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Blues to Bop, esplode la festa - Gian Luca Verga
Lugarno 30th August 2003

Il Blues to Bop Festival non poteva escordire meglio. Con la gente che incurante del broncio di Giove pluvio affuisce in massa. Per applaudire dopo quasi vent’annui il boogie di Diz Watson che torna con qualche capello in meno e un credo musicale in più: il suono di New Orleans. Non factica ad eccitare gli astanti sparendo un paio di micidiali “terzine”, ruggendo con voce di scartavetro.

La festa esplode. Al suo fianco le congas dell’anziano eserafico Tony Uter la cui storia ci ricorda la collaborazione con Bob marley. Un paio di boogie quale antipasto e il vecchio Diz innaffia la folla con le irresistibili e “grasse” ritmiche di New Orleans, che non ti permettono certo l’abbiocco. Rispolvere Fats Domino, cita Dr John e altri eroi che hanno edificato la leggenda della città più musicale del globo.

E la chiatta si tramuta nel battello sbuffante vapore che solca le acque limacciose del “fiume padre” dispensando musica, raccogliendo storie di vita tra leggenda e verità.

English Translation

Diz Watson An Beal Bocht
By Ray Comiskey

Fresh from the country blues festival in Clifden, Diz ‘Honey Bear’ Watson brought his authentic yet distinctive rhythm and blues piano style to the Beal Bocht last week. Accompanied by Tony Uter on congas, he ran the gamut of his vocal and instrumental influences before an appreciative audience, which was treated to some of the most elegant blues piano heard here for some time. Elegance may seem an odd word in the relatively raw context of blues, but Watson’s touch, time and sense of idiom, as a pianist, combines control with no dilution of emotional content. As a vocalist, he has a firm grasp of a variety of styles which, allied to an exuberant personality, makes for immediate rapport with the listener.

Stylistically, he comes from New Orleans: the influences, apart from Fats Domino – recalled in the almost obligatory “Blueberry Hill” – include Cousin Joe and Professor Longhair, both of whom were mentioned in the evening’s programme. But there are also touches of such boogie greats as Jimmy Yancey, Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis in his piano style: a fine “Honky Tonk Train Blues” (or as he announced it “Tonky Honk”) epitomised his grasp of boogie. And humour was evident in his send up of Stephen Foster with “Swanee River”, which gravitated through “Around the World” and “Salt Peanuts” inserts to “Margie” done in Fats Domino’s vocal style.

Aided by the superb conga drumming by Tony Uter, he also gave some Mardi Gras music à la Professor Longhair, a Caribbean “Rum and Coca Cola”, a rocking medium tempo “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and a variety of slow blues by such as Archibald, Dr John and Champion Jack Dupree.

Irish Times 1991