Roberto Gambarini Better Live Than On Record
by paladin on 2013-06-30Jazz Bistro - TorontoMy date and I enjoyed this concert so much we paid a second (reduced) cover charge to stay for her second set. I thought Roberta's voice was better than I have heard on her CD's but I haven't heard a lot of them. I first heard her on the Jazz FM show Radio Deluxe and purchased a CD and attended the show based on that. She had local musicians with her, Dave Restivo on piano and Neil Swenson on base I had heard of before;enough said. The drummer Ethan Ardello I hadn't heard of before but was very good as well. He had great dynamics as did the rest of the trio. Roberta started both sets with 2 incredible accapella numbers. It is easy to scat sing but hard to do it well and she is the equal of Ella in that regard. She told us interesting stories about the number she was going to perform and I learned a lot about songs I thought I knew the background of. For instance, one number I thought was Brazilian I learned was written by an Italian for a movie score. The new Jazz Bistro renovation of The senator is classy. We sat in the mezzanine for the first set and on the main floor for the second. The sound was better on the main floor but good on the mezzanine. 3 television monitors show two camera views of the artist on the mezzanine floor. Service was attentive, food was good, menu limited but good. A decent selection of wines by the glass. Parking was right next door for $20.00 flat rate. A great night all around.