Anticipated return

It has been a long time since Gino Vanelli was in Thunder Bay.

Since the Montreal man was here "sometime in the 70s", he’s played for the pope, sold out shows worldwide and has ridden a wave of success spanning four decades.
Vanelli will ride that wave back to Thunder Bay when he plays the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium Thursday night.

"It was a long time ago," Vanelli said of his last time in Thunder Bay during a phone interview with tbnewswatch.com from Portland, Ore., airport before the start of his Canadian tour.

"It will be very interesting".

He said he’ll mostly being playing the hits of his latest collection Best and Beyond. He and his eight-piece band can’t get away without playing hits such as Black Cars and Wild Horses.

"It’s a high-powered show with a couple of other surprises."

Although Vanelli is on the road with his band, he’s no stranger to solo shows, big bands and even orchestras. He said keeping versatile is a great way to stay in vocal shape and also helps to keep things fresh.

"Just to keep it moving:"

Vanelli’s career really started moving when he went to Los Angeles to make himself a "nuisance" at the gates of A&M Records. Finally getting the attention and ear of co-owner Herb Alpert’s, Vanelli said he didn’t know then that his career would continue into the 21st century. But he had songs, such as People Got to Move, which needed to be heard.

"You have a sense that you have something that you want to complete," Vanelli said.

"Something that you want to get out. Something on the tip of your tongue that you need to spit out … when I have nothing left to say I’ll hang it up."

But Vanelli admits he’s not stopping anytime soon.

The 58-year-old is producing several albums, planning several tours spanning Europe and Australia and working on a new blues record at his studio in Portland.

No stranger to genre-mixing, Vanelli said the new album will be blues driven with hints of impressionism and jazz.

"More along the lines of how Miles Davis heard the blues," he said.

Vanelli was raised on jazz and even his pop and contemporary works have the adventurous spirit of the genre in it.

"If you can do it and it sounds great, than do it," he said.