Gig Review
Dino Baptiste & Darby Todd
Saturday, 19 February 2008:
On this their first visit to Bluesnights this duo simply blew the audience away with their outstanding musicianship! Dishing up a rich mix of jazz, blues, boogie-woogie and rock'n'roll they treated us to a master class of superbly tight arrangements delivered with skill and panache!
Dino Baptiste on keyboards and vocals is very much an upfront performer with a very quick wit. His live wire repartee was so good that he quickly had the crowd singing along, clapping hands and, later, even a couple of women dancing! Some well-known numbers got interesting arrangements like "Route 66" which had an excellent laid-back jazzy feel to it. One of Dino's compositions "Love Don’t Live Here Any More" is a lovely slow blues put across with plenty of passion. They then followed that with another own composition "I’m A Boogie Man", which I can only describe as an absolute butt kicker! Willie Dixon's "I Just Wanna Make Love To You" was given a very funky hard-hitting rendition with a very good drum solo to boot! The first set was rounded off with Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls Of Fire", pure Memphis rock and roll at it's best.
Note: Click thumbnail to view full artist image.
Photo credit: Paul Martin.
... continued
Set two started off with Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" and that got the boogie treatment. It requires a lot of confidence to take what is essentially a slide guitar tune and re-present it in keyboards mode, but this is exactly what Dino did – and to enormous effect. A fair sprinkling of Ray Charles' numbers featured in this set; "Do The Mess Around", "What'd I say", "I got A Woman" - all superbly played with tight rhythm. There were several highlights in this set. The Andrew’s Sisters' "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B" is such an upbeat and inspiring number that it is very hard to sit still in one's seat, fantastic! Elvis's "All Shook Up" was wonderful and we were roped in to providing the "Ugh" bit in which we acquitted ourselves well! "Stormy Monday Blues" was jazzy with excellent scat singing.
A brilliant version of Creedence C.C's "Proud Mary" also went down well. Dino & Darby rounded the set off with Ray Charles' "Hallelujah I Love Her So", an outright rocker. By now we were all requested – who could refuse Dino? - to get on our feet, arms outstretched above our heads, singing then clapping in the style of a revivalist meeting. To rapturous applause they came back on and performed Jim Croce's "Leroy Brown" followed by Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly", chock full of dazzling keyboard runs and drum flourishes - rock and roll at it's very best.
What a fabulous night! For just two musicians they certainly created an overall sound that was so much bigger than the sum of the parts - a fantastic show! They mesh well together. Darby Todd's drumming was perfectly pitched to both support but also embellish Dino's work on the keyboard, effortlessly moving from one musical style to another without batting an eyelid. I can’t wait to see them again and if you haven't, make a point of doing so. Top-notch entertainment.
Review by: Lewis A Harris.
© Bluesnights. The Dorset Blues Society.
19 February 2008.
