Veronica Sbergia Quartet - Don't Knock (2020)

It is undeniable, this Covid-19 pandemic, better known as Coronavirus, has destabilized us all, put us almost on our knees and for this reason today it is even more necessary to get up to study how to start again.

This is what Max De Bernardi and Veronica Sbergia are doing, from their Milanese home. After seeing their region get sick, after having to give up a full-bodied series of concerts, including a long tour on British soil that would have seen them busy throughout the month of June, the most folk couple in Milan decided to take advantage of the "forced confinement" time to work hard. And for a musician to work is to study, the instrument but also the culture of music that they propose, to make it more and more them, giving their songs that personality that elevates them compared to the simple performances of known songs.

Veronica, moreover, as a recent member of the board of Italian Blues Union is quite active in her new voluntary activity in favor of a "just cause", studying together with her travel companions modern proposals. This is knowing how to react and, meanwhile, here they come out with a new record, a 7-track EP where together with Max & Veronica we find the trusted Dario Polerani and his magical double bass and the Hispanic (but of Argentine origin) friend Chino Swinglide on resophonic guitar and vocals. " Don't Knock !!! "Is the title of this CD on behalf of Veronica Sbergia Quartet , a dip in the American sounds of the years between the two wars, where the blues had started to sprout also contaminating white music, in that explosive mixture that would have - a few decades later - led to the birth of rock'n'roll.

It seems easy to be able to play a music of almost a century back and, instead, there is nothing more difficult and you must be a true and prepared professional with a lot of love in your heart to be credible and convey the right atmosphere. In Italy and Europe few like Max De Bernardi and Veronica Sbergia are able to interpret this mix of blues, hillbilly, swing, doo-wop and gospel with such naturalness, the Americans themselves tell us.