Venue: Kino Šiška
Concert date: 29.11.2009
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: 15 eu
Before Ford’s show at Šiška kicked off, organizer Brane Rončel took the stage and solemnly announced that after a long wait and plenty of failed attempts, he had finally managed to lure the famous American master of modern blues to Ljubljana. And if he couldn’t host him on his recently axed TV show, which brought numerous big names of the genre into Slovenian living rooms, he was at least able to make his long-held wish come true in the revamped Center of Urban Culture. A good five hundred mostly gray-haired heads, hungry for good blues, gathered there on the night of Robben Ford’s gig, though you could also spot a few younger guitar nerds among them, who watched the fifty-seven-year-old virtuoso’s fingers closely the whole way through.
Ford is a master of all kinds of jazzy chords and their embellishments, which, together with refined soloing, create a very special musical ambience. Rhythm and lead guitar keep weaving in and out of each other, and the solo excursions are a perfect counterweight to the maestro’s soulful vocals, which kick in whenever the hands need a moment’s rest. Ford may not be as lightning-fast a guitarist as, say, Melvin Taylor, whom we got to admire on some of Rončel’s TV shows, but his technique, even though it’s built mostly on improvisation and simplicity, is still outstanding. As he explained in one of his instructional REH videos, he was always drawn to melody and the spiritual content of music, so he never studied patterns or drilled exercises the way most modern guitarists do. For him, the blues is above all a particular mood, conveyed by the voice or by its equally soulful and expressive stand-in, the guitar.
The four-time Grammy nominee didn’t disappoint in Šiška. He served the crowd a few older hits, and we especially missed the eighties tune Talk to your daughter, but of course a few numbers from his latest studio album, Soul on ten, rang out from the stage too. The sound in the modern, well-equipped hall was solid and, as befits the blues, rather austere (Ford brought only a drummer and a bassist with him across the Atlantic), but what surprised us more was the similarly modest lighting. Looking up at the imposing ceiling of Kino Šiška, we could have used a bit more light-show freedom, but only if Ford himself had been up for it, of course.
All in all, Rončel’s musical odyssey in Šiška wrapped up very satisfyingly. This year we got to see a few renowned names in Ljubljana, like Marcus Miller and Mike Stern, and if the organizer manages to turn the event into an annual affair, then besides Postojna, the capital will finally get a jazz-blues festival worthy of its status. And that’s a nice outlook for the future.
Photos: Barbara Milharčič
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