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Eric Ranzoni - The Blues of Eric Ranzoni

Self Released

www.ericranzoni.co.uk

12 tracks

Eric Ranzoni was born in England to Italian parents who moved him back to Italy at a very young age. Schooled in classical music, he became bored with all of this while in his late teens. He then became entranced with Eric Clapton and Clapton's ties to the blues. Ranzoni then became a huge blues fan and switched from classical piano to becoming a barrelhouse and honky tonk styled bluesman. He moved to England where he remains as a regular at several clubs and playing in the European blues scene. He has released this CD with sponsorship of Diavolina Fuoco (which apparently is a grill and fireplace company, literally named for the "fire of a little devil"). The CD pays homage to many of the blues greats and their standards, covering eleven familiar tunes and offering one nice original.

What I can tell you is Mr. Ranzoni is a helluva piano player. He is able to pound out the ivories with musicality and a sense for the blues. Where I can offer constructive criticism is with his vocals. He sings well- that's not a problem. What is, at least for me, is hearing American blues songs sung with a noticeable Italian accent with an English accent overlaid on it. Willie Dixon and Howlin' Wolf's "Leetle Red Roosta" and BB King's famous "The Threel is Gone" are two examples of this. The i's become long e's and the overall flow of his alliteration is discomforting to me. Maybe it's just me, but in all of my musical loves I am also an opera fan and when the star Luciano Pavarotti used to sing in English it also made me "creenge a leetle".

But aside from pronouncing and alliterating to American English, Ranzoni shows us that he, his trio and his band are great bluesmen. His instrumental that he wrote and plays, "Boogie For Spann and Slim", is a fantastic little number done in these piano master's styles. I was quite impressed. He opens with "Mother Earth" and his tinkling of the keys is quite impressive as is Phil Capone on guitar. Capone joins him again on Spann's "Keep Your Hands Out of My Pocket", a very fast paced trip through this cover, and "The Thrill is Gone". Dave Swift on bass and George Hart on drums join him on those, too. His trio pieces include the Otis Rush/Willie Dixon "All Your Love", "Muddy's "Trouble No More" and others. Laurie Garman joins him on harp and Davide Sanna is on guitar for the trio, and they do an admirable job, too. Four tracks feature Ranzoni solo, and htere is some great piano work- listen to his solos on "Lonesome Traveler" and you'll see that this guy can play.

So if you can get by the heavily affected vocals, this is a fun CD. Ranzoni is a great piano player and loves what he's doing. Our illustrious Blues Blast editor reports having seen him live in England and had some fun watching and listening. The vocals threw me for a loop, but musically Ranzoni and his friends do a fine job here.

Reviewer  Steve Jones is secretary of the Crossroads Blues Society and is a long standing blues lover. He is a retired Navy commander who served his entire career in nuclear submarines. In addition to working in his civilian career, he writes for and publishes the bi-monthly newsletter for Crossroads, chairs their music festival and work with their Blues In The Schools program.

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