Leon Beal and the Luca Giordano Band – Live at Porretta Soul Festival
Self Released
8 tracks/46 minutes
Luca Giordano, an Italian blues guitar master, with his band including a fantastic horn section back American soul man Leon Beal at the Porretta Soul Festival. Founded in December 1987, this was recorded at the 2019 event. Leon Beal handles the vocals and Giordano the guitar. Abramo Riti is on organ and piano, Walter Cerrasani is on bass and Lorenzo Poliandri is on drums. The horn section is Sax Gordon on tenor sax, Martino Boni Beadle on tenor sax, and Alessandro Di Bonaventura on trumpet. Gordon arranged all the horns.
The album features two cuts written by Beal and six other great soul tunes. He opens with “Don’t Cry No More,” a 1961 Bobby “Blue” Bland classic. Beal sings with passion and deep feeling. Giordano lays out some nice guitar licks and the organ and horns blaze. Mel Waiters “Hole In The Wall” follows, where Beal tells his own story of the hole in the wall juke joint he grew up with in Jasper, Florida. The horns and piano do a standout job as Beal sings with restraint and howls out the song. “None Of Us Are Free” follows, which was first done by Ray Charles in 1993. It’s biggest claim to fame comes from the 2002 version by Solomon Burke which won a Grammy; the Blind Boys of Alabama backed him on that version. Here Beal gives us a soulful rendition with powerful vocals that the crowd enjoyed. A big Hammond organ solo is featured. Beal and the band take it to a rousing climax and then a slick outro. Beal’s own “Keep On Pushin’” is next up. This is not the Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions song from 1964 but Beal’s own cut of the same title. Similar in theme, the song is about keeping on pushing to stand up to adversity. Beal again sings with passion and the band gives a rousing performance in this funky and cool cut.
The 1936 classic ballad “Glory of Love” follows with Leon giving us a deep and emotional cover of this song. He builds to a big, passionate climax about half way through, takes it back down and them concludes with another and final passionate buildup. Another classic “Cry To Me” follows on the heels of the last track, as Beal and the band give a cool performance of the song made famous first by Soloman Burke. Piano, horns and band give it their all in support. Sam Cooke’s beautiful “A Change Is Gonna Come” gets a powerful cover by Beal who belts out the lyrics with deep feeling and emotion. Somber horn, piano and organ backing as the song builds and ebbs and then goes into ahuge finale that the crowd appreciates. They perform an encore of Leon Beal’s “Still Here.” This one is a cool cut where Beal again lets it all hang our. Giordano lays down a great, funky groove and adds some mean licks as organ and horns fully support the piece. Even the bass gets a turn with a solo.
This is a great soul album done by a fine American soul singer and his backing band of mostly Italian musicians. Giordano is a superb guitar player and bandleader and the core of musicians here do an outstanding job. A fine live recording, the album is well balanced and mixed. Anyone who love soul will love this!
