Denny Ilett (pronounced eye-let), from Reading in the UK, was completely unknown to me till now. But with his debut-CD “Callin’ The Children Home” I come to the conclusion that we are dealing with an exceptional talent. In the first place, we can’t pin Denny down to one particular genre. The list of names he gets his inspiration from is very versatile. To mention a few: Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, Dizzy Gillespie, Enrico Caruso, The Meters, Lillian Boutte, T-Bone Walker, Tom Waits and many more. When it started for Denny doesn’t really matter (besides he doesn’t know it himself exactly). But what does matter is we are dealing with a man with an incredible passion for music. Denny has a bit soft, but full voice (he reminds me a bit of J.J. Cale) and expresses that very well in every song. With the distinct use of the levels of strength of the pitches in sound he knows to maintain himself on the guitar very well too. The songs sound accomplished, very laid-back, but are played with a good sense of rhythm. Although New Orleans blues & jazz is the main course, I wouldn’t place him in that category. He is much too versatile for that. Then I think about Frank Sinatra’s ‘Angel Eyes’, a song which gets a different dimension. And the funky ‘Eyes In The Back Of My Head’ reminds me of the Frank Zappa album Sheik Yerbouti. Also the jazzy ‘Pretty Eyed Baby’ suits him fine and you really can hear that. In brief, this isn’t the last we heard from Denny.

Translation by: Ton Kok