Back to Porretta

Three long years after my last visit I am back in Italy for the Porretta Soul Festival surely the best and longest lasting soul festival on the planet. Alan Lloyd and I toured Tuscany in the extreme heat, taking in the port city of Livorno, the tourist infested town of Pisa and the walled city of Lucca before arriving in the pretty spa town of Porretta Terme. We had escaped the highest recorded temperatures in England only to discover it was even hotter in Italy. The first evening of music was quite hot too. First act was Boston born Leon Beal with the Luca Giordano band. like many of the acts at Porretta this year he has been on before, but he has a decent voice and good stage presence. His set included Bobby Bland numbers, including 'Don't Cry No More' and 'Turn On The Love Light', Otis Redding songs such as 'Glory Of Love' and several Sam Cooke songs including Sam's adaptation of 'Little Red Rooster', 'Good News' and 'A Change Is Gonna Come'. There were also fine versions of 'Keep On Pushing' and 'Hole In The Wall' plus one original, 'I'm Still Here'. An excellent start to proceedings overall. Next up was the venerable trombonist Fred Wesley who at 79 is still at the top of his game. His band the New JBs includes some excellent musicians including Herman Rodriguez on sax and flute and Gary Winters on trumpet (pictured above), and the fair sized crowd loved the band's funky rhythms on numbers such as 'Phase Four', 'Four Play' 'Breaking Bread', and 'Pass The Peas'. Personally I thought the set improved as it went on, with 'Trick Bag', 'Funky Good Times" and 'House Party' outstanding. Final act of the evening was Martha High with her band the Italian Royal Family. Martha, now 77, was with James Brown's band for over 30 years but this set featured mostly new material from her new album 'Nothing's Gone Wrong'. She remains a dynamic performer and was great on the title number and others such as 'Room At The Top' and 'TCB or TYA'. But then she moved into audience participation time and persuaded the crowd to stand so the four of us, now including Rod Jolliffe and Dave Carroll, headed for the bar.