’ll find individual performances that add to the whole but also stand out as true highlights – Tina Guo bows the blues bejesus out of her cello on 'Blue and Evil;' Eric Bazilian's forlorn saxophone cries and Reese Wynan’s barroom piano give 'Livin' Easy' a cool, jazz-blues café vibe; Mahalia Barnes and Juanita Tippins give it the full gospel on their vocal cameo’s on 'How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?'
Strong as such performance are, the finger picking pace and frantic but precise bowing on 'Woke Up Dreaming' (incorporating 'Flight of the Bumble Bee') is worth the admission fee or purchase price of Live at Carnegie Hall on its own – Joe Bonamassa and Tina Guo’s rapid fire attack creates the fastest six and four string duelling in the west (and, given Miss Guo’s heritage, the east).
Closing out the show are a delightful cover of Leon Russell’s 'Hummingbird' (unsurprisingly closer in arrangement to B.B. King’s rendition) and encore number 'The Rose,' Bette Midler’s signature song making for the perfect end to an auspicious acoustic occasion.
Sixty-sixth or sixty-seventh Joe Bonamassa live album? Actually, at last count, it’s his fifteenth.
But the number is of no consequence; the only fact that matters is Live at Carnegie Hall : An Acoustic Evening may well be Joe Bonamassa’s best to date.
It’s certainly like no other.
Ross Muir
FabricationsHQ