Forcione Unplugged last night at J*** cafe
Posted by: Sicey on 31 March 2006
I have always been a big fan of Antonio since my dealer(Thanks Colin at Martin Kleiser) introduced me to his live album a few years back, but up until now had never seen him play.
Anyway I reserved tickets to the Pizza Express jazz cafe in soho at the start of March, I have never been there before so didn´t know what to expect, I was expecting a small venue but not that small...all I can say was it was intimate to say the least, I was kinda worried when the waitress seated us 2 feet away from the maestro´s chair
, kinda embarassing when your trying to stuff a caesers salad down your throat in between tracks 
A couple of tables down on the front row I spotted Nigel Kennedy who obviously has an ear for a quality musician
Antonio was only being supported by cellist Jenny Adejayan who was fabulous.
Now I am not one for putting all this into words but all I can say is the man is a genius, he plays the guitar like it is an extension of his body, he knows every mm of this instrument.
His solo of Heartbeats was so impressive that it nearly had me in tears, also Tears of Joy stood out as very moving, he did his usual rendition of Accoustic revenge which was marvellous as well as hilarious as he twisted his guitar into impossible playing positions but still managed to keep a beat by tapping away on the casing.
He played for approx 1hr 45mins and did his rendition of Marvin Gayes classic, I heard it through the grapevine plus also old tracks like African Dawn, Night Passage, Touch
Wood, Tarentella(true genius) amongst others.
He finished off with what he called his own Tarentella with Jenny improvising, it was basically a mix of various tracks played at a higher than average speed, but it showcased both of their talents to the extreme.
In all it was a great evening and I would recommend it to anyone that can appreciate a true talented musician even if the music is not to your taste, my wife was very impressed even though she had never heard his music before.
I also managed to get a copy of latest album signed by him, he came over as a really nice guy.
I will definitely go and see him again in the future!
John
Anyway I reserved tickets to the Pizza Express jazz cafe in soho at the start of March, I have never been there before so didn´t know what to expect, I was expecting a small venue but not that small...all I can say was it was intimate to say the least, I was kinda worried when the waitress seated us 2 feet away from the maestro´s chair
, kinda embarassing when your trying to stuff a caesers salad down your throat in between tracks A couple of tables down on the front row I spotted Nigel Kennedy who obviously has an ear for a quality musician
Antonio was only being supported by cellist Jenny Adejayan who was fabulous.
Now I am not one for putting all this into words but all I can say is the man is a genius, he plays the guitar like it is an extension of his body, he knows every mm of this instrument.
His solo of Heartbeats was so impressive that it nearly had me in tears, also Tears of Joy stood out as very moving, he did his usual rendition of Accoustic revenge which was marvellous as well as hilarious as he twisted his guitar into impossible playing positions but still managed to keep a beat by tapping away on the casing.
He played for approx 1hr 45mins and did his rendition of Marvin Gayes classic, I heard it through the grapevine plus also old tracks like African Dawn, Night Passage, Touch
Wood, Tarentella(true genius) amongst others.
He finished off with what he called his own Tarentella with Jenny improvising, it was basically a mix of various tracks played at a higher than average speed, but it showcased both of their talents to the extreme.
In all it was a great evening and I would recommend it to anyone that can appreciate a true talented musician even if the music is not to your taste, my wife was very impressed even though she had never heard his music before.
I also managed to get a copy of latest album signed by him, he came over as a really nice guy.
I will definitely go and see him again in the future!
John