• ARTIST: Gino Vannelli
• DATE: June 11 2012
• VENUE: Centro Commerciale Campania (Marcianise – Caserta, Italy)

Back in the summer of 2012, a shopping mall about an hour from where I lived back then had a rather unusual habit: it hosted jazz (or loosely jazz) concerts with free admission. The annual series, called Giugno In Jazz, brought a number of artists to an indoor stage at the Centro Commerciale Campania in Marcianise, near Caserta, and I happened to attend many of those nights.

That year, one of the guests was Canadian singer Gino Vannelli. I’ve always had a soft spot for his music, especially the period when his blend of pop, rock, funk and blue-eyed soul occasionally crossed paths with the synth sounds of the 1980s. ‘Black Cars’, in particular, has always been one of my favourite songs of his, so I brought my 12″ single along in the hope of getting it signed.

One of the things that struck me most, that I still remember to this day, was actually the audience. The place was packed with serious musicianship aficionados, many of them personal acquaintances of mine: the kind of people who would enthusiastically shout “GI-NO! GI-NO!” like football hooligans after every particularly adventurous instrumental passage. Vannelli seemed perfectly aware of that side of his following and was happy to indulge them, even if he wasn’t playing any instrument himself.

Drummer Reinhardt Melz especially stood out: a top-class player who delivered an incredible performance. He and the other musicians – including a horn section of saxophone, trumpet and trombone – gave Vannelli’s songs a pronounced fusion flavour throughout the evening. The extended instrumental workouts at the end of ‘Brother To Brother’ were a good example of this, while at the opposite end of the spectrum were sugary, mannered ballads such as ‘Canto’, Gino’s tribute to his Italian roots.

Indeed, I thought the concert worked best whenever Vannelli moved away from all the embellishments and simply let the songs take centre stage. When the arrangements weren’t trying quite so hard to impress, his class and decades of experience became obvious. He was still in excellent form and knew exactly how to hold an audience.

The crowd clearly loved every minute of the performance, even when I would have happily traded some of the instrumental fireworks for a few more straightforward songs. ‘Appaloosa’ was probably my favourite.

Still, I left very satisfied. I had seen a very good Gino Vannelli show for free on a warm summer night, not exactly something I could complain about.

And I still had that ‘Black Cars’ 12″ with me.

After the show, the singer spent some time taking pictures with fans and signing autographs. Unfortunately, mine didn’t go quite according to plan. The record sleeve was predominantly black, but I couldn’t find the right Sharpie-like marker for that. All I had was a white Uni Posca, which seemed a good option. Except the ink smudged all over the place.

So we tried again.

But the only other marker available was a black Sharpie. And he had to use it on a black cover.

The second autograph is there, but you basically have to hold the sleeve under the right light to see it. Meanwhile, the remains of the first attempt are still there too.

I’ve collected quite a few autographs over the years, but this remains quite possibly the most complicated one I’ve ever got.

Unless we consider that time when I literally had to crawl on the floor to make my way through dozens of legs and get the autograph of a footballer.

🟥 Amp Hiss And Memories is a series of posts revisiting concerts I’ve attended both in the past and more recently. A full index can be found here.