Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Koper / Figa Rock Bar / Slovenia
Concert date: 22.10.2015
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: €18.00
Figa Rock Bar! Vaganel near Koper, Thursday, October 22, 2015. Coco Montoya! You can’t believe that such an eminent and respected name of world blues is actually coming to Slovenian soil. Let’s be honest, when it comes to the general concert offering in Slovenia, blues is definitely an undernourished genre. Especially when it comes to big names like Coco Montoya! They always kind of buzz around us, but rarely land on the map of Slovenia. So a real concert treat was in the cards.
The man who rose to fame mainly through a 10-year adventure with live blues legend and still-kicking 81-year-old John Mayall (who played in Graz, Austria just a few days ago), where he played guitar, and where Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor also played guitar, built up such a reputation in that time that he was able to launch a successful solo career in the mid-nineties. A lefty who plays in the manner of Albert King, on a right-handed guitar without restringing it – meaning he holds chords on the guitar “mirrored,” compared to the average guitar mortal of the galaxy – he got more serious about the guitar after Albert Collins discovered him as a drummer and initially offered him the drum stool in his band. Montoya quickly took Collins as his guitar role model, which is also reflected in his style and sound, which he has been developing over the years.
Coco (originally Henry) Montoya, along with his crew of Brant Leeper (keyboards), Nathan Brown (bass guitar) and Rena Beavers (drums), showed up at the Figa Rock Bar around half past eight in the evening. The people who were occupying the club’s outdoor “forecourt” at that time, calmly puffing on their smokes and passing the time with a well-earned mug of beer, didn’t even notice the foursome walking by. After a while, though, the stage inside the club came to life as the band tested the last little details of the tuning. Twenty minutes past nine, it “thunders.” The band launches into the set, and the crowd pours into the club’s interior.
Some 60, maybe 70 curious souls, and another 30, maybe 40, in the club’s outdoor area, had something to see and hear. Montoya put on an exceptional show this evening. As a vocalist and guitarist, he’s an outstanding performer. As he made his way through the verses, he kept a watchful contact with the crowd, and the towering musician didn’t skimp on constant smiling and schmoozing. The band mostly played Montoya’s solo material, though Montoya certainly didn’t forget to pay tribute to his teacher Albert Collins when he tackled the song I Got A Mind To Travel. Among the bunch of excellent blues numbers, such as the opening Wish I Could Be That Strong, the mischievous Hey Seniorita, Don’t Go Makin’ Plans, I Won’t Beg, Three Sides to Every Story, It’s My Own Tears, the guy also slipped in numbers with bigger musical payoff, which get into your ear quickly, like Too Much Water and the infectious closer I Want It All Back. Nothing But Love, dedicated first and foremost to B.B. King, who passed away this year, delivered especially intense moments of the concert. The slow blues sounded simply wonderful. The guitar ace shone in it with exceptional feeling, with a delicacy in which the guitar at times barely audibly moaned, followed by thunderous passages worthy of the best moments of world blues. Passion and emotion surged across the stage in leaps and bounds during the performance, and Coco, together with his bandmates, constantly received huge ovations from the audience.
The rest of the crew also got enough room in the improvised parts to spread out vividly and enliven the stage confession of Montoya’s blues visionary spirit. All with a subtle touch, all the way through. The refined guitar ace, excellent vocalist and totally self-taught musician delivered, in the best possible way this evening, an experience of what stripped-bare authenticity in reviving emotions really means. These feelings more than touched the audience. It was a concert of intense feelings and high chemical perception. With the extraordinary charisma, a force that you have to live through, and a musical execution boiling over with energy, manifested by the highly virtuosic figure of the one-of-a-kind Coco Montoya and his three musical buddies, your breath catches and your blood freezes, that’s how much sacred sincerity this master’s playing holds. By coming to Koper and playing an unforgettable show there, Coco Montoya definitely delivered the high point, or to put it bluntly, the pinnacle of this year’s entire blues scene in Slovenia. No less, no more.
Despite all the superlatives this concert earned, the wonderful hangout with Coco Montoya was once again marred by the standard realization that the turnout was, once more, decidedly too low. Sadly, that’s how it is here in Slovenia. Still.
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