Old Men's Concert Plans

[Joe in PB]

Maybe try clearing your browers cache.

Upside of Lonely

I can see all the embedded videos in this thread.

[Mikey]

Now they're working for some reason.

Must have been sun spots or something...

:?

[Goober McTuber]

Now they're working for some reason.

Must have been sun spots or something...

:?

Probably a ubb upgrade that The Deciders Upsiders finally got around to installing.

[Joe in PB]

Went to a couple of good shows over the last week. The first was Santana. I saw him back in the 90's, he was good, but only played 2 or 3 songs from his first few albums (which I understand, no one wants to play the same songs all the time). After picking up Santana IV I heard a similar style of music going back to his original stuff and jumped on tickets at SDSU Open Air Amphitheater. He played songs from the new album and from his first three. A terrific high tempo show broken up with ballads like Samba Pa Ti. A nine piece band, 2 drummers (one his wife who he introduced), congas, two singers, & they played 2 hrs 50 minutes! Carlos mentioned they don't lip sync, lol, and that people need to treat others the way they want to be treated. When people started leaving, he said "Where are you going? We're not done yet!". He seemed quite happy & played his heart out. The best show I've seen in years.













The other terrific concert was Tedeschi Trucks at Copley Symphony Hall. Nicki Bluhm opened the show and was about as good as a 30 minute show could be. Ole' boy on the left can play some guitar too. I found out about her & the Gramblers on Youtube's Jam in the Van series.



Tedeschi Trucks came on to a standing ovation about 30 minutes later. They played some of their new material along with older stuff like Midnight in Harlem. Derek & Susan were what I expected, terrific together. Mike Mattison mixed it up singing a few songs. They're another band with two drummers and a total of 12 musicians. Agree with Brian, if you liked the Allman Brothers, they're the contemporary version. A great show, but not quite as much heart as Santana's show, which I think was very special.

[Joe in PB]

I saw Mick Fleetwood's Blues Band featuring Rick Vito a week or so ago at the Belly Up Tavern. The band resides in Maui, so not as long of a haul as I thought (from England). They come through town about once a year and are very good if you like early Fleetwood Mac. Rick Vito plays a unique sounding slide guitar, kinda like Blues meets spaghetti western. They played all blues covers along with some of their early stuff. A very good show that included Mick using two drum sets, one much smaller and closer to the front of the stage, so everyone could see him better I guess. Otherwise he was hidden except from the front because of the cymbals. Then he had a young protege play the small set while he played his standard set. It was quite the drum duet, with the protege playing 100 mph it seemed. The encore included their version of Black Magic Woman & the smooth instrumental Albatross. An interesting and lively Wednesday night.

[Joe in PB]

I believe Vai just finished his 25th anniversary tour out here, at the House of Blues. The San Diego version is so small I refer to it as the Outhouse of Blues. They basically pack em' in like a cattle car and you pretty much have to stand at attention for the show. Yeah, I took a miss, one of the only small venues in town on the Do Not Fly list.

Sam - Agree on early Fleetwood Mac. I have their first two, which are referred to now as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, & the American release English Rose. Prefer English Rose and its rarer played on the radio song list.

Picked up tickets for Johnny Lang in December.

[Joe in PB]

My guitar hero lineup starting next month:

1. Dec 10 - Johnny Lang @ The Belly Up
2. Dec 14 - Joe Bonamassa @ Balboa Theater
3. Jan 14 - Tommy Castro @ The Belly Up
4. Jan 31 - Kenny Wayne Shepherd @ The Belly Up

Love the smaller venues.

[Mikey]

My guitar hero lineup starting next month:

1. Dec 10 - Johnny Lang @ The Belly Up
2. Dec 14 - Joe Bonamassa @ Balboa Theater
3. Jan 14 - Tommy Castro @ The Belly Up
4. Jan 31 - Kenny Wayne Shepherd @ The Belly Up

Love the smaller venues.

Looks like a great schedule. My r&r and blues schedule is on hiatus for a while.

Going to the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad tonight (never been there before) to see Omar Sosa, a jazz pianist, and Joo Kraus (the trumpet player in the video).




We're going to see a live performance of Handel's Messiah at the LA Philharmonic (Disney Concert Hall) on 12/17, plus a few other classical-type shows up there early next year.

Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Terrance Blanchard and Snarky Puppy in Feb.

Plus I got tickets for Brian Wilson in San Diego next year.

[Joe in PB]

Interesting, I sometimes listen to classical or jazz on Sirius, on my morning commute at O dark thirty. Herbert Hancock sounds good too, enjoy.

[Goober McTuber]

We're going to see a live performance of Handel's Messiah at the LA Philharmonic (Disney Concert Hall) on 12/17

Saw the Messiah performed in the little opera house referenced earlier in this thread. Between the local chamber orchestra, the choir and the four soloists they crammed over 50 people onto that little stage. Awesome performance.

This is widely recognized as one of the best recorded performances available. I'd highly recommend it.

[Mikey]

We're going to see a live performance of Handel's Messiah at the LA Philharmonic (Disney Concert Hall) on 12/17

Saw the Messiah performed in the little opera house referenced earlier in this thread. Between the local chamber orchestra, the choir and the four soloists they crammed over 50 people onto that little stage. Awesome performance.

This is widely recognized as one of the best recorded performances available. I'd highly recommend it.

May have to check that one out.

This is the one we've been pulling out every December for the past 20 years or so. Also very highly rated, I think. They use all historically accurate instruments, etc.




Last (and only) time I saw it performed live was at the Shrine of the Holy Redeemer when we lived in Henderson, NV. This is a large Catholic church that's just off the strip, near the airport.

It also was a pretty awesome performance. There's abundant musical talent available in Vegas.

The choir in LA will be from Québec City.

[Goober McTuber]

The choir in LA will be from Québec City.

So this is the French version of Le Messiah?

[Goober McTuber]

We're going to see a live performance of Handel's Messiah at the LA Philharmonic (Disney Concert Hall) on 12/17

Saw the Messiah performed in the little opera house referenced earlier in this thread. Between the local chamber orchestra, the choir and the four soloists they crammed over 50 people onto that little stage. Awesome performance.

This is widely recognized as one of the best recorded performances available. I'd highly recommend it.

May have to check that one out.

This is the one we've been pulling out every December for the past 20 years or so. Also very highly rated, I think. They use all historically accurate instruments, etc.



.

I have also heard about the Hogwood version as being exceptional. There's a very knowledgeable review on Amazon about that version that makes me want to buy that as well.

It surprises many people to learn that there is no definitive version of Handel's "Messiah". Everyone knows the version they heard growing up, or the version they sang when they were younger. However, the scholar trying to put together an historically informed performance of this most important work is faced with many choices and even more questions. Do you use the score he wrote in 1741 but never performed, or the adaptations he made for the Dublin premier. Or maybe you want the version used for the London premier in 1743. If you do, you also have to reconcile that with the reality that Handel later abandoned these additions and changes. While the work settled into a more less standard form in the 1750s, Handel still made changes based upon the singers and players available. These are just the beginnings of the alternatives the scholar has to consider.

This performance attempts to recreate a specific performance of the work by Handel in the 5 April and repeated on 15 May in 1754. The wonderful notes included with this recording fully explain what this choice means and provides insight into each of the pieces as well as the text in German and French as well as English.

This recording was done in 1980 and the notes say it is the first complete historically informed recording. This was a time of great experimentation and thought about early music, and especially the Baroque. We did a performance of the complete Messiah here in Ann Arbor in December of 1980 that too on a great number of these same issues. We also were fortunate to have Emma Kirkby sing here (she was absolutely wonderful) as well as other fine soloists. We did a recording of part of the work and was well regarded in its time. This recording also makes interesting choices about the composition of the chorus and the vocal style of the soloists.

The chorus is the Choir of Christ Church Oxford and uses mostly boy trebles and altos and young men for the tenors and basses. They sing with great clarity and while they may not provide the massive sound some might wish for, I found the straight voices quite wonderful in the very high registers where voices with vibrato might smear or the timbre might become a bit of a shriek. This is the composition of the choir Handel used for this performance, so it is authentic. However, it is also not the only kind of choir he used in the performances of this work. I enjoyed this sound very much. They also pull off quite powerful effects in the "Hallelujah Chorus" and "Worthy is the Lamb".

The soloists also use a much different vocal production style than you might expect. Remember, Verdi was still more than a century in the future. The big brilliant voices we expect today were not the rule and may not have been invented yet. This smaller voice is most pronounced in the tenor voice of Paul Elliott. He certainly gets all the notes and is very expressive, but his is not the brilliant voice we usually associate with "Ev'ry Valley". Judith Nelson and Emma Kirkby share the duties of the expanded Soprano role in this piece and both are very fine. I admit my personal bias towards Kirkby. Carolyn Watkinson is superb as the alto, and David Thomas is just terrific as the bass and does "The Trumpet Shall Sound" to a turn.

The orchestra is brilliant, tight, and a constant delight in this piece. Just to hear them in all their varied approaches to the texts of these pieces is worth the hearing of this disk.
Now, this will likely not be the "Messiah" you grew up with nor what you expect when you hear this work. I urge you to expand your palette. There is no "right" way to play a work. Yes, there are lots of wrong ways, but this is not one of those. One of the problems listeners have is getting too settled on the recording of the work they happen to have. This is always a mistake. No single approach is enough for any fine work let alone one of the cultural and artistic magnitude of "Messiah".

The other source of mistaken fixation is the version you grew up with or heard as an impressionable youth. Again, I urge you to re-open your approach to musical taste and sample this work and see if you can appreciate all the fineness this recording has to offer.

If you do, you will not only be better off because your ability to appreciate music will have expanded, but you will take fresh ears back to your favorite version and hear in it new delights and be doubly rewarded.

[Screw_Michigan]

Handel's Messiah = T.Hanks Giving

[Goober McTuber]

Handel's Messiah = T.Hanks Giving

Not even comparable. It was a Friday evening in the second week of December. I probably missed a low- to mid-tier bowl game involving the MAC champion.

[Mikey]

The choir in LA will be from Québec City.

So this is the French version of Le Messiah?

Pretty sure they'll be singing in English.

I'm just hoping that when I hear "We Like Sheep" I'll be able to avoid thinking about Stanley Pikkkle and laughing out loud.

[Joe in PB]

Joe Bonamassa was in town last week at Balboa Theater. Sold out show with floor seats going for $450, I ended up in the lodge, lol. Before the show I was thinking, bucket list concert & I'll probably never see him again. Now, I'm definitely seeing him again, wow, what a guitar player and artist. It seemed he played with a different guitar for every song. The band of course were allstars, Anton Fig on drums (letterman show), Stevie Ray Vaughn's keyboardist Reese Wynans, etc. He played songs from Blues Of Desperation, and his latest, Joe Bonamassa Live at the Greek (tribute to The Three Kings, Albert, Freddie and B.B.).

I know Sam doesn't like Joe and thinks he's stuck up, but he didn't come across like that and seemed personable. Even mentioning he & his parents live in San Diego, and they were in attendance. He & the band were finishing up their world tour, and oh, no lip syncing. Good times.

[Dinsdale]

He's from San Diego, and seeing him in San Diego is a big event?

Yup, that's the mark of a dick.

I was surprised the Dandy Warhols played here the other night (but will play in Europe at the drop of a hat). Pink Martini pulls the same bullshit (although you couldn't pay me to watch them).

While I'm not a fan, I respect Built To Spill, since their shows here are a dime-a-dozen. Even little tiny places that charge like $12.

[Joe in PB]

It's called fame. BB King was on the road for over 250+ days a year for decades. Was he a dick too?

The Blues are huge in Europe compared to America, so spending a lot of time on the road makes sense.

[Mikey]

He's from central NY.

[Joe in PB]

Up next:

Jan 14 - Tommy Castro & the pain killers @ the Belly Up

Jan 25 - Prague Philharmonia @ Copley Symphony Hall

Jan 31 - Kenny Wayne Shepherd @ the Belly Up

[BSmack]

He's from central NY.

Utica New York to be precise. I remember reading about him when I was in college. He was a 12 year old blues prodigy who had already jammed with BB King & SRV. Sucks to be so talented.

[Joe in PB]

First show of 2017 was Tommy Castro & the Pain Killers at the Belly Up Tavern. Tommy has been around for a while and often is the headliner on Blues Cruises. As with many Blues artists Tommy has played with many in the industry. Last night the Casey Hensley band opened the show. Obviously Tommy likes the band or they wouldn't be there, and they put on a very good performance. Casey sang lots of blues, including songs by Mary Lou Barton & Etta James. Ole' girl on the left can play some guitar too.



Tommy is in between albums, so he played a mix of songs from all his albums. Great show. It was easy to see he and the band were enjoying themselves.



Near the end of the show Casey sang a couple of songs with Tommy, good stuff, & a good time.

[Joe in PB]

I decided to mix it up and Wednesday night I saw the Prague Philharmonia with French cellist Gautier Capuçon. Its been a long time since I've seen a classical concert. I do enjoy classical music more the older I get, Sunday mornings, at the office, and the Prague Philharmonia didn't disappoint.

La Jolla Music Society Presents

Something similar with Gautier Capuçon.

[Mikey]

Tomorrow we have a trip up to the Disney Concert Hall for Herbie Hancock with Wayne Shorter and Terrance Blanchard, and Snarky Puppy.

Just found out that this will be the band that Herbie is playing with. Should be good. Vinnie Colaiuta is an awesome drummer.


Herbie Hancock, piano
Wayne Shorter, saxophone
Terence Blanchard, trumpet
Vincent Colaiuta, drums
James Genus, bass
Los Angeles Philharmonic
James Gaffigan, conductor



The classic Blue Note lineup:






Snarky Puppy:

[Joe in PB]

Have fun Mikey!

[Mikey]

Have fun Mikey!

Thanks! Glad the rain is (hopefully) over. It looks like DTLA was a mess yesterday.

We've made a few trips to shows up there in the past six months or so. It's a good chance also to check out some new restaurants. Got a reservation here tomorrow for before the show:

http://vespaiodtla.com/gallery/

We're going up early tomorrow morning and might check out the Broad Museum as well.

[Joe in PB]

Enjoyed the Bamberg Symphony featuring Ray Chen on Violin last night at Copley Symphony Hall.

A sampling:

[Mikey]

Tomorrow we have a trip up to the Disney Concert Hall for Herbie Hancock with Wayne Shorter and Terrance Blanchard, and Snarky Puppy.

Just found out that this will be the band that Herbie is playing with. Should be good. Vinnie Colaiuta is an awesome drummer.


Herbie Hancock, piano
Wayne Shorter, saxophone
Terence Blanchard, trumpet
Vincent Colaiuta, drums
James Genus, bass
Los Angeles Philharmonic
James Gaffigan, conductor

[/youtube]

I was somewhat disappointed with this show.

Not with Snarky Puppy, though.

Snarky Puppy was really good. A very high energy group from Brooklyn, they pretty much brought the house down. I had never heard of them before seeing the announcement for the show but you could tell some of the people there were already fans, and I think they made a lot of new fans on Sunday. This is a large ensemble - 12 members - drummer; percussionist; three guitars; bass (who was the guy who did the talking and I think is the main writer and arranger); sax/flute; two trumpets/flugelhorns; three keyboards (one electric piano, one multiple other keyboards and occasional trumpet, and one guy on a Hammond and synthesizer).

Very funky jazz/R&B/latin with complex rhythms, interesting melodies and instrumentation. Sometimes reminded me of Zappa when he was in a jazz mode. I would definitely pay see them again and will be checking out their albums on Amazon.

The headliner I honestly could have skipped. I was seriously looking forward to seeing this band. When I saw "LA Philharmonic" was part of the group I thought it might be interesting, but it really did not work well. The first number was "Dolphin Dance," which is a great tune from Herbie Hancock's classic Maiden Voyage album (originally issued in 1965). In its normal format it's a very improvisational modal piece which sort of picks you up and floats you along. In this performance they began with an intro that was orchestrated by Terrence Blanchard (the trumpet player) that must have lasted 10 minutes. The band pretty much just sat there (Hancock had a few piano parts) until the end of the intro and then played a few solos still backed by the orchestra. When I saw Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea play together a couple of years with just the two pianos, they did a version that was worthy of the song. This pretty much sucked.

The rest of the show was pretty similar. The orchestra was part of every piece and it seems like it was about 75% LA Phil and 25% jazz band. The musicians in the orchestra are great, but the arrangements were just not interesting.

I did not go to the show to hear the LA Phil, but to hear some jazz giants play. Wayne Shorter has won something like 10 Grammys for saxophone playing; won a couple of dozen Downbeat Magazine awards, played and wrote songs in the second Miles Davis quintet (along with Herbie Hancock) was founding member of Weather Report, played on a bunch of Joni Mitchell's albums (and a lot of others) and did the sax solo on Steely Dan's "Aja." I think I heard him play maybe two dozen notes during the entire performance. Yeah, he's something like 83 years old, but I hear that he can still play.

The whole performance was sort of lifeless and boring, especially after the great first set by Snarky Puppy.

[Joe in PB]

Bummer, better luck next time Mikey.

I see there is a Hendrix tribute next month at one of the Indian casinos locally. I passed even though there were quite a few artists I'd love to see. Buddy Guy, Ana Popovic, KWS, etc. Put them all together and I think you end up with a similar show, mediocrity & not enough of what & who you want to hear.

[Mikey]

Our next show is Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn (Bela's wife) at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido.

With just two performers, there's not much chance for dilution.

I heard somewhere that Bela Fleck and the Flecktones would be touring with Chick Corea and Return to Forever sometime this year. No announcements yet, though. I've seen both of those bands at least once, and I would pay money to see them again.

[Joe in PB]

On the docket to this point:

3/25 - Bruckner #8 by the San Diego Symphony at Copley Symphony Hall

5/11 - Gator by the Bay Zydeco, Blues, and Crawfish Festival

5/27 - San Diego Symphony conductor Jahja Ling's Finale at Copley Symphony Hall

6/13 - North Mississippi Allstars at the Belly Up Tavern



6/14 - The Record Company at the Belly Up

[Mikey]

We saw Brian Wilson at the Civic Theater last week. Brian is getting old and really fat and needed to be helped to the piano. He can't hit the high notes anymore, which were filled in a lot by Matt Jardine (Al's son), who did a pretty good job but he's not Brian Wilson. That being said, it was a really great show. The band (11 or 12 pieces) was excellent. The show was over 2 1/2 hours including an intermission. They played most of the Beach Boys hits in the first set, then Pet Sounds in order in the second. The encore was Good Vibrations, Barbara Ann and, I think, Surfin' USA.

The only other original Beach Boy was Al Jardine, who filled in most of Mike Love's vocals, and did a credible job. It wasn't the Beach Boys but the music and the feeling were there. This is music we grew up with, especially in California, they did a good job of presenting it. The crowd was completely into it, and gave several standing ovations.

Upcoming road trip in August:

8/19 - Tchaikovsky at the Hollywood Bowl (with fireworks)
8/20 - Chick Corea Elektric Band and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones at the Wiltern in LA
8/22 - Doobie Brothers at Vina Robles in Paso.

Classical, jazz and rock in four days. Plus wine tasting. What could be better?

Here are the other shows now on our schedule:

6/11/17 39TH ANNUAL PLAYBOY JAZZ FEST Hollywood Bowl
6/24/17 Trevor Noah at Vina Robles
9/6/17 QUINCY JONES: THE A&M YEARS Hollywood Bowl
10/25/17 M. Ward • Rhiannon Giddens Disney Hall
1/28/18 Dudamel Conducts Brahms Disney Hall
3/4/18 Ma • Kavakos • Ax Disney Hall
3/23/18 Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra & Chick Corea Disney Hall
4/22/18 Dudamel Conducts Beethoven 9 Disney Hall
4/27/18 Crosscurrents / V. Iyer Sextet Disney Hall

[Mikey]

Just found out that the Tedeschi Trucks Band will be in San Diego at the Civic Theater on November 9 with Hard Working Americans.

Pre-Sale tickets on their website tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.

[Joe in PB]

TT put on a terrific show last year.

Picked up tickets for Junior Brown at the Belly Up Tavern on July 10th.

[Mikey]

One of the best (if not the best) touring bands out there. We saw them in Paso Robles last year, San Francisco the year before.

I didn't get my fan club pre-sale tickets yesterday, though. Could have gotten just about front row center but the OL doesn't like sitting that close. I'm going to try the Ticketmaster pre-sale tomorrow morning. The best seats at the Civic Theater are front row in the mezzanine, IMO.

[Joe in PB]

Also picked up tickets for Charlie Musclewhite for Oct 7 at the Belly Up. Good stuff.

I see Keb Mo & Taj Mahl are playing at Humphreys this weekend. I've got too much on my plate in the next week, but would like to see them sometime.

[Mikey]

Also picked up tickets for Charlie Musclewhite for Oct 7 at the Belly Up. Good stuff.

I see Keb Mo & Taj Mahl are playing at Humphreys this weekend. I've got too much on my plate in the next week, but would like to see them sometime.

I thought about going to that show, but we've sort of been avoiding Humphrey's the past couple of years due to some shitty experiences there.

Saw Taj Majal at the Balboa last year, I think, with John Hiatt. Saw Keb Mo a few years ago in Escondido at the performing arts center. Both were great shows. Charlie Musselwhite would be a good choice.

[Dinsdale]

Charlie Musclewhite... Keb Mo... Taj Mahl

I've seen all of them at various times at the Waterfront Blues Festival.

[Goober McTuber]

Saw these guys last night. Excellent show.