Speeding West

Guitarist Luca Benedetti returns to Vancouver for a very special 10-year reunion with his acclaimed quartet Speeding West. Based in Brooklyn and a fixture on the New York music scene, Benedetti is one of those artists for whom the term “genre-defying” was invented: playing jazz-funk, Cuban surf music, alt-bluegrass folk and more! He’s worked alongside an eclectic mix of artists including Jim Campilongo, Martha Redbone, Joy Askew, Ron Carter, Hermine Deurloo & Steve Gadd, Chris Lightcap, The Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowout, Erik Deutsch, Jon Cowherd, ULU, Zephaniah & The 18 Wheelers, and The National Reserve. 

From 2014 to 2016, Benedetti lived in Vancouver and, with his verve and versatility, made many friends in the local music community. This is when Speeding West was formed with Vancouver steel-guitar wizard Scott Smith, bassist Jeremy Holmes and drummer Nino DiPasquale. The ‘50s pioneering guitar/steel duo of Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West inspired both their music and their name! The dynamic quartet performs original music as well as classics from the West/Bryant songbook, Ernest Tubb & his Texas Troubadours, Hank Garland and many more. During their tenure in the city, Speeding West could be heard performing anywhere from the intimate stages of East Van’s The Heatley and Gastown’s Guilt & Co to the Fox Cabaret, the East Van Opry, and the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

Their melding of country, rockabilly, and jazz stretches the boundaries of country swing beyond anything Bob Wills ever imagined! If virtuoso picking and hot instrumental interplay are your things, you won’t want to miss these guys. They’ll have you steelin’ back to that same old used-to-be!

– ND