Live Music: Laurence Juber at McCabe’s

By Devon Wendell

It was a night of guitar virtuosity and refreshing originality Friday, when six string acoustic guitar master Laurence Juber dazzled his fans with a solo set at Mcabe’s in Santa Monica.  Juber is best known for his stint as lead guitarist for Paul McCartney’s Wings and his dedication to his very unique finger picking guitar style.

He opened a far-reaching, eclectic set with an acoustic guitar piece entitled “Catch!,” which brought to mind the great country “folk” blues guitar masters Mississippi John Hurt and Mance Lipscomb.  Juber effortlessly combined rhythm, walking bass lines, and lead guitar parts with confidence and dexterity, tapping the fingerboard, and incorporating open string harmonics.  The pace and chord structuring of this composition also had fragments of jazz and ragtime reminiscent of Django Reinhardt’s finest playing.

Next was “Baby, I’m Amazed,” a nod to Juber’s comrade and former employer.  In it, he proved to be a one man band, simultaneously playing McCartney’s vocal parts, as well as the original tune’s orchestration with a unique sense of harmonic movement.  Juber’s love for McCartney and the Fab Four was also evident in a brilliant but poignant take on “Strawberry Fields Forever.“  The song had a powerful fusing of folk, classical, country and blues as Juber tapped the frets of the guitar with his right hand, thumping the low notes with his thumb, slowly bending a string and using a vocal-like vibrato and fast hammer- ons.

His next piece, “Cobalt Blulre,” conjured up the ghost of Skip James, with slick finger picking and a stark yet beautiful melody. “Wooden Horses” had a Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed country twang to it.  In the only down side, Juber’s seemingly endless imagination, though flawless in its technique, at times felt a little too automatic and rehearsed on this number and lacked the daringness and power of some of the other tunes.  But he was a great showman, playing with one hand, and aggressively banging away at the body of the guitar with the other to create odd counter-rhythms.

In one of the true highlights of the evening, “Stormy Weather” was done as a flamenco-tinged ballad, in which Juber managed to sound like three guitarists, all perfectly playing in sync with each other, with a metronome like rhythm alternating between razor sharp runs and high note arpeggios.  “Highway 1” had a sinister flamenco feel – Andres Segovia hitting a California Freeway with a vanful of blues masters — with Juber’s sense of fusion and dynamics leading the way.

The most unusual number of the evening, however, was a hilarious, folky version of the Beatles classic “I Saw Her Standing There.”   Juber captured the vocal harmonies perfectly with each carefully placed chord and nuance. And the tune’s blues aspects were never abandoned, even as Juber explored new musical realms through this fascinating blast from the past.  The equally playful tribute to the Sherman Brother’s Mary Poppins chestnut, “A Spoonful Of Sugar,” was flat out funny, with wonderfully odd musical choices and chord structuring.

Next up was the title track to Juber’s 1998 recording Mosaic, which felt a lot like Jimmy Page’s mystical acoustic explorations with Led Zeppelin, with bluesy runs and fast vibrato in an open tuning.  His “Guitar Noir” was a minor key lament that lived up to its title with a smoky atmosphere, suggesting images of Bogey as Philip Marlow — or Lauren Bacall blowing a kiss into the foggy night.  Juber’s high note pentatonic scales and throaty bass note phrasing created a wide range of dynamics and tonal possibilities.

The rock’n’rollish piece “Stolen Moments” closed the set.  Juber snapped the strings with his knuckles beating on the guitar with ferocity. Using a G minor tuning, he played a furry of piano-like chords, while layering rich harmonic textures and always returning to the established theme of the piece.

Summing up, Laurence Juber demonstrated to the attentive audience at Mcabe’s a playing style in which his guitar was a virtual extension of his body and his whimsical personality.  The result was an immensely entertaining, musically diverse performance filled with soul, fun, and virtuosic precision.

To read more posts by Devon Wendell click here.

Live Music: Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain at Royce Hall

By Don Heckman

The idea of assembling a trio consisting of banjo, string bass and tabla drums doesn’t, on the face of it, appear to be one of the more intriguing musical concepts of recent memory.  When the players, however, consist of banjoist Bela Fleck, string bassist Edgar Meyer and tabla drummer Zakir Hussain, the notion suddenly appears to have some doable possibilities.

Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer

Many of those possibilities were realized in impressively musical fashion Thursday night during the trio’s performance in a UCLA Live program at Royce Hall. Each member of the group is, of course, a virtuoso player in his own right, and they have collaborated with each other in the past via various stylistic and ensemble formats. That previous familiarity with each other undoubtedly contributed to the sense of musical ease between the players, the relaxed feeling of almost symbiotic creative compatibility that pervaded the evening’s programming.

The music moved freely across boundaries associated with each player – Western classical music, bluegrass, jazz, Indian classical music, even an occasional taste of funk and groove.  On “Canon,” Fleck and Meyer worked their way through a startlingly complex musical round, with Hussain finding ways to emphasize the shifting rhythmic highlights.  “E-Minor” verged playfully toward a blues groove.  Other pieces dipped into raga-like melodies and tala-like rhythms reminiscent of Indian Classical music, the busy-fingered excitement of bluegrass and a few instances in which the timbres of the three instruments were combined to produce startlingly lush, near-orchestral sounds.

Given the virtuosic skills of the players, it was only appropriate that each was assigned a technique-displaying showcase opportunity.  And the results were extraordinary.  Meyer’s segment included an astonishing display of blindingly rapid arco laying.  Fleck, in his solo, displayed a range of sounds, textures and harmonic density that I’ve rarely – if ever – heard emanating from the banjo.  Hussain’s offering was both musically startling and entertainingly witty, ranging from the swift, precise rhythmic articulation and palm-driven pitch changes characteristic of the Indian classical style to a humorous (but musically serious) romp through the vocal solfege that is part of the complex Indian percussionist’s drumming technique.

What Fleck, Meyer and Hussain have done with this unique congregation is to open a door to fascinating new musical possibilities.  And I wonder how soon it will be before some enterprising composers – beyond the imaginative members of the trio themselves – explore the remarkable potentials in timbre, rhythm and pitch range that exists in this disparate, but compelling instrumental combination.

Live Music: Frank Sinatra, Jr. at Catalina Bar & Grill

By Don Heckman

There’s no bigger show business name than Sinatra. And understandably so, given Frank Sinatra’s remarkable achievements in virtually every area of the business. All of which, however, has placed a special burden on the family member who bears the same name, Frank Sinatra, Jr. (professionally, at least, since his birth name is Franklin Wayne Emmanuel Sinatra). And the performance of Sinatra, Jr. at Catalina Bar & Grill Thursday night revealed both the blessings and the challenges of following in the creative footsteps of a high visibility parent. No wonder Sinatra, Jr. once said that having “a famous father means that in order to prove yourself you have to work three times harder than the guy off the street.”

And he worked at least that hard, if not harder, in an entertaining, non-stop set that ran close to two hours. Backed by an eight-piece band,  Sinatra, Jr. started out with a few varied tunes — “Swing On A Star,” “That Face,” “Black Coffee” –  designed to showcase his own unique vocal qualities. But the vast majority of the program was devoted to a Sinatra tribute, which was what the packed house obviously had come to hear.

Given the size of the Sinatra lexicon of songs, it would have taken a few more hours just to touch on the best known material. But what was chosen skimmed much of the cream: “I Get A Kick Out of You,” “Angel Eyes,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “A Foggy Day,” “Strangers in the Night,” “Violets For Your Furs,’ and more. The eight piece band — which included two doubling saxophonists, trumpet and trombone — played arrangements cleverly designed to simulate the large orchestra charts on the Sinatra originals.

From a nostalgic point of view, the interpretations were on target. Sinatra, Jr.’s voice is strikingly similar to his father’s. And, as his father’s conductor for the last year’s of his life, he obviously knew every subtle twist and turn in the vocal phrasing. His between-songs anecdotes were largely framed by the Sinatra Era (except for a welcome spontaneous reference to something that had happened earlier in the day at a Presidential press conference).  As a tribute singer and band, doing a tribute set, the performance did exactly what it set out to do.

The only problems, in this context, traced to an occasional tendency for the horn arrangements to sound empty, even a bit cheesy in spots. Nor did it make sense for Sinatra, Jr. to wave his arms to conduct all the music. He was, after all, the star of this performance, not the conductor — despite its tribute qualities. The conducting duties could easily have been handled by one of the musicians.

The real problematic subtext to the show, however, was the issue of identity. Sinatra, Jr. is a talented singer and musician, as the first few non-Sinatra associated tunes quickly revealed. Even so, his desire to honor the music of his father is understandable. But one couldn’t help but wish that his program had devoted an equal amount of time — separate and apart from the Sinatra classics — to honoring his own considerable creativity.  Isn’t that what Sinatra, Sr. would have wanted?

Frank Sinatra Jr. continues at Catalina Bar & Grill – (323) 466-2210 – through Sunday.

Live Music: The Heroes of Woodstock at the Greek Theatre

By Don Heckman

“The Heroes of Woodstock.” It wasn’t a title that seemed consistent with what that unforgettable, summer of 1969 event at Yasgur’s farm in New York’s Sullivan County had really been all about. Not, that is, without the presence of Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix (among others). And, as it turned out, a lot more was missing from Sunday night’s performance at the Greek Theatre, as well.

The funny thing was that, on my drive to the big, outdoor amphitheatre, I suddenly encountered a major traffic jam and a shut down area along Fountain Avenue, one of the venue’s main feeder streets. So, along with many others, I had to take a circuitous, traffic-heavy route to reach the theatre. It wasn’t quite like having to park my car along a road and walk to the venue the way I did at the original Woodstock, but it nonetheless called up a few memories.

And memories, of course, were what drove this heavily publicized program: a 40th anniversary, touring assemblage of bands aimed at provoking the interest, either of those who were at Woodstock, would like to have been at Woodstock or who lie about having been at Woodstock. Given that focus, it would have been foolish to expect anything more than a four-decades-later, greatest hits revisitation. And thats pretty much what “The Heroes of Woodstock” was all about.

The problem was how to make even that fairly limited goal happen — at least with a reasonable modicum of musical believability. Each of the four bands on the bill — Big Brother and the Holding Company, Canned Heat, Ten Years After and the Jefferson Starship — had at least one of the original members in the line up; some had more. But significant headliners were missing: Joplin from Big Brother; Alvin Lee from Ten Years After; Bob Hite from Canned Heat; Grace Slick, Marty Balin and everybody else, other than Paul Kantner, from the Jefferson Airplane. (The billing underscored some of these absences by noting that Big Brother’s set featured “the music of Janis Joplin,” and that the Jefferson Starship would perform “the music of the Jefferson Airplane.”)

Completely going against the grain, the opening set by Big Brother was the most unexpectedly convincing of the night. Janis Joplin is utterly irreplaceable, but singer Sophie Ramos grabbed the Joplin style, kept the most familiar elements, and added her own remarkable skills to the mix. The result — even with such Joplin-possessed songs as “Ball and Chain,” “Piece of My Heart” and “Me and Bobby McGee” (and, yes, the latter was a post-Woodstock Joplin hit) — was a set of tunes that exploded to life. Ramos has been around for a while without gaining much visibility. She clearly has the passion, the presence and the musicality to step out on her own. (And how ironic — yet oddly appropriate — it would be if it was her Janis Joplin simulation that launched her career.)

Canned Heat’s personnel has varied widely over the years, but this version included such early members as Fito de la Parra, Larry Taylor, Harvey Mandel and Barry Levenson. The music, as a result, sizzled with the band’s trademark affection for the blues, which coursed through such familiar items as “Let’s Work Together,” “On the Road Again” and “Going Up To The Country.” Harvey “The Snake” Mandel’s “psychedelic” sounds (ie. a morass of feedback, fuzz and distortion) were no more intriguing than they were in the band’s early years. But — more than any other group on the bill — Canned Heat offered a believable representation of past glories.

Like Big Brother, Ten Years After, in its original form, was framed around the work of a single front person — guitarist Alvin Lee in their case. The Lee era ended in 1974, with the band occasionally reuniting in the ’80s and ’90s. For the past six years, guitarist/singer Joe Gooch has taken the group’s center stage role. Slim, adept, even charismatic at times, Gooch delivered items such as “I’d Like To Change the World” with believable efficiency. But, even at its best, the band’s performance suffered from the sort of slick, pre-packaged quality that wasn’t always absent in the Lee Ten Years After, either.

The program’s biggest disappointment was saved for the final group — the Jefferson Starship. I’ve always felt that the Jefferson Airplane, despite its popularity, was never fully acknowledged for what an extraordinary band it really was. At its best, it was a solid core rock group that was also capable of exploring unusual textures and timbres, improvising with the inventiveness of first rate jazz artists, and producing provocative but memorable songs. The Jefferson Starship offered a few classic items — “The Other Side of This Life,” “White Rabbit,” “Somebody To Love,” “Wooden Ships” — with Cathy Richardson singing the Grace Slick leads. But the only aspects that recalled the originals were the melodies and the rhythms. with the Airplane’s layered subtleties lost in Richardson’s lusty, over the top readings. And the attempt to transform one of the Starship’s tunes into a jam environment to accommodate a guest appearance by former Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten was no doubt a commercial decision by the event’s producers. As was the decision to inexplicably wrap the Starship’s set with a Joe Cocker-styled version of the Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends.”

On the upside of this odd tribute to one of the most extraordinary events in the history of American music (and American culture, for that matter), Country Joe McDonald’s between bands contributions provided the evening’s most credible connection to Woodstock 69. He sang “Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die.” of course, but he also added “The Ring of Fire” and “Save the Whales.’ And, in the concert’s only direct connection with the subtext that was fundamental to Woodstock, he read the names of the servicemen from Sullivan county (the location of the original Woodstock Festival) who have died in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a much-needed moment that acknowledged the true “Heroes of Woodstock.”

Live Music: Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock at the Hollywood Bowl

By Don Heckman

There were two very good reasons why the names Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock were prominently displayed on the marquee at the entrance to the Hollywood Bowl Saturday night. The first, obviously, was because they are marquee names, and that’s what it takes to fill the 18,000 plus seats in the vast, hillside venue. The second, somewhat more esoterically, is because, as a pair of artists at the pinnacles of their different musical disciplines — classical music and jazz — their on stage encounter promised an evening of potentially intriguing creative delights.

Count the first reason a success. The duo’s two night booking (they had opened on Friday) came close to a capacity turn out. But the effectiveness of the second reason was less easy to pin down. The crowd reaction to some of the more spontaneous pieces suggested that a substantial portion of the audience was indeed delighted by much of what they heard. But grumbling doesn’t resonate very easily in the open air of the Bowl. And, from this critical listener’s perspective, the programming for the common ground encounter between Lang Lang and Hancock actually raised a few more questions than it answered.

For example, what could have been the motivation for choosing the Ralph Vaughn-Williams Piano Concerto No.2 as a vehicle for the pair to display their classical chops? The obvious answer, of course, is that it’s a concerto for two pianos and orchestra. It’s also a concerto filled with a lot of busy, virtuosic technical demands that can’t seem to generate any mildly appealing melodic content. Originally written as a very difficult solo concerto, it was modified in the mid-’40s by Vaughn-Williams and composer Joseph Cooper, resulting in something with the distinct qualities of a patched together work. Give Lang Lang and Hancock credit for negotiating its roiling musical waters with accuracy — if not a great deal of inspiration — but it’s still hard to understand why it was picked for the tricky task of bringing together two very different pianists.

It’s not as though there weren’t some better alternatives. A few possibilities? The elegant Mozart Concerto No. 10 in Eb (it’s been performed, interestingly, by Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea); a pair of worthy concertos by Mendelssohn; and, assuming the quest was for a 20th century work, why not Poulenc’s dynamic 1932 Concerto for Two Pianos? Any of these would have provided a more appealing two-piano showcase.

The evening’s other major orchestral work, George Gershwn’s Rhapsody in Blue, has been performed in a far-ranging array of formats, from the original Ferde Grofé orchestration for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra to contemporary jazz based versions and a really off-beat recording for five pianos. The Lang Lang/Hancock performance employed a fairly standard orchestration in which the piano line was traded back and forth between the two pianists, occasionally leaving open spaces for improvisational-like passages. Once again, the duo brought life and spirit to a work which contained elements appropriately expressive for the unique talents of both players.

A pair of solo segments showcased Lang Lang’s gorgeously romantic rendering of Liszt’s Liebestraum and a characteristically exploratory Hancock medley of his own “Cantaloupe Island,” “Maiden Voyage” and “Dolphin Dance.” A spontaneous improvisational duo examination of a Chinese theme, however, somehow emerged with tango rhythms and Middle Eastern scales — interesting from a boundary-less world music point of view, but not exactly an example of the best of either player’s skills. Inexplicably, Josh Groban arrived at the very end of the concert to offer a lyrical, crowd-pleasing reading of “Love Walked In.” And conductor John Axelrod led the Los Angeles Philharmonic through mercilessly rushed versions of Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro and Leonard Bernstein’s “Mambo” from West Side Story.

Call it a program that made the effort to aim high, without always hitting its mark. But it was an intermittently entertaining evening, nonetheless, primarily because Lang Lang and Hancock are more than marquee names. Always worthy of one’s attention, they are fascinating to see and hear — even when the musical settings leave something to be desired.

Live Music: The Lyle Lovett Large Band and Madeleine Peyroux at the Greek Theatre

By Devon Wendell

It was a soulfully fun evening at The Greek Theater Friday night with two diverse acts whose sets were celebrations of true roots music, ranging from blues and bluegrass to country, jazz, and gospel. Kicking off the show, Madeleine Peyroux took the Greek stage with a sense of tradition framing themes of isolation, alcoholism, loss, and redemption. Her opening number, “Don’t Wait Too Long” (from the album Careless Love) was a bleak ultimatum of pain: “You can cry a million tears, you can wait a million years, if you think time will change your ways, don’t wait too long.”

Peyroux’s music is heavily steeped in modern folk blues, with arrangements reminiscent of post 70’s Eric Clapton and the darker side of James Taylor with the sleek jazzier sensibilities of Steely Dan. This was clearly evident on “River Of Tears” from her latest album Bare Bones. Not surprisingly, it was co-produced by Steely Dan’s Walter Becker, and a tasty guitar solo from Pat Bergeson echoed Becker’s jazz stylings. Bersegon and the other members of her quartat — keyboardist Gary Versace, bassist Barak Mori and drummer Darren Beckett — were extremely tasteful, not getting in the way of Peyroux’s unique, imagistic lyrics.

Peyroux’s vocals clearly owed a nod to Billie Holiday, though not in a manner that felt forced, or with any feeling of blatant imitation. Her own staccato acoustic guitar playing brought to mind Willie Nelson at his finest — especially on “I’m All Right,” which Peyroux explained was inspired by WC. Field’s quote; “Drown in a cold vat of whiskey? Death where is thy sting,” which perfectly summed up this dark saloon serenade to love gone astray. And her lyrics often recall the hopelessness and despair of Dylan’s more recent recordings, exemplified on “I Must Be Saved,” which Peyroux explained has to do with “loss and questions of salvation.”

The Highlights of Peyroux’s set were ragtimey covers of Serge Gainsbourg’s “La Javanaise,” which featured Versace’s haunting melodica with and Beckett playing brushes on a cardboard box, and Leonard Cohen’s classic “Dance Me To The End Of Love.” A dash of optimism on the horizon was thrown in for good measure to end the program with “Instead” — “Instead of feeling bad, feel glad” — featuring Bergeson’s clean, slide guitar playing in a tune that brought to mind one of Billie Holiday’s rollicking blues with Teddy Wilson’s band. The final number, Something Grand promised a better life down the road and was further proof that Madeleine Peyroux, with her refreshingly pure sound, has matured into one of today’s finest singer/songwriters.

The central elements to Lyle Lovett and his Large Band are humor and soul, both of which were definitely present as he opened the program’s second half with his anthem of self gratification, “Choke My Chicken,” a southern fried country romp. Their take on the Tammy Wynette classic, “Stand By Your Man,” delivered with the right sense of irony and wit, was good for a laugh. And they also embraced gospel traditions — as in “I Will Rise Up,” which took Lovett’s devout fans straight to the cotton fields of the deep South and right into church.

“Bluegrass is the dark side of country music”, Lovett informed the crowd as he was joined by Keith Sewell on mandolin, Luke Bulla playing fine fiddle, Buck Reid on steel guitar, colorful cello work by John Hagen, and solid bassist Peter Krausse for a few bluegrass numbers, including the hilarious and risqué “Keep It In Your Pantry,” about bad relationships and food. Another number, the boot stomping “Down In Indiana,” showcased Sewell’s frenetic mandolin playing along with Bulla’s exemplary fiddle work.

Shifting gears, the gut-wrenching minor key blues, “You Were Always There,” opened up room for screaming — but not completely over the top — electric guitar solos by both Ray Herndon and Mitch Watkins with solid drumming support from veteran Russ Kunkel.

Lovett’s own spotlight qualities included playful and imaginative lyrics as well as his witty banter on tunes — “Penguins” and “Home Is Where my Horse Is” among them – which covered everything from road life and beer to football. He also displayed his Johnny Cash-esque finger picking style on the ballads, “Walk Through The Bottomland,” “If I Had A Boat” (a romantic fantasy), “Upon A Pony” and a dark tribute to a traveling lost soul in “L.A. County.” On a pair of numbers he duetted with Chicago native Francine Reed on some gospel and pure Texas swing blues on “What Do You Do”/”The Glory Of Love,” and Ida Cox’s “Women Don’t Get The Blues.”

Lovett and his Large Band closed the set with his gospel hit “Church,” which had the audience on their feet, clapping and singing along, investing the venue with a true Church vibe. Here, as elsewhere throughout the program, the backup singers were outstanding: Sweet Pea Atkinson, Harry Bowens, Francine Reed, and Willie Greene, whose exceptional baritone vocals complimented Lovett’s laid back, droll country tone.

The evening ended with two encores; the whimsical Chicago blues shuffle “My Baby Don’t Tolerate,” and a medley of Leadbelly’s classic “Ain’t No More Cane” and a return to “I Will Rise Up.” Capped by Jim Cox’s percussive piano playing over the soulful moans of the vocalists, it was the perfect ending to a down home, cool summer’s evening at The Greek Theater.

To see more posts by Devon Wendell click here.