I am honored to announce that "The Musician Blog" has a returning guest reviewer for today's CD review, Tim Marchio. Tim loves to play and listen to guitar players and offered to review Lou Volpe's new CD, "Before and After". Tim is not a professional musician, just one of the thousands of Americans who love playing Guitar. Like many of us, Tim has been working from home ever since we got hit with the virus and he decided to keep in contact with his team members by publishing one song eveyday. Well, Tim has now published over 70 YouTubes on his channel Penguino Music and the feedback from his co-workers has been excellent. I am attaching and posting below a link to one of Tim's YouTube postings so you can see and hear what Tim has been doing,
By Tim Marchio, Guest Reviewer:
To say Lou Volpe is an accomplished guitarist is not only an understatement, it is an unfair form of comparison to “normal” guitarists. I guess I should explain that statement. I play a bit of guitar and understand the difference between typical rock and pop chords and jazz chords. Jazz chords are more difficult to play; they just are. They require a different fingering that most players can’t do well – or sometimes not at all. A guitar chord has many different finger shapes and the jazz versions are for the best players.
Let me back up at this point. Mr. Volpe has a very broad resume. His previous recording was a tribute to Frank Sinatra, “Remembering Ol’ Blue Eyes”. That album was one of standards. Wait a minute - I thought this was a jazz musician. That gives you a hint of how Lou can shift between genres and make it look easy. He has also toured with the likes of Bette Midler, Herbie Mann and Judy Collins.
“Before & After” is not the type of music you will put into your car’s CD player, put the top down and sing to the stars since there are no lyrics to any of the songs. However, what this album can be is that perfect background music while having dinner with that special someone. The album is a collection of original tunes as well as two remakes (“Stella by Starlight” and “Summertime”). In listening through the CD, I was particularly impressed by two things:
· The songs were all very melodic and even the solos were melodic and fit perfectly into the tune, they never feel forced or out of place.
· The sheer number of notes that he can coax out of his instrument at one time. It is like a stream into a river, they come out fast and just float into the melody. He makes the playing sound easy, like he is going out for an evening walk.
The first time I listened ,the songs seem to have a similar sound, but as I spent a little more time with the songs they took on a specific feel and mood. The remakes of the two songs were similar enough to be very recognizable yet different enough to give them his own imprint.
“Before & After” is a very good music CD from a very good musician who has taken the step to record his own songs. The songs range from outright jazz “Up the Road” to a Latin tinged groove in “Perseguidor De Suernos (Dream Chaser)”. I viewed a concert of his on YouTube, which was very entertaining and helped put some of the previous statements in this review into perspective. Lou Volpe was already a very accomplished guitarist and has now added songwriting to his extensive resume as a musician. I look forward to his next recording whatever genre that may be.
Playlist:
1. Up the Road (Lou Volpe)
2. Three Rivers (Lou Volpe)
3. Coming My Way (Lou Volpe)
4. Full Tilt (Lou Volpe)
5. Stella By Starlight (Shapiro & Bernstein & Co OBO Catherine Hinen Music SONY/ATV Harmony Victor Young)
6. Summertime (WC Music Corp OBO Ira Gershwin Music & Ira Gershwin)
7. Travel Light (Lou Volpe)
8. Precious Jewel (Lou Volpe)
9. A to Z (Lou Volpe)
10. Solar Dance (Lou Volpe)
11. Perseguidor De Suernos (Dream Chaser) (Lou Volpe)
12. Double Summer (Lou Volpe)13. Before and After (Lou Volpe)
Players:
Lou Volpe- Guitars & Arrangements, Composing
Stanley Banks, Pete Falbo, Motoki Mihhara-Bass
Buddy Williams- Drums
Gary Fritz, Jon Romagnoll, Richie Morales-Percussion
I have attached two YouTubes below: The title track from Lou Volpe's CD, an original composition, "Before and After" and an up-tempo version of "Stella by Starlight.
Tim Marchio playing "Forever Young" from his Penguino Music Channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vibaJzv3Vw&pbjreload=101
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