Apr 28 : "Chernobyl" - Windsor Park Walkers (Cherry Hill)

Friday night I went out to hear Windsor Park Walkers headline at Boot and Saddle. This was the first time I had heard them in several years.

I originally started listening to them back in 2006 when they did a lot of shows locally, several at Grape and Khyber, and for years. Then they seemed to vanish, only to reappear once in a while to do an isolated show.

The last time I heard them prior to Friday was a show at Johnny Brenda's in 2013. Back then I observed a slight mellowing of style compared to how they played in 2006, but I didn't know whether the change would be a trend.

Well, it wasn't. At the show this past Friday, the band was back to a presentation that was even more power-packed than when I had seen them originally. This is power-packed in the arrangements, the volume, and the physical movements of their stage presence.

It's been a while since WPW released a new album, so I wasn't sure which song I should feature with this writeup. But I got my answer in a lot of news stories appearing this week regarding the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Here is "Chernobyl", the fifth track on the band's 2008 cd, "50-Watt City" :::

While the band doesn't have a Facebook page, they do have a lot of their music on Bandcamp. Here is the click to that page ::: Windsor Park Walkers (CLICK HERE)

Apr 22 : "Save Your Love for Me" - Alessandro Fadini (New York)

Last week after work one night I was able to catch an early show at Pianos where I saw Alessandro Fadini. This was the first time I had seen him play. In checking out samples of music before I went out that night, I saw that the artist's online presence features him as "Alessandro Fadini", while the Pianos website listed his show as the "Alex Fadini Quintet". Well, it turned out to be a "quartet", but still an excellent show.

I got the impression that this was a project or ensemble that had just come together for that evening's show. The lead in most of the songs was played by NY / Cali musician, Brandon Sherman on trumpet, with Allesandro Fadini playing accompaniment on the keys. Fadini is very versatile, playing the lead in a lot of his work that can be heard on line, but then switching over to accompaniment at other times.

It seemed a little like a jam session, yet they all had music stands with sheet music! As they were about to start each song, they would shuffle the papers and then begin, BUT they would play some long pieces without ever turning one page! I'm not knowledgeable enough about jazz to know what that's all about, what the proportion of written music can be to the whole piece. But I don't remember ever seeing that before.

He points out that even though the venue is named "Pianos", they oddly enough don't have one. So he had to bring his own keys. There's a lot of work on his Soundcloud page that shows off his expertise. Here is one song where he plays with an ensemble and vocalist, "Save Your Love for Me". Vocals on this piece are by Yana Bibb :::

Here is the click to his main web page Alessandro Fadini main web page (CLICK HERE), and here is the click to his Soundcloud page Alessandro Fadini on Soundcloud (CLICK HERE)

.

If you like what you hear and would like to see him live, you're in luck. He will be doing a show tonight at Club Bonafide on East 52nd Street. Here is the click to that event : Alessandro Fadini live at Club Bonafide. You'll note that here his effort is known by yet a third name, "Aleks Fadini Group".