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Showing posts with label Blues in Tel Aviv. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blues in Tel Aviv. Show all posts

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Real true Blues by Mickey Shaviv in Tel Aviv

I first heard Mickey Shaviv on Israeli radio back in the early 1980's when he had a hit making pop-rock power trio named Tango...Mickey was an in demand bass player at the time for a number of prominent Israeli singers and stars. A few years later, I heard him at a private party singing a couple of original Blues songs in Hebrew and accompanying himself on hot guitar.
Fade to 1989, and Mickey had a fresh young band called 'the Blue Eyed Brotherhood', and I was finally introduced to him by my good buddy Avner Strauss. I was fascinated at the time by Mickey's repertoire- nobody else in Israel but me knew about any of those songs or the artists that wrote them...I instantly felt there was a special connection there.
Mickey moved to Canada for a good number of years, disappearing from our local music scene...
Mickey returned sometime in the late 90's, and I booked him to play at my SummerBlues festival in the summer of 2003 or 2004. We finally had a good 'sit down' and discovered we had so many musical influences and interests in common - like the phenomenal Jazz guitarist Lenny Breau, or Jazz-Blues artist Mose Allison. or the Downchild Blues Band that has been running for almost 50 years, and was an inspiration to the  Blues Brothers...Very few people on this earth truly appreciate Lenny Breau's guitar playing sensibilities, but Mickey is one of them, and he incorporates some nice Lenny style Jazz 'comping' and harmonies in his Blues playing.  
...So now it's a Sunday night in late July 2016, and I'm sitting in a small Tel Aviv pub at the end of the bar next to the band, listening to Mickey Shaviv fingerpicking a vintage Fender Strat guitar with contrabass and drums backing him, playing an eclectic mix of jazzy arrangements to Blues standards and more. Classic, classic, classic, this is how the Blues should be played.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Cotton Comes to Tel Aviv


I just got back from a wonderful show of James Cotton's Superharp with
his fantastic band (Slam Allen guitar, vocals; Tom Holland guitar,
vocals; Noel Neal, bass; Kenny Neal Jr., drums)
right here in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The whole band is a very hot group of musicians, starting with Tom Holland who sang a few numbers and played rhythm, solo, and lovely slide guitar.
The major entertainment of the show was handled beautifully by Slam Allen - a great singer with a rich gospel singer's voice, and a very solid guitarist in his own right. He was very funny at times, he has amazing stage presence, always smiling and doing all the intros and knowing exactly what to say at any moment - he had the audience completely at his mercy.

Noel Neal on bass was so much fun to watch,
he really cracked me up for most of the show - he was "hamming it up"
making funny faces and poses, playing the bass with his hand over the
top of the fretboard, but still maintaining full control and playing
amazing bass throughout the show, including a couple of very hot solos
that got the crowd whistling and cheering when his turn came around.


Kenny Neal Jr. didn't stand out much except for one solo, but was
definitely the steady backbeat of the band, which acted as a tight unit and responded to the slightest signs from Cotton or from Slam.

Cotton was solid and enjoyable as ever, he looked like he was himself
enjoying the band!
We should all be so lucky at age 70 plus to be able to travel the world
and perform on stage for hundreds or thousands of people.
What a great show! What an amazing band!