Page 24 - BiTS_09_SEPTEMBER_2025
P. 24

of days with just a few takes, and there in that studio with “Juba Dance”, we became
    really  brothers.  Really  blues  brothers  and  we  came  together  first  in  Europe,
    continental Europe, then UK, then in the States, then in Canada and Guy Davis did a

    lot to me. In some way he gave me the degree at the University of Blues. Yeah, yeah,
    yeah, I'm not joking. I'm serious about this.

    BiTS:  [Laughing] That's a really lovely expression. I love it.


    FP:  [Chuckles] Thanks. Because when I was playing at Guy’s side, I can feel that the
                                                                           blues  was  in  him.  Probably,
                                                                           he’d say, oh, no, no, I'm just a

                                                                           performer. Just a blues player
                                                                           but  I'm  not  a  bluesman.  But
                                                                           probably  the  blues  is  in  his

                                                                           DNA.  Also,  if  Guy  himself
                                                                           doesn't  want  to  admit  it
                                                                           [chuckles]  because  he  always

                                                                           jokes ,  “Oh, I'm from New York
                                                                           City, the only cotton I picked up
                            Fabrizio and Angelina
                                                                           was  my  underwear  when  my
                                                                           mother was yelling at me when
    I was a teenager.”  But he really has the blues inside deep and big and huge.

    BiTS:  You made a few records in between, but then a little later on in 2017, you

    made “Sonny and Brownie’s Last Train”. I have to say I'm a great lover of Sonny and
    Brownie. I saw them many times live and I've always been delighted, particularly
    with Sonny Terry's playing. It was such a shame when they broke up, especially

    under the conditions when they broke up, not speaking to one another. What made
    you want to do that album?


    FP:  We have to thank Angelina because the idea for the album came from Angelina.
    One night, she told me, I've seen you and Guy playing together many, many times,
    and of course, I love it when you play together. And so I think that you two need to
    do a record dedicated to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Nobody has done it yet,

    so you have to do it. You and Guy are the right musicians to do the record. But Guy,
    in the beginning, was not so happy. He said, I don't think that the world needs a

    tribute to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, but I said to Guy, “Okay, you live in
    New York. I live with my wife. So please let's do the record over here.” So Guy and
    I stayed for two days in a recording studio in Milan and recorded all the songs live
    in the studio. We don't have much time, so we also rehearsed all the songs in the

    studio. I always made a joke and said, our album has the same budget that The
    Rolling Stones had for their breakfast during the recording of “Blue & Lonesome”

    [laughs]. But we put there all our passion, love and respect for those two wonderful
    musicians. Sometimes during the recordings, I felt like that Sonny and Brownie were
   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29