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Guitar Ray & the Gamblers
August 15th, 2015: we are in Gavi (Italy) and, few days after their concert with Otis Grand in Novi Ligure, we find Guitar Ray & the Gamblers once again, but this time in blessed loneliness. The delicious frame is the one of Agorà, but the weather doesn't grant, contrarily to what was planned, the possibility to play in the bordering square. Therefore, shelter from the storm was a stage under the porch in a long, narrow but covered context. The situation would not allow to presage nothing of particularly optimal for the acoustic, but we must retract. Despite everything, the overall sound is good enough and the concert can begin. As already said in other occasions, Guitar Ray & the Gamblers represent Renato "Guitar Ray" Scognamiglio's last artistic metamorphosis and they are, without any doubt, one of the best realities of the European blues scene. To say the truth, their last album Photograph represents a new stylistic tacking toward territories much more close to songwriters world rather than to straight blues world, thanks to the mark given by Paul's Reddick production, original author and Canadian harp player not new to similar atmospheres.
But here, Guitar Ray and partners, although proposing some tunes taken from the quoted cd, so much they granted to the bloody and contagious blues. Ray is always guitarist of great taste and style and the time has not notched a single ounce of his talent. The rest of the band founds on the carrying column of Gabriele "Gab D" Dellepiane on bass, the energetic and punctual Marcello Borsano on drums, the good horn section formed by J.P. Lo Bello on trumpet and Paul Maffi on tenor sax, as well as the last purchase of the band, the keyboard player Emanuele Ghirlanda. The very appreciated concert flows away smoothly and it reaches its peak with an intense, monumental version of As The Years Go Passing By. Ray, in such a great shape also as a singer, renews the invitation for the next occasion: not to be missed for the one who has never seen them live! G.R.