France has given us...(And Allen Kanovsky was appreciating one of them at at The Fish House - Nico Wayne Toussaint!)

Submitted by Al Kanovsky 11/17/14

…many gifts. Lafayette helped win our freedom. The Statue of Liberty welcomes immigrants to our land. Guy De Maupassant gave us the short story and now Nico Wayne Toussaint graces our shores with an amazing display of harmonica artistry.

Nico is a BLUESman in every sense of the word. He'll go back in time or look to the future. His emotional vocals make you think he was brought up in the Delta. Last night at The Fish House in Kendall we celebrated Martine Brunier's 20th anniversary of her 28th birthday. Jacques, her husband and dance partner, had it arranged as a surprise, and it was. Her son and good friends surrounded her with greetings. O.K. I'll get to the music.

Alack and alas this review is somewhat truncated (look it up). The reason for it being my lack of skill in taking electronic notes. I deleted all the notations for the first set. Let it suffice to say it lived up to expectations with the audience enjoying every note.

With Nico (harp/vocals) was his French band, Florian Royo (guitar), Antoine Perrut (bass) and Guillaume Destarac (drums). They are on their way to Memphis for the competition and today will be at Earl’s Hideaway in Sebastian. Nico, being ever gracious had some people sit in including Amy and Rochelle who did a heck of a nice rendition of "Baby, What You Want Me To Do". Nico's program included "Got Nothing To Lose", "Dark Night" and Dave Shelly's composition "One Fine Day". Florian contributed some excellent guitar work. Antoine and Guillaume kept them all in line. Maritne danced with Jacques, I danced with Martine, Nico danced with girlfriend Diane. The music and joy never stopped. The birthday cake was in the shape of a flat-top derby and was delicious using sparklers in the place of the conventional candles. The last set had Nicco doing "Too Poor To Die" (an appropriate description of my latter years) and the plaintive BLUES "We Can Go Back Home Tonight".

To say I had a good time would be an understatement. I love JAZZ. I love BLUES. I love women and I love words. Not necessarily in that order. South Florida has many BLUES bands going to Memphis. Iko Iko is among them and has mounted a 'Penny-A-Mile' campaign. 1,000 miles to Memphis comes to 10 bucks. Help if you can.

Thanks to Angela and TheFish House for supporting live JAZZ & BLUES in South Florida.  I promised not to mention it but --- I asked Elaine Porteous, owner of African Odessy (a generous sponsor of this blog), to dance. She is a strong-willed woman and doesn't take well to being 'led' by a man. To say the least our dancing was "truncated' as well.   

Al's Disclaimer:

A short note: The reason I write this is because I love music and words. I do not book acts. I do not promote acts. I do not accept invitations to review artists. I go to venues of my own choice. When and where is not influenced by anything other than who I would like to hear that night or day. If I don't like what I hear, I won't write about it. When I like it I let you all know. I never mention a name without asking permission. "Pardon me, Miss. Would you like to dance?" 
      

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