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Montreux

ENCARTE: STRAY CATS

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Dum extenso release (14 parágrafos), creditado a Craig Morrison, um etnomusicologista, músico, professor e teórico em rockabilly, contendo contextualizações sobre a banda, primeiro disco e show específico deste meu “Live At Montreux 1981” (2012) em dvd, pincei 3 parágrafos:

“At the time of this extraordinary concert, July 10, 1981, their first album had been out about six months, and three tracks were hits: ‘Rock This Town’, ‘Stray Cats Strut’, and ‘Runaway Boys’, all written by the band. Guitarist and lead vocalist Brian Setzer was 22, drummer Slim Jim Phantom was 20, and bassist Lee Rocker was 19. From Long Island, New York, they had formed the Stray Cats in 1980. On hearing their style of music, a modernized take on 1950s rockabilly, was more popular in London, they moved there. Their live shows created a buzz, and approval from Jeff Beck, formely of the Yardbirds, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, and members of the Rolling Stones boosted their profile and credibility. Vocalist, guitarist, and producer Dave Edmunds, who had been having hits of his own since 1968, came in to produce that first album, recorded and released in England.

(…)

The Stray Cats were only a trio, but all members were talented, trained, and seasoned musicians, and stepped in 1950s music. Their ensemble cohesion was remarkable. On this hot summer night, with a standing audience of youngsters jammed together, crowded so close to the stage that some in the front line had their elbows on it, the Stray Cats gave it everything their had. They knew what they were doing and did it, with a vengeance. Setzer, dripping with sweat, delivered his impassioned vocals and fluid and inventive guitar licks while seeming to be in constant motion. His sure touch on the guitar, great tone, and an enviable command of the guitar’s jazzy, bluesy, country-esque, rock and roll vocabulary made for fretboard magic! Rocker, smoking a cigarette, his fingers protected by tape, picked and rhythmically slapped his articulate bass lines, took a solo now and then, and occasionally showed off by standing on his upright bass. Phantom‘s hands were protected by gloves, and his bashing and crashing and propulsive rhythms kept the excitement high and everything rolling. Once in a while, Rocker and Phantom would punctuate a song with screams. The total effect: glorious!

(…)

After performing 11 songs, the band departs, but the audience is pumped, clapping, whistling, and singing in unison a hypnotic, wordless fragment of melody. They manage to bring them back three times for encores. When this exhilarating show finally ends – a classic example of a band and audience feeding off of each other’s energy, and the sky is the limit – the Stray Cats leave the stage exhausted, and the crowd disperses, satiated. A great night in rock and roll history!“

ENCARTE: JEFF HEALEY BAND

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Particularidade de estilo, breve histórico discográfico e o show em si: é como se apresenta o release (até q ñ tão extenso, do qual pinço os 2 primeiros e os 2 últimos parágrafos), a cargo de um certo Michael Heatley em meu “Live At Montreux 1999” (2005):

“Any gig by Jeff Healey is a unique experience. The blind Canadian guitarist has developed his own vocabulary on rock’s foremost instrument, so much so that the front rows of every concert are populated by players intent on matching the moves to the sounds. Not, of course, that Healey‘s fazed by these prying eyes; he’s off in his own world where only the music matters.

His technique is rather special. All four fingers and thumb are used on the fretboard of his humbucker-equipped Stratocaster in a way that would be upside-down to a ‘conventional’ player but which adds up to a distinctive style placing him somewhere close to Stevie Ray Vaughan in the blues-rock pantheon.

(…)

As with all artists fortunate enough to be invited, Jeff Healey was honoured to play the Montreux Jazz Festival, but admits ‘I’m happy to sit down in a jam session with my next-door neighbours as I am at a big gala production. I really, truthfully, enjoy a chance to play’.

This CD gaves you the opportunity to enjoy his gifts time and again“.

ENCARTE: GARY MOORE

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O encarte em “Live In Montreux 2010” (2011), q trata da apresentação em si e circunstâncias, descreve em seus últimos parágrafos o falecimento, planos interrompidos e como Moore se via no mundo da música.

Escrito/assinado por Dave Ling, jornalista inglês da revista Classic Rock:

“Tragically, Moore died of a heart attack during a getaway break in Spain on 6 February, 2011 – seven months to the day after this Montreux gig.

The world of music was stricken with grief. There were tributes from Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Bob Geldof, Roger Taylor, Scott Gorham, Glenn Hughes, Zakk Wylde, and Bryan Adams and many more, even from the realm of extreme metal thanks to Opeth‘s Mikael Åkerfeldt. When Europe played at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London shortly afterwards, their guitarist John Norum offered an affectionate rendition of ‘The Loner’, the Max Middleton song that Gary had recorded to such emotional effect on ‘Wild Frontier’. Neil Carter, who only the previous summer had reconnected with Moore through the teaching of music at a school attended by all three of the latter’s children, was especially distraught.

‘We were due to go into the studio next week. Gary had some ideas for an album – a Celtic rock album – and we were going to start working on those’. Neil informed Classic Rock, referring to the likes of ‘Days Of Heroes’, ‘Where Are You Now’ and ‘Oh Wild One’. ‘I hesitate to use the word genius but there was something otherwordly about Gary. He was a truly gifted individual. I shall miss him a lot’.

Though the likes of Metallica‘s Kirk Hammett, Vivian Campbell Of Def Leppard and the late Randy Rhoads (of Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet fame) and more have all cited his playing as an influence upon their own techniques, the 58-year-old was a modest and unassumng man – especially so during the final years of his life.

‘I don’t think I’m undervalued (as an artist); I’ve had all the accolades that I could wish for’ he told me back in July 2006. ‘I’ve felt overrated sometimes, not underrated. Being called a legend makes me cringe’.

Well, now there’s very little choice in the matter…“