Cafe Musique's Music, A Retrospective

Gypsy,swing,tango,folk & wild classical.  Pure and simple. Kind of! 

 

The ensemble excelled with their unique arrangements of dozens of tunes, famous and obscure, classical to zydeco, while letting singer/songwriter Nuttycombe fill in the gaps with his pleasant, humorous and somewhat skewed view of life. 

 

Many of the tunes featured a dialog between the violin and accordion, sometimes in harmonious agreement, sometimes not. Performances would contain searing and passionate moments where the band would let Albanese's violin soar into the heavens and then gently bring the audience back to earth with powerfully gentle expressions from Inglish's accordion. 

 

String-wizard Williams was always on hand with his on-stage showmanship and would weave a texture of sound around the ensemble's music, applying just the right amount of musical expression.  And then he would come out of nowhere with amazing and  passionate solos. 

 

Bassist Murray, as the band's anchor, would maintain complete control of where the group was heading, navigating the musical terrain keenly with his skilled timing, tasty musical chops and no-nonsense focus. 

 

Together, this all resulted in a mixture of genres that the group branded in their logo and also gave birth to their somewhat tonque-in-check, self-defined genre, wild-classical.  

 

Gypsy,swing,tango,folk & wild classical indeed!