Review - Franco Bordoni - Urgente
Welcome back, we're glad you're here!
Artist: Franco Bordoni
CD: Urgente
Bonnie ruminates: Franco Bordoni’s Urgente is a short c.d. with only six songs, and that’s about the worst thing that I can say about it. I could have happily listened longer! As you might guess, Mr. Bordoni is a Celtic musician that lives and plays in Italy. His guitar and string powered arrangements of traditional tunes are fresh and compelling.
The guitar playing is superlative throughout the album, but shines particularly bright on the first track, Arthur McBride.
Fraher’s Jig is an intricate composition featuring guitar and what I believe, but couldn’t confirm to be, banjo. Whatever it is, the picking is extraordinary.
My favorite song is The Star of the County Down, for the combination of Franco’s strong, and dare I say, borderline seductive voice, and the intertwining of the flute, guitar, and the stringed instrument suspected to be a banjo.
If I wasn’t completely smitten by all of the tunes on this c.d., they were all well worth the listen, and I highly enjoyed the album as a whole.
Mike exclaims: What do you get when you mix an Italian with a bunch of traditional instruments? If your answer isn’t “Six awesome tracks of Celtic music on a CD titled Urgente by Franco Bordoni,” then you’ve got it wrong. Sorry. This short disc is sheer entertainment from the beginning to its all too quick conclusion. I could happily have listened to a couple of dozen songs on this CD.
There are so many wonderful things going on here it’s hard to know where to begin. I like the choices of instruments and the mixing all the way through, and they really shine on the instrumental tracks. Fraher’s Jig and The Lilting Banshee really blew me away. Maybe if I work hard and practice every day for the rest of my life, I’ll play an instrument a quarter so well.
For all us American Celtic music fans, Franco’s voice is definitely NOT what we’re accustomed to hearing when we slap a CD in the player, but it works. It works well. A few times it did make me grin when his accent came through, but I was completely charmed. If you’re a fan of World music, you can’t afford to be without this CD.
If you want more information about Franco Bordoni, his website is currently under construction, but you can check out his Myspace Page in the mean time.
