Biography
Raphael Wressnig (born October 14, 1979 in Graz, Austria) is a jazz, blues, funk organist, songwriter and producer. He recorded 17 albums of his own, as well as appearing on some 35 others as a guest. In 2013 and 2015 he received a nomination for "best organ player of the year" by Down Beat magazine.
Wikipedia: Raphael Wressnig
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Enrico Crivellaro (born in Padua, Italy) is an Italian blues musician.
Wikipedia: Enrico Crivellaro
Raphael Wressnig & Enrico Crivellaro - Live at the Off Festival
There’s plenty of excitement brewing on this remarkable CD/DVD package; that is if you have the hots for inventive, clever as well as intrepid diving into unpredictable realms of great instrumental music. Recorded live at the Off Festival in Šibenik, Croatia, sometime in the summer of 2007, this audio/video combo is a dazzling documentation of Raphael Wressnig and Enrico Crivellaro producing a hugely inspiring musical environment that is bound to leave you speechless.
There’s no need in stressing that this is unrehearsed stuff we're dealing with. Cheerful news for jazz enthusiasts because of Wressnig's and Crivellaro's reputation for delivering the essence of instrumental improvisation, which means they’re most certainly in for a good show. As expected, Raphael Wressnig does his usual finger stretching exercises curving around the predominantly jazzy infected tunes. He is clearly flying on the standout opening track “Boom Bello”, which he effectively tames with passionate and imaginative Hammond work. Even greater strength and emotion are evoked from his playing on the epic jazz workout “Cherokee”. Wressnig is overwhelming in tone and approach, as another fine example of blissful keyboard playing is spontaneously unleashed on “Banana Boogaloo”.
Crivellaro has no intention on missing out on the action. On “West 43rd St. Blues” he gets down to some serious blues playing. Despite being simply stated, it’s a fantastic demonstration of masterly guitar playing. He elegantly toys with dynamics and tone colouring on this one, and the number gets leaner and meaner when Scott Steen joins the fun with his well timed trumpet contribution. Crivellaro is proficient in crafting a unique solo jazz guitar experience. He gets cunningly humorous on “Mosquito Bite”, and there’s plenty of crafty jazz guitar to be found on “Speedin’”, where he tirelessly trades harmonies and numerous theme variations with Raphael, while they both run along the galloping bass line.
In comparison to the live album, the DVD portion of the pack has two more tracks in stock, still it has to be mentioned that the whole magic works better just by pressing the play button on your CD player.
8 out of 10
The Rocktologist: Raphael Wressnig & Enrico Crivellaro - Live at the Off Festival
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.