Antonio Forcione with Yazmyn Hendrix

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One special night with Antonio Forcione with Yazmyn Hendrix

Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester, UK, July 07, 2019

by Andrew Mackenzie

As I live near Colchester and have attended many shows here at this venue. I’ve only just discovered they have a Jazz Club and tonight although the headline act is Antonio Forcione, this review is on his special guest the lovely and amazingly talented Yazmyn Hendrix.

Yazmyn Hendrix is a solo artist originally from London who uses mainly her voice, some percussion, and various effects pedals to create her musical environment. She’s an experimental multi-genre singer and songwriter who writes simple songs about complex things; love, life, reality, and dreams. Yazmyn is synesthetic, meaning she associates each song, each word and each instrument with colours and textures; this gives her an original perspective when writing and performing.

Yazmyn Hendrix (credit: Andrew Mackenzie)

This is now my second time of seeing Yazmyn, I saw her at a club in Brighton in 2017 supporting guitarist John Gomm and I was opened up to a new level of intimate intensity. Although her set list was small it really shows how she, a synesthetic creates what she does and how this helps with her music and songwriting.

She started by explaining to the audience about who she was and what she does and how she uses loop pedals to create 99% of her music and started by singing her version of Massive Attacks – Teardrop and the crowd loved it.
The venue is a great venue for such an act as the acoustics gave her set depth and feeling. Her songs are beautiful and most about deep and meaningful topics. Seeing her perform for a second time was great as I got to see her in a new light she has grown as an artist. I can’t wait to see what’s next for her. Her last track was ” Whole Heart” which is her latest release and she has just shot a video for the single. She got an huge applause from the audience who really enjoyed her music.

Yazmyn Hendrix Set List:
Teardrop (Massive Attack cover)
Stay With Me
Soul Speak
Oh Death
Whole Heart

They took a short break enough time to mingle and fill up on drinks.
And then the head act was brought up on stage; Antonio Forcione. I’ve never heard of this guy until tonight but knew he was a guitarist. So, here is a small background of him and his work He is an Italian jazz guitarist who has been playing the guitar since the age of 13 and since then has won multiple awards he is a composer too. His discography is vast staring since the 1980s and continues his last album in 2016 (Compared to what) I knew after briefly reading about him I was in for a musical meltdown, in a good way. He was sharing the stage with his cellist friend Jenny. He simply sat down the audience now quiet and just started playing I knew from that song that it was going to be a great and magical set!

Antonio Forcione (credit: Andrew Mackenzie)

I was blown away and transported to another place where I could just dream, I closed my eyes during the first song to take it all in, but watching him play he plays with heart and passion and fire But this overwhelming softness yet incredible intense guitar playing.

When you see him play, joy and happiness are all over his face which shows he loves what he does. Throughout his set, he played a variety of music which you could put to the place he described. I’ve never known such a talented artist take you on a musical journey on an instrumental level like this guy. It’s hard to describe but it’s like those amazing movies with great soundtracks and it helps you immerse yourself into the film it’s similar to that but musically watching him and then listening to what he creates it’s just amazing. The music just kept coming from tales of Africa to Cuba and more, the intenseness of what was to come grew. The crowd I think in awe of this guys talent.

He ended his set by playing a lovely track Africa from his sketches of Africa album.

He was applauded loudly by the crowd for such an amazing evening. One that I really enjoyed to shoot and write this.

SET LIST
1)Tears of joy
2)Tribute: Waltz of django
3)A tribute to Joel juburt
4) tribute to nelson Mandela – my deepest joy
5) Songs for Zimbabwe
6) Diary
7) Instrumental version of Marvin Gaye “heard it through the grapevine”
8) Havana
9) recovery
10) Africa

I would recommend both of these artists to anyone who loves this style and wants to find new music.