Album Club: Week 92: 07.05.2013: Antonio Forcione - Tears of Joy (2005)

[Album Club]

This week's choice comes from Lawrence - losenotaminute

My choice is Tears of Joy by Antonio Forcione (2005)



Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Forcione
YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/user/AntonioForcione1

Track listing:
1. Tears of Joy
2. Sahara Rain
3. The Long Winter
4. Spanish Breeze
5. All Summer Long
6. The Cool Cat
7. Fragile
8. Landmark
9. Walz for Django
10. Earth Spirit

From Wikipedia:
"Antonio Forcione is hailed as the Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar. He has won numerous awards, released 17 albums of largely original material and tours internationally in festivals and for charity performances and masterclass workshops.

He was born in a village on the Adriatic shore of Molise in southern Italy. He first drew public attention at 13 when he toured Italy with his own band as a guitarist, mandolinist and drummer. A few years later he obtained a diploma in art and sculpture from the Art Institute in Ancona where he also studied percussion. For a further two years he studied harmony and mime in Rome, before moving to London in 1983.

Unable to speak English, he initially resorted to busking in the streets of London’s Covent Garden. Within 2 months he had won an award which led to a BBC television appearance before being whisked off to open for Barclay James Harvest on a major European tour, culminating in a concert at Wembley Arena. Since then he has worked in collaboration with many artists, touring the world in duo, trio and quartet formats such as The Antonio Forcione Quartet and in his duo with Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale. His latest group is AKA, a trio with Seiku Keita and Adriano Adewale. A prolific composer, most of the pieces performed are his own. He has also performed, double-billed/supported and recorded with artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Phil Collins, Jools Holland, Zucchero, Pino Daniele, Charlie Haden, John McLaughlin, Trilok Gurtu, Steps Ahead, Leo Kotke, Bireli Lagrene, Eduardo Niebla amongst others."

Enjoy

Lawrence

[Tim]

Oooo, what's this - never heard of him, so I'm excited already

[Alex_UK]

Coincidentally, when I was making my choice for my next Album Club week I thought that I couldn't recall ever having an acoustic guitar album, and so nearly chose Martin Taylor's Spirit of Django (but didn't!) and glad I didn't now! Very much looking forward to trying this, I have listened to some of his stuff before on Spotify I think - and I've just bought a couple of classical guitar albums from one of Jerry's charity sales which I enjoyed very much, so quite excited. Cheers Lawrence - who I might add, already has his write up into Album Club for his next choice in August! (Hint, hint, everyone... )

[The Grand Wazoo]

who I might add, already has his write up into Album Club for his next choice in August! (Hint, hint, everyone... )

Now how the hell do you know that Alex?
Good choice Lawrence!

[Alex_UK]

Now how the hell do you know that Alex?

A bloke said, down the pub.

Ooh, this is a goody! "All Summer Long" is going on the summery choons playlist!

[John]

I seen him play live a few times a great guitar player I am looking forward to this
I saw Martin Taylor when he was doing his Django tour a good few years back. Now their a talent!

[losenotaminute]

After I submitted this week's choice I saw that he is performing in Edinburgh at the Queen's Hall on the 18th of May. He's also at the Edinburgh Fringe again (for about the 20th time) but only for a week this year.

He is incredible live, below is a clip of his 'party piece' Touch Wood, which shows his amazing technical ability.

Tears of Joy is available on vinyl as well as CD (and high resolution download I think) on the Naim label. The production quality is incredible IMO and this album is a good "reference test" of your hifi. If the percussion and guitars sound real then you know you have it right!

The percussionist in the Antonio Forcione quartet, Adriano Adewale, has performed solo at the Fringe in the past and is a stand-out musician on his own. As is Seckou Keita, who I saw perform with Antonio and Adriano a couple of years ago (video below). I gather he is quite famous in Senegal and has a number 1 album in the world music chart. They were so good I went back the next night...

Can't get the embedding to work this evening so here are the URLs:

[Alex_UK]

I've now played this through 4 times on 3 different systems, and it is lovely! I will definitely seek out a copy, and explore more of his work - big thanks for bringing something different to Album Club - which is in part what it is all about. 9/10 from me.

[John]

I really recommend Acoustic Mania with Neil Stacy playing with Antonio.

[keiths]

I saw him play live at a hi-fi show once years ago. An excellent guitarist. I have this, so will listen and vote soon (once I've caught up with last week's choice).

I think "Acoustic Revenge" is my favourite Antonio Forcione album - even though it was (allegedly) recorded on cassette.