In the News
Tony D Band at The Blues Club in Glossop, England
By Chris Lee (Manchester Evening News)
Printed Friday August 25, 1995
Tony D, a
comparatively new name on the European scene, gripped his
audience last night with two sets of tough, gut-wrenching
modern blues. This 33-year-old Canadian -- he emigrated to
Ottawa from Italy with his family at six -- showed himself to
be a guitar force to be reckoned with, a major league player
who displayed a sharper cutting edge than Eric Clapton and
better sustained solos than Buddy Guy.
Leading a trio, he stayed center stage all night and never once lost his hold on the listeners, carrying them with him through extended solos which combined imagination, emotional feeling, technical expertise, a keen sense of dynamics, a telling use of space and a rhythmic tension that was rarely allowed to slacken.
D -- his name is Diteodoro, which explains the truncation for stage purposes -- was first attracted to the blues by his elder brother's Johnny Winter records. But he soon moved on to deeper stuff by the likes of Muddy Waters, Little Walter et al, a predilection reflected by his choice of repertoire at Glossop. The programme included Little Walter's You Better Watch Yourself and Wild About You Baby, Buddy Guy's Damn Right I Get The Blues, John Lee Hooker's Daddy Was A Jockey, Albert King's Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven, and an innovative instrumental version of Howlin' Wolfs Smokestack Lightning.
The rhythm team of Greg "Fish" Fancy (bass) and Dave Zinman (drums) powered the performances with unfussy but die-hard support, matching D's penchant for high-energy bursts with unerring skill.
He broke up the evening with a smattering of vocals, but was ill-served by excessive reverb on his mike, distorting his voice unnecessarily.
A Jimi Hendrix offering climaxed his appearance, but the crowd wouldn't let him go. As an encore, he played Hooker's In The Mood For Love, unaccompanied and affectingly moody at first and in bravura macho style after he was joined by Fancy and Zinman. Then, in a walk-about serenade through the audience, he impressed with impromptu slide playing using a borrowed pint glass.