Antonio Forcione, the London-based Italian guitar virtuoso played at Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho to a full house last night, a concert that had a warm, cosy feeling about it. While at times for me it was difficult to see who was there for a 35th birthday party and who was there for the food or just for the love of the music, intimacy at times gave way to the party atmosphere. Forcione even made reference to this at one stage by saying “Thank you for listening to me so religiously in a pizza club. That’s some achievement.”

Between camera flashes, orders being taken and pizzas arriving, Forcione played almost a dozen songs on his six and 12-string guitars and on his custom-made fretless Uddan, taken from his large back catalogue that spans some 13 albums. With his long-term band featuring the Brazilian Adriano Adewale on percussion, Nigerian Jenny Adejayan, cello, and Australian double-bassist Nathan Thomson, the quartet played beautifully as a unit, and it was easy to see the chemistry between the band in action.

Forcione’s quartet moved effortlessly from ballads such as ‘Stay Forever’ to a jazz, classical and African mix on ‘Song For Zimbabwe’, a number mostly dominated by Jenny’s brilliant cello playing.

Forcione came back alone in the second set to play ‘Acoustic Revenge’ adding touches of humour by plucking, strumming, and tapping on his custom-made Uddan, a routine that got the most applause of the evening. One of the highlights for me was ‘Tiramisu’, which Forcione jokingly explained was named after his special relationship with the dessert of the same name! The song’s latin groove reminded me of a Chorinhos, a slow-tempo samba, by Brazilian composer and saxophonist Pixinguinha, and on this song Adriano had a chance to shine on percussion.

– Angela Lopes