ANTONIO FORCIONE @ EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
Posted by: Simon Drake on 18 August 2008
Europe’s finest acoustic guitar virtuoso continues his 26 night residency at the George Street Ballroom in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Assembly Festival in a unique duo performance with Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale (31st Jul – 20th August), also featuring five nights of the Antonio Forcione Quartet (21st - 25th August).
See www.assemblyfestival.com for tickets!
See www.assemblyfestival.com for tickets!
Posted on: 18 August 2008 by Simon Drake
British Theatre Guide Review!
Antonio Forcione and Adriano Adewale
Assembly @ George Street, Edinburgh
*****
After taking a break from Edinburgh last year, virtuoso guitarist Antonio Forcione returns to the Fringe, but this time for the first three weeks his Brazilian percussionist from his quartet, Adriano Adewale, gets equal billing as the two perform at the Assembly rooms as a duo.
After opening with a number for Zimbabwe — "the people, not the leaders of Zimbabwe" — Forcione leads a selection of his old and new tracks and even one cover played on electric acoustic guitars in his distinctive style: heavily amplified to pick up all fret, string and body noise which is as important a part of his music as the picking of the strings.
Adewale's percussion set-up looks like an eastern market stall, with shells, pots and bottles of water amongst the drums and cymbals, but, as decorative as they may be, all of these objects are used as instruments at some point in the performance. During the opening number, he seems to be playing a clay pot with a sheaf of grass, but it sounds great.
Forcione's style is visually very impressive, especially his signature piece Touch Wood, which sounds like at least a guitar-bass-drums trio but is all played by him on an acoustic guitar. Adewale actually plays water at one point, as he uses the dripping of water from a plastic bottle into a bowl — beautifully lit, as is the whole show — to open a number merging into other water-like sounds from various instruments, and it sounds astonishingly good. You can just imagine him spending most of his time hitting and shaking various objects to see how he can use them musically.
Forcione does all the talking between numbers, but musically they bounce off each other superbly, having a great deal of fun when they compete over sounds, as Forcione creates sounds such as a cock crowing and an excerpt from the Blue Danube Waltz on guitar, and Adewale manages to copy him using a drum and a wet finger. The closing number has them playing off each other again, as they improvise playing their own instruments and hitting each other's, treating it like a childish game.
As always, Forcione puts on a great performance of some superb musicianship but with a great deal of charm and even humour, and Adewale competes admirably with him in an impressive and great-looking and -sounding show. The duo plays at the Assembly up to 20 August, after which the full Antonio Forcione Quartet will perform until 25 August.
David Chadderton
Antonio Forcione and Adriano Adewale
Assembly @ George Street, Edinburgh
*****
After taking a break from Edinburgh last year, virtuoso guitarist Antonio Forcione returns to the Fringe, but this time for the first three weeks his Brazilian percussionist from his quartet, Adriano Adewale, gets equal billing as the two perform at the Assembly rooms as a duo.
After opening with a number for Zimbabwe — "the people, not the leaders of Zimbabwe" — Forcione leads a selection of his old and new tracks and even one cover played on electric acoustic guitars in his distinctive style: heavily amplified to pick up all fret, string and body noise which is as important a part of his music as the picking of the strings.
Adewale's percussion set-up looks like an eastern market stall, with shells, pots and bottles of water amongst the drums and cymbals, but, as decorative as they may be, all of these objects are used as instruments at some point in the performance. During the opening number, he seems to be playing a clay pot with a sheaf of grass, but it sounds great.
Forcione's style is visually very impressive, especially his signature piece Touch Wood, which sounds like at least a guitar-bass-drums trio but is all played by him on an acoustic guitar. Adewale actually plays water at one point, as he uses the dripping of water from a plastic bottle into a bowl — beautifully lit, as is the whole show — to open a number merging into other water-like sounds from various instruments, and it sounds astonishingly good. You can just imagine him spending most of his time hitting and shaking various objects to see how he can use them musically.
Forcione does all the talking between numbers, but musically they bounce off each other superbly, having a great deal of fun when they compete over sounds, as Forcione creates sounds such as a cock crowing and an excerpt from the Blue Danube Waltz on guitar, and Adewale manages to copy him using a drum and a wet finger. The closing number has them playing off each other again, as they improvise playing their own instruments and hitting each other's, treating it like a childish game.
As always, Forcione puts on a great performance of some superb musicianship but with a great deal of charm and even humour, and Adewale competes admirably with him in an impressive and great-looking and -sounding show. The duo plays at the Assembly up to 20 August, after which the full Antonio Forcione Quartet will perform until 25 August.
David Chadderton
Posted on: 18 August 2008 by Simon Drake
The Scotsman Review!
ANTONIO FORCIONE & ADRIANO ADEWALE
ASSEMBLY @ GEORGE STREET (VENUE 3)
****
MASTER guitarist Antonio Forcione has returned to the Fringe in top form, in a mesmerising duo with Brazilian percussionist Adewale. An exhilarating exchange of international musical ideas, their show takes inspiration from Zimbabwe, Jamaica and Spain, among other places. Forcione’s plucking and strumming conjures images of people, places and experiences. Adewale, meanwhile, dances a world to life, his shakers, seeds, clay jars and drums evoking birds in the rain forest, fish in rivers, or snakes in grass. At one moment he slaps water in a bowl then blows a plastic tube into it, suggesting an animal drinking at an oasis, the pattering of rain on leaves, or the fall of waves at sea. Alongside Forcione favourites like Touch Wood and Tears of Joy, there is a great syncopated version of The Police’s Message In A Bottle. He also plays a gorgeous ballad using his customised guitar with four extra strings at the top, which works like an Arabic oud lute (he calls it an “oudan”, or “oud for Antonio”). The two then spar in a guitar-pandeiro tambourine duel, playfully banging and clapping crazy rhythms on each other’s instruments while keeping a fast-running melody moving. It’s a treat of a late-night show.
JAN FAIRLEY
ANTONIO FORCIONE & ADRIANO ADEWALE
ASSEMBLY @ GEORGE STREET (VENUE 3)
****
MASTER guitarist Antonio Forcione has returned to the Fringe in top form, in a mesmerising duo with Brazilian percussionist Adewale. An exhilarating exchange of international musical ideas, their show takes inspiration from Zimbabwe, Jamaica and Spain, among other places. Forcione’s plucking and strumming conjures images of people, places and experiences. Adewale, meanwhile, dances a world to life, his shakers, seeds, clay jars and drums evoking birds in the rain forest, fish in rivers, or snakes in grass. At one moment he slaps water in a bowl then blows a plastic tube into it, suggesting an animal drinking at an oasis, the pattering of rain on leaves, or the fall of waves at sea. Alongside Forcione favourites like Touch Wood and Tears of Joy, there is a great syncopated version of The Police’s Message In A Bottle. He also plays a gorgeous ballad using his customised guitar with four extra strings at the top, which works like an Arabic oud lute (he calls it an “oudan”, or “oud for Antonio”). The two then spar in a guitar-pandeiro tambourine duel, playfully banging and clapping crazy rhythms on each other’s instruments while keeping a fast-running melody moving. It’s a treat of a late-night show.
JAN FAIRLEY