Wickersham's Conscience

Donald “Duck” Dunn – Photo 2007 by Rick Diamond/WireImage

Otis Redding’s “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” is one of WC’s very favorite soul-pop tunes. It was recorded at Stax Records in 1967, with Otis backed by the house band at Stax, Booker T & the M.G.s. The wonderful, descending bass notes that open “Dock of the Bay”? That’s Duck Dunn.

The house band at Bob Dylan’s 1992 30th Anniversary Concert, which included Eric Clapton’s fabulous re-working of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice,” was Booker T & the M.G.s, and the thundering bass behind Clapton’s raves? That’s Duck Dunn.

That’s Dunn playing bass on “In the Midnight Hour” by Wilson Pickett and “Hold On, I’m Coming” by Sam & Dave.

Dunn also backed Muddy Waters, Freddie King, and Jerry Lee Lewis;  he frequently worked as bassist, in the studio and on tour, for Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart,  Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and Levon Helm, among dozens of others. His bass grooves have been sampled into hip-hop, copied by hundreds of later bass players and had a permanent impact on the role of the electric bass in pop music, soul and blues.

In the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, the guy who uttered the line, “We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline!” That was Duck Dunn. And it was true, too. Prior to drummer Al Jackson‘s murder in 1975, the M.G.s were the house band on the planet.

He was self-taught, and according to his childhood friend and fellow MG, Steve Cropper, chose the bass “because it had two fewer strings and would be easier to play.”

A consummate professional, a pioneer and a survivor in a profession that tends to eat its own, Duck Dunn died in his sleep while touring in Tokyo, Japan on May 13. He’d done a double show the night before; he died doing what he loved.

His best friend and fellow musician, guitarist Steve Cropper, posted on his Facebook page,

Today I lost my best friend, the World has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live.

He will be missed. He is unlikely to ever be replaced. Unlike a lot of us, he will live on through his brilliant music. WC hopes that is some consolation to his family and friends.

R.I.P. Donald “Duck” Dunn, 1941-2012.

Lily Tomlin in Fairbanks, Photo by Ronn Murray

Fairbanks Concert Association closed its 2011-2012 season with the reigning queen of comedy, the incomparable Lily Tomlin. Mind you, this is a woman that WC watched in his long past youth on Laugh-In, shortly after the end of the last Ice Age. And yet she is as vital, masterful and wonderful all these decades later.

What WC hadn’t appreciated from the movies and television was the amazing physicality of this woman. Not just the famous facial contortions; it’s the ability to instantly transform herself to a character. One moment she is Lily Tomlin; the next she is “Edith Ann,” the precocious and obnoxious six year old. Voice, posture and, of course, mannerisms. It’s brilliant.

Tomlin’s gift has always been the characters she has created. Trudy the Bag Lady (“Reality is nothing more than a collective hunch.”), who is working as a creative consultant to a group of aliens; Edith Ann; Judith Beasley, the icy Southern belle of infomercials who loves to remind you that she’s “not an actress, I’m a real person like yourself.”

Lily Tomlin as Ernestine, the Telephone Operator

And the much-loved Ernestine, the obnoxious, arrogant and oblivious telephone operator (“Have I reached the person to whom I am speaking?”) There was a video of the mock advertisement for The Phone Company (“We’re The Phone Company. We don’t have to care.”), which bridged to Ernestine’s new career as a claims representative for a health insurance company. Ernestine hasn’t lost a step. And she has found her new niche.

In addition to many of her much-loved characters, Tomlin mixed in stories from her youth, an impeccably performed skit on the melodrama of adolescence, and WC’s favorite bit, a nostalgia-laced reminiscence about a crush on Miss Sweeney, her second grade teacher, and how it all went wrong.

She’d probably dislike being called the doyenne of comedy, and in some ways the word implies an elderly character. She is anything but. She’s astonishingly vital. But she’s a brilliantly successful survivor in a career that has killed most of her peers.

WC had a chance to meet and speak with her after the show. She is charming, gracious and seems to really enjoy interacting with fans. And she is remarkably unpretentious.

She said of her teacher in the Miss Sweeney skit, “I could always make her laugh when I wanted to. And I almost always wanted to.”  It’s true today for all of her audiences. She enjoys making us laugh, and she is very, very good at it. A wonderful show, and a wonderful end to an excellent season.

Serious props to FCA for a remarkable season, sandwiched between two extraordinarily talented women, k.d. lang and Lily Tomlin. WC is grateful for the hard work by FCA that brings these remarkably talented artists to Fairbanks. If you are in Interior Alaska, and aren’t attending these performances, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Le Vent du Nord. Credit: © Photo: www.photoman.ca

Fairbanks Concert Association‘s penultimate concert of the 2011-12 season was Le Vent du Nord, which WC is assured is French – or at least Quebecois – for “The Wind from the North.” And they perform Quebecois folk music. Think traditional Celtic music, but sung in French, well, in Quebecois, with a heavier reliance on a “call and response” style.

Ordinarily, two hours of music in a language WC doesn’t understand might be tedious, but LVN is anything but tedious. Brilliant, multi-talented musicians all, they bring amazing skill and lovely harmonies to their work.

Fiddler Olivier Demers is a terrific violineux, but he is also the entire percussion section of the band, using metal taps on his feet. While seated, he dances the percussion line of the songs. And sings harmonies on most vocal numbers.

Nicolas Boulerice plays something called an “electro-acoustic hurdy-gurdy,” sang lead and harmonized, and played the piano. His singing, and in particular his duets with Simon Beaudry, brought to mind the sweet, tenor harmonies of The Everly Brothers. The two were really that good.

Simon Beaudry played six-string guitar and bouzouki, sang lead less often than WC might have wished, and sang harmony on many songs. Some his runs on the bouzouki were astonishing.

And the multi-talented, hyperactive Raejean Brunet, the newest (2007) member of LVN, played button accordion, french accordion, piano, jawharp and acoustic bass, sang lead on a couple of numbers and sang harmony on others.

Not only are the four excellent musicians; they have a chemistry that is immediately evident. They have fun playing together, enjoy their music and enjoy each other. They get excited and happy when one of their colleagues does a particularly fine solo, and share that enthusiasm with the audience.

It’s a long-standing joke that whatever language is spoken in Quebec isn’t French. Boulerice commented after the break that a native French speaker from the audience had told him during the break that, despite being fluent in French, she couldn’t understand the lyrics. But the lyrics really didn’t matter. The message was the music, and it was delightful. Thanks to Fairbanks Concert Association for another brilliant show.

Boulerice and Brunet Duet on Electric Piano - Photo by Ronn Murray Photographer

Levon Helm, 1975, from "The Last Waltz"

Levon Helm, the only drummer whose playing could make you cry, died April 19 at age 71, of complications from throat cancer.

WC has written an appreciation of Levon Helm already, and won’t repeat it here. But the loss is no smaller for having been coming on for a long time.

At a concert in 1971, WC watched Helm play with The Band. Helm played extended sets on the drums, on the mandolin, on electric guitar, on electric bass and on saxophone. His drumming and mandolin work, in particular, were outstanding. On several songs, including “The Weight” and “This Wheel’s on Fire,” the band members handed the lyric lead around between stanzas, with Helm’s singing as a wonderful part of an flawless whole.

His voice on “The Weight” carries all of his influences: the South, country and western, folk and rock. Rachel Maddow said of his singing, “That’s Levon singing ‘The Weight’ with the rest of The Band and the Staple Singers in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz. That’s what it sounds like when it’s good, and it’s deep and it matters.” His biography, This Wheel’s on Fire, is one of the best of the rock music genre.

After The Band broke up in 1976, he continued to make music and his later albums won three Grammys. His Midnight Rambles at his home in upstate New York were a 21st Century hootenanny.

Helm won Grammys, won Junos and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He survived a long time in a profession that kills its young, and was making wonderful music up until the cancer took him out. He helped invent a musical genre, and the passion he had for making music inspired every song he performed.

R.I.P., Levon, 1940-2012. We’ll miss you.

Wrecking Ball Album Cover

From the deeply ironic opening song, “We Take Care of our Own,” to the two bonus tracks on the CD, “Swallowed Up (in the Belly of the Whale)” and “American Land,” Springsteen rages against what has happened to our country. It’s powerful stuff. Can a 62-year old, multi-millionare rock star still relate to his roots in the underclass? Beyond question.

Springsteen does it with irony in “We Take Care of Our Own,”

The road of good intentions
Has gone dry as a bone
We take care of our own
We take care of our own
Wherever this flag is flown
We take care of our own

Politicians tried to copt his mega-hit, “Born in the USA.” He’s made certain none of them will try to use “We Take Care of Our Own.”

He does it by ambush in “Easy Money,” where a love song twists into a date for armed robbery. In “Shackled and Drawn,” he makes overt reference to the Great Recession:

Gambling man rolls the dice
Workingman pays the price
It’s still fat and easy up on Banker’s Hill
Up on Banker’s Hill, the party’s going strong
Down here below we’re shackled and drawn

But the song that will take you the edge of tears is “Jack of All Trades,” a mournful, slow-walk piano ballad about a skilled guy, out of work, who swears to his wife, “I’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be all right,” and you can hear him trying to convince himself it’s true. And the barely suppressed rage at what has happened.

If this sounds like portions of Springsteen’s 1984-era recession album, Born in the USA, and especially “My Hometown,” Springsteen revisits that hometown in “Death to My Hometown,” and everything is gone. “The vultures picked our bones.” He’s pretty explicit that it’s far worse now.

Even the sweet bits are tinged with anger. Old songs are re-worked with new meanings. “Wrecking Ball.” the title track, was originally a whimsical, off-the-cuff tribute to the New Jersey Meadowlands, just before it was demolished, with the former home of the New York Giants taunting the wrecking crew, “C’mon and take your best shot, Let me see what you got, Hit me with your wrecking ball.” The defiance now is bluster, sad braggadocio that the narrator knows are just empty boasts.

The late, great Clarence Clemons’ sax is featured on two cuts, most notably a studio version of the 2001 anthem, “Land of Hope and Dreams,” and the liner notes include a part of Springsteen’s eulogy, with the punchline, “Clarence doesn’t leave the E Street Band when he dies. He leaves when we die.” But this isn’t an E Street Band album at all, except for “Hope and Dreams.” The music is complex, layered and mixed, far from the disciplined, straight ahead garage band sound of the E Streeters. The hot guitar solos go Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine.

Springsteen makes it explicit in the bonus track, “Swallowed Up (in the Belly of the Whale),”

We trusted our skills and our good sails
Our faith that with God the righteous
In this world would prevail
But we’ve been swallowed up
We’ve been swallowed up
Disappeared from this world
We’ve been swallowed up.

This is a superb album. And an unflinching, unrelenting criticism of our society and our politics. You can listen to the music and admire Springsteen’s growth and adaptability – there’s even a 16-bar rap. But if you listen to the lyrics, there’s an undirected, burning rage at what the country has done to itself. The Boss is at the top of his art still.

Tito Puente, Jr. Orchestra - Photo by Ronn Murray

The Tito Puente, Jr. Orchestra was at Hering Auditorium last night, a part of Fairbanks Concert Association’s 2011-12 concert season. Any dust left in the rafters after k. d. lang, Te Vaka, Sweet Plantain and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was shaken loose as the second generation of the mambo kings rocked down the house.

Tito Puente fils is the proud son and mantle-bearer for the late, great Tito Puente père, multiple Grammy winner and titan of mambo music. Puente fils has assembled an exceptional band: electric piano, electric bass, congas, bongo drums, tenor sax, alto sax, trombone and two trumpets, as well as the kid himself on timbales. Gamalier Reyes, on bongo and vocals, was truly remakable. In an FCA season that has seen some amazing drumming, Reyes probably wins some kind of prize. The band was tight, obviously having a good time and pitch-perfect. The drummers’ ability to weave their rhythms together was especially impressive.

As was the case with Puente père, there are vocals, mostly in Spanish. Puente fils and Reyes have good voices. They had a guest vocalist – a former member of the band who left to join the U.S. Army, and is now a staff sergeant, stationed in Alaska. He’s the cousin of keyboardist and musical director Marlow Rosado. It was a sweet gesture. His singing, though, wasn’t so sweet. It may be that shouting at soldiers for years has damaged the staff sergeant’s voice but, really, that was the only weak point.

Puente fils brings a slightly more jazz-inflected approach to his father’s music. It’s okay with WC; simply re-playing your father’s music is a creative dead end. Most of the songs the band performed were Puente père songs. But the jazz improvisations around the old tunes gave them a new life. It keeps his father’s music alive, but lets him stretch his creative muscle as well. A handful of songs were written by Puente fils for his new CD, Got Mambo, and were quite good; “Junior’s Mambo,” written for his son, in particular was sweet, heart-felt and a fine song.

In the middle of the second set, Puente invited some talented local Fairbanksans on stage to remind the crowd that the scene at the Palladium with Tito Puente père was about dance as well as music. Milly Donay and Pedro ‘Cuban Pete’ Aguliar popularized Latin dancing, starting at the Palladium. The Fairbanks dancers reminded us why.

Puente père’s greatest pop hit was Oye Como Va, which Carlos Santana turned into a #1 hit on his multi-platinum album, Abraxas. So it was fitting that the show closed with a terrific, jazz-inflected version of the song.

Puente fils is a great entertainer, interacts well with the crowd in English and Spanish, and has a smile as infectious as his music. Folks who weren’t dancing in the aisles were bouncing up and down in their seats. He and his band put on a great concert.

Paula Poundstone Mushing Dogs

WC got a tip from unnamed Alaska Dog Mushers Association official that Paula Poundstone would be making a surprise appearance in the AARP mushing event Saturday in downtown Fairbanks.

The AARP mushing event – and it really is sponsored by AARP – involves geriatric dogs and geriatric mushers, a complicated scoring system and fills the time between when the Open North American Mushers go out and when they start coming back.

Poundstone was a trooper, although her sled dogs were much more interested in running the full course than in turning around after one block and running back. It wasn’t Poundstone’s fault, but she finished last.

But that was the only disappointing thing about Poundstone’s appearance in Fairbanks. Her show at the University of Alaska’s David Concert Hall was packed, and Poundstone was in good form. Her comic chops are sharp, her wit is cutting and she doesn’t take prisoners. Her interviews of randomly selected members of the audience gave her themes to which she returned.

But out of an evening of laughs, for WC the best moment when, in response to an audience comment, she told the crowd that Sarah Palin had been good for America. Laughing, she reminded us, releases endorphins, which help us relax. And Palin, Poundstone reminded us, has certainly caused us to release a lot of endorphins.

At the post-show reception, Poundstone confirmed to WC she came back largely because she had so much fun in Fairbanks as one of the panel of comics on “Wait, Wait – Don’t Tell Me!” this past summer. We’re happy she did, and we hope she comes back again.

WC gave her an 8 x 10 copy of the photo at the top of this page. She was kind enough to autograph a copy. When we left the post-show reception, she was still greeting folks, letting her photo be taken and cuddling Eli, the month old baby of WC’s friends, Steve and Lauren.

Thanks again, Paula Poundstone. It was a fine show.

R.I.P. Robert Sherman, 1925-2012. Your songs, including “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” “It’s a Small World (After All)” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” will live on. You and your brother Richard brought a Tin Pan Alley sensibility to Disney films, and in that process created a part of the soundtrack to a lot of boomer’s lives.

WC won’t be attending the Fairbanks Concert Association’s New Shanghai Circus performance this weekend. The tickets went to young friends with a small child whose sense of marvel should be considerably expanded by the experience.

So instead of a concert review, here’s a concert request. Bring Jake Shimabukuro to Fairbanks next year. He was on the reader choice form at one point. Why Shimabukuro? Here’s why:

.

“Virtuoso ukelele player” sounds like a joke. It’s absolutely not. The kid is simply terrific. If Eric Clapton played ukelele, it would sound like this.

How about it, FCA?

Remember, if everybody played the ukelele, the world would be a better place.

Capitol Steps Logo

The Capitols Steps were at Hering Auditorium Saturday night, brought back to town by Fairbanks Concert Association. You really had to want to see the Steps to make this show: it was at least -45° F outside, with patches of thick ice fog. It gratified WC to see a decent crowd attended. Sometimes Fairbanksans demonstrate they are nearly as tough as they think they are.

For readers who have been living under a rock since 1982, The Capitol Steps are a satire and comedy troupe from Washington, D.C. Founded by the late Bill Strauss and the talented Elaina Newport, it’s grown to three touring troupes. They are talented comics and singers, and the visual elements in a live show make the musical skits even funnier. Seeing “Donald Trump” sing is even funnier than listening to  ”Donald Trump” sing. Yet the Steps remain true to their roots: a majority of them are former Capitol Hill staffers.

WC has seen the Steps at least four times, three times in Fairbanks and once in Boise. They’ve managed to keep the shows fresh, highly entertaining and very funny. And they are equal opportunity satirists: left and right, any branch of government, any sacred cow. Over the years, they’ve evolved into something more like skits featuring songs and less a simple series of songs. And as members have come and gone from the group, their strengths at targeting specific politicians have changed.

The heart of their act is to put topical lyrics to pop songs. For example, “Mitt Romney” sings “Help Me Fake It to the Right” to the tune of “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”

I backed health care in the past
But to win a White House fight
Gotta change positions fast
Help me fake it to the right

Help Me Fake it to the Right

These folks are pros, and it shows. Stepper Bari Biern was simply brilliant as HSA Secretary Janet Napolitano, both in her imitation of Secretary Napolitano’s dreadful speaking voice and HSA’s approach to threats.

Mike Tilford – who joined the Steps to sing Bill Clinton back in 1992 – has stepped into the extended Spoonerism routine Bill Strauss pioneered, “Lirty Dies.” It’s humor for the nimble-witted. For example, when Tilford told the crowd that former Rep. Anthony Wiener had “weeted his twiener,” there was a distinct pause before the laughter, as the crowd worked it out. Tilford works without notes and improvises freely; it’s very impressive.

There was a Sarah Palin skit but, it seemed to WC, the crowd was tired of Caribou Barbie. It got a laugh, but others got bigger laughs.

In their closing song at Saturday’s show, reprising thirty years of scandals, with Tilford singing, Carruthers and Bell going through the props and Biern and Gordon parading through with signs, the jokes served as kind of fun house mirror of recent U.S. history. Only the very quick-witted and well-informed could keep up. That’s just fine with WC.

The camera ban remains in place, so WC was unable to “fook a toto.” Which is too bad because the skits have a strong visual element, which is half the fun. But that’s WC’s only criticism. A fine show, and props to FCA for bringing the Steps back to Fairbanks.

Acoustic Adventures brings Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen at The Blue Loon

WC is not a huge fan of bluegrass music. As Frank Solivan described a jazz melody he and his band performed last night, “Earl Scruggs got ahold of it and blue grassified it.” To WC, most bluegrass music sounds like Robin and Linda Williams’ brilliant satire, “Marvin and Mavis Smiley and the Manhattan Valley Boys” doing their bogus infomercials for “Do-Tell Records.” Part of the joke – Marvin and Mavis do Broadway, Marvin and Mavis do Springsteen – is that all of the songs come out sounding exactly the same. And, candidly, all bluegrass music sounds a little flatt to WC.

But Trudy and Mase of Acoustic Adventures are diehard fans of the genre, and they’ve never steered WC wrong with a concert yet, so even though the show was at The Blue Loon, one of WC’s least favorite venues, Mrs. WC and WC headed out to Ester for the show.

Even if you don’t care for bluegrass, there’s no denying the quality of the musicianship, the sheer skill of many bluegrass players, and Frank Solivan, in the latest lineup of Dirty Kitchen, has come up with some wonderful artists, who can not only play as a group, but do some pretty impressive solos, too. These four guys can play.

Frank Solivan can set a mandolin on fire, and isn’t bad at fiddle, either. Mike Mumford is a terrific banjo player. Danny Booth is excellent on upright bass. But it was baby-faced, 21-year old Chris Luquette blew the crowd away with his guitar solos in his first show, ever, with Dirty Kitchen. The group wasn’t afraid to break away from traditional bluegrass, including a fine cover of John Stewart’s “July You’re a Woman” or topical songs like Solivan’s homelessness study from the other side, “Left Out in the Cold.”

Polished, tight and plainly enjoying themselves, there were moments when WC could almost understand why some folks like bluegrass so much.  Props to Steve Brown & the Bailers for opening (with Robin Dale Ford filling in on bass).

A fun evening. Thanks to Trudy and Mase for putting it together.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

As a part of an amazingly eclectic 2011-2012 season, Fairbanks Concert Association brought a Christmas show by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy to Fairbanks on December 10. A swing revival band, BBVD features nine members, including electric guitar, piano, two trumpets, two saxophones, trombone, double bass and a full drum kit. Any dust left in the rafters of Hering Auditorium was definitely shaken out.

Legend has it that the band’s name comes from blues guitar great Albert Collins. But the band hales mostly from Southern California and not New Orleans. The band members have played together for 18 years, and it shows. One of the keys to swing music is to be absolutely tight, and these guys were. They clearly know each other, appear to enjoy each other’s company and have a lot of fun onstage.

The band played a nice mix of holiday songs, some traditional – “We Three Kings,” “Frosty the Snomwan” and “Blue Christmas” – and some decidedly non-traditional – “Last Night I Went Out with Santa Claus” and “Is Zat You Santa Claus?” But in addition to holiday songs, they did some traditional swing band songs, including Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Mocher” and an outstanding cover of “Go Daddy-O.”

They are all fine musicians, but WC wants to mention in particular Alto Sax player Karl Hunter and the terrific trumpeter Glen “The Kid” Marhevka. Some of the trumpet solos from “The Kid” were simply outstanding.

The rockabilly new swing movement probably isn’t for everyone. But WC couldn’t help wishing at a couple of points in the show that the late Art Buswell, an enthusiastic swing band fan, could have been there for the show. He was a connoisseur, and WC thinks he would have enjoyed BBVD very much.

Props to the Fairbanks Concert Association for breaking – shattering, really – the usual concert mold. BBVD is, WC thinks, one of the very few Super Bowl half time shows to play Fairbanks. A fun evening.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Christmas Backdrop

(Photography was not permitted. So all WC can offer is the lame images here. It’s probably too much to hope that this short-sighted policy will change, but WC will keep pressing.)

[There should be a photo here. But see below.]

Sweet Plantain is not your mother’s string quartet. Your mother’s string quartet probably didn’t perform a rap version of Vivaldi, shouting blues or Venezuelan gaucho music, to mention just a few differences. WC applauds Fairbanks Concert Association‘s willingness to continue to press the boundaries of its traditional fare.

That’s not to take anything away from the musicians, who are immensely talented, classically trained musicians. They had terrific rapport with the audience, and an energetic, engaging playing style that was nearly as much fun as their music. They are trying for something outside of the classical music box, and they have succeeded.And they get an amazing variety of music out of two violins, a viola and a cello.

They opened with Cole Porter’s “Love for Sale,” starting off with a traditional classical interpretation that gradually morphed into a jazz version, with extended solos by all four artists, then pulled back to jazz, and then returned to a classical interpretation. It was a brilliant.

One of the regular members of Sweet Plantain, Eddie Venegas (violin, trombone) is shared with Latin pop singer Marc Anthony’s band. Anthony is apparently touring in support of his divorce from Jennifer Lopez, although WC disclaims knowledge of all “news” featured on E! Sitting in for Venegas was Earl Maneein – self-described as a “stunt Violinist” – whose work was amazing. His solo and lead on Venezuelan “Serenata” was outstanding.

Cellist David Gotay led a rap-string quartet fusion of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Excursion,” which also featured violinist Joe Dennizon’s very credible record-scratching sounds extracted from his violin. “Excusion” included other surprises, but WC won’t give away all of the secrets. Viola player Orlando Wells serves as the straight man of the group; WC agrees with him that the horrible pun on “baroque bow” was nearly bad enough to walk out.

Gotay admitted it wouldn’t be a string quartet performance without at least one piece from a classical composer, so we heard a cello concerto from Antonio Vivaldi, re-cast as a “Tony V” Cello and Viola Concerto, which transmogrified Vivaldi into rap, without losing either the spirit of Vivaldi or the rhythms of rap.

The encore was a spirited “shouting blues” cover of a blues classic, bringing blues rhythms – and lyrics – to a strong quartet. It was a delightful way to end a lovely improvisational evening, with chamber music pressing the edges of its traditional format.

You’ll note there are no photos of Sweet Plantain included in this post. There’s a reason for that. WC took photos, but mid-concert an usher told WC that if he took photos the usher would escort WC to the lobby and erase the contents of his camera. Not a polite request that WC not take photos; a direct threat. The person also lied: he said there was a request photos not be taken in the program. There’s not. Nor did the executive director of Fairbanks Concert Association ask at any time that photos not be taken.  And photos are kind of what WC does.

It’s particularly annoying because there are no photos of this particular configuration of the Quartet available on-line.

Perhaps one of WC’s readers will be kind enough to sort this out before the next concert. But, at least for now, sorry, no photos.

But that’s the only sour note in a fine concert by a group that clearly has fun, enjoys stretching limits, while preserving strong musical integrity.

Sweet Plantain performed an earlier concert at The Loon on Friday night; WC understands it was well-received, too. WC congratulates the Quartet on overcoming the problems presented for any serious artist at The Loon.

Mrs. WC is a fan of Jim Varsos, a/k/a Hobo Jim. WC, less so. Or not at all. But one of the Rules of Marriage was implicated, so we wandered out to Ivory Jack’s last night for a Hobo Jim concert.

Hobo Jim at Ivory Jack's

One of the immediate problems with Ivory Jack’s is that it permits smoking. So WC spent the evening helping people smoke cigarettes as well as listening to music that wouldn’t be stuff he’d choose to play at home. WC’s nose is still plugged up, and he has a scratchy second-hand nicotine buzz.

The word “eclectic” would be stretched way past its accepted definition to describe the crowd. There were the two chunky ladies in bunny boots slow dancing. The obese guy in the Hell Angels – Fairbanks Chapter leather vest. And, of course, the guy in shorts, sockless tennis shoes and the mink stole over his muscle t-shirt. Not your usual Fairbanks crowd. Pretty much all of them chain smoking.

And the stage: a piece of decking propped up on four chairs. When Hobo Jim stomped his foot, the whole kludge would try to collapse.

Oh yeah, the concert. Hobo Jim has about a half octave range left on his voice. He mostly strums three or four chords, although a few times he showed some real guitar chops. His song list was a mix of his songs and mostly country western hits, although there was a Jimmy Buffet song and a Russell Smith (Amazing Rhythm Aces) song or two. He likes Hank Williams. One of the problems WC has with Hobo Jim is that he can’t do a song straight. He can’t seem avoid mid-song commentary, less than clever changes to the lyrics and smart-ass snarking. It’s not funny, it detracts from the song and it’s annoying. He wrecked “Ghost Riders of the Sky,” for example. And he does it only with other peoples’ songs, not his own.

Hobo Jim Plays Robert Johnson on a Beer Bottle Slide Guitar

Hobo Jim’s own songs – “I Did I Did I Did the Iditarod” would be representative – are okay but hardly inspired. WC has nothing against cowboy troubadours. And plainly Alaska’s Official Balladeer (WC offers an autographed bird photo to someone who can produce evidence of gubernatorial or legislative action documenting this designation) is popular to a highly eclectic mix of citizens. Just not with WC.

Still, any night spent with Mrs. WC is very good. WC’s opinion of Hobo Jim isn’t much higher after seeing him live. But that was never the point.

Fairbanks Concert Association presented some serious world music Wednesday night with a concert by Te Vaka, which translates as “The Canoe” in Polynesian.

Te Vaka in Concert

It’s hard to describe the music, partly because it is eclectic and partly because it includes a kind of pop-Polynesian fusion that is certainly unique in WC’s experience.

Most of the band members are from the remote islands of the South Pacific: Tokelau, Tuvalu, Samoa, Niuea and New Zealand. It’s Polynesian, but it’s very different from the Hawaia’an music most Americans are used to hearing. The group’s leader and chief songwriter, Opetaia Foa’i, mixes a kind of pop sensibility with Polynesian rhythms in some songs, and pure poly-rhythmic drumming in others. All of the lyrics were in Tokelauan, Foa’i's father’s tongue. The drumming was on Polynesian drums, but the rhythms were influenced by hip-hop as well as Polynesia. It was an interesting, compelling fusion. The drumming was simply outstanding.

Te Vaka at a Concert in Samoa

Did WC mention the dancers? Two lovely ladies, Olivia Foa’i and Tremayne Lihou demonstrated that Hawaia’an hula dancers could learn a thing or two form their Polynesian cousins. Oh, there was a male dancer, too, Talaga Sale, but, honestly, when the ladies were dancing no guy in the audience was watching anything else.

WC also enjoyed the very talented drummer, Matatia Foa’i, who played both a drum kit and a pretty amazing set of log drums, as well as the multi-talented Neil Forrest, who played flute, a kind of electric slack key guitar, drums and keyboards. The band was tight, interacted well with the audience and seemed to enjoy themselves immensely.

Did WC mention the dancers?

Props to Fairbanks Concert Association for giving Fairbanks a shot of world music that was truly from the other side of the road. It was a great show.

Did WC mention the dancers? Wow.

Brasil Guitar Duo

It was WC’s privilege to see the Brasil Guitar Duo on consecutive nights recently, once at an intimate house concert and once in a more formal, concert venue. Both times, they were outstanding, displaying the highest levels of musicianship, virtuosity and effortless skill.

This was Fairbanks Concert Association‘s second act of its 2011-2012 season, following the superb k. d. lang concert last month. A tough act to follow, yet these guys brought it off.

Joao Luiz and Douglas Lora have been performing together for twelve years, and it shows. Even more impressively than the perfect synchronicity, they plainly enjoy each other’s company. They are very much a duo, not merely two artists performing together. Their evident delight in their music is obvious, and adds to the pleasure of their performance.

When you think of Brasil guitar music, for better or worse, you probably think of the late Antonio Carlos Jobin, who popularized the bossa nova rhythms, most famously “Girl from Impanena.” Notably, there was no bossa nova at either show, although there were sly references to “true Brasil music” a couple of times. But while Luiz and Lora performed no Jobin music, there were certainly songs with a Jobin influence, notably “Casa Forte” and “Zanzibar.”

WC personally found the choro music the most fun and the most interesting. Choro is to Brazillian music roughly what jazz is in America. A wildly variable, highly improvisational kind of music. Luiz and Lora performed wonderful interpretations of Jacob do Bandolim‘s ”Doce de Coco” and ”Noites Cariocas.” They passed the lead back and forth flawlessly, improvised around each other’s melodic leads and demonstrated incredible guitar skills.

Those skills go far beyond Brasil music traditions. They did a wonderful interpretation of Debussey’s “Children’s Corner.” The third movement, with its repeated stops and breaks, was delightful fun. And their thoughtful work on Villa-Lobos’s “Prelude” showed the crowd that guitars can be beautiful on slower pieces, as well.

It’s not common for outstanding artists to excel at the very different venues of a house concert and a crowd of over a thousand. It requires a very different approach. Props to these two young men for bringing both off so well.

Special thanks to Joao and Douglas for their extended work in Interior Alaska, as a part of Fairbanks Concert Associations outreach program.

Two wonderful evenings of music. Thanks to all who helped bring the concerts off.

WC praised lang’s live performance of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at her Fairbanks concert September 15. By request, here’s a video clip of her performance at the 2005 Junos (the Canadian Grammys). You’ll have to imagine her rock and roll band, Siss Boom Bang, instead of the more staid chamber orchestra featured here. Turn the volume up..

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It’s a bit alarming to think WC might have lived life without hearing and seeing lang perform that song.

k d lang

Wow.

k d lang and her band, the Siss Boom Bang, came to Hering Auditorium Thursday night as the opening act of  Fairbanks Concert Association’s 2011-2012 season. lang blew the doors off the auditorium, and probably damaged the roof. She was simply that good.

It wasn’t a matter of mere decibels, although lang’s recent turn to a more rock-oriented music certainly offers decibels. No, it’s about lang’s voice, which is simply extraordinary. To quote the staid London Times, “Her gorgeous voice is a versatile weapon of mass seduction.” Her cover of Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah” brought a spontaneous standing ovation from the usually sedate FCA crowd. That’s not the first time, of course; lang’s performance of the song at the 2005 Juno Awards brought the audience to its feet for a two minute long standing ovation, too. And she performed it for the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, to an audience of millions. But seeing her live takes it to a whole new level. WC has attended hundreds of concerts, and lang’s performance of “Hallelujah” ranks in the top ten songs WC has heard live.

WC understands that lang is controversial in some circles for her forcefully held views, androgynous looks, style and strong personality. But that has nothing to do with her superb music. lang addressed it briefly at the concert, with a sly reference to “freaks.” But it has nothing at all to do with her music. Which is simply outstanding. Or her sultry, earthy voice, which is mesmerizing.

In addition to an astonishing voice and vocal style, lang is also an amazing show person. She dominates that stage. Even during instrument solos by her fine band, it was hard to not watch lang.  It’s not just a matter of charisma, although lang has buckets of charisma. It’s a matter of stage presence.

All of lang’s songs were good, but there were a few others that were nearly as good as “Hallelujah.” In partciular, the last song of the set, “Constant Craving,” was breathtaking. The band is very, very good; they were tight, flexible – moving among instruments throughout the show – and energetic. Special props to the drummer, Fred Eltringham, late of The Wallflowers, for outstanding work throughout.

lang has ten albums, four Grammys, numerous Junos (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy) and many other honors. But she is one of those rare artists who records amazing albums, but who is even better live. Sure, it was a little disappointing that she didn’t perform Roy Orbison’s “Crying,” another breath-taking, show-stopping number, but the artist picks the set list, not the crowd, and lang’s selections were excellent.

Folks who missed this show should be kicking themselves. If you won’t take WC’s word for it, download one of the live versions of lang’s “Hallelujah” and see what the excitement is about. An amazing artist, a terrific band and a truly memorable concert.

Special thanks to Ann Biberman and the Board of FCA for breaking out a little bit and taking what some might see as a risk on an artist like k d lang. Well done.

Chris Proctor

WC was lucky enough to score an invitation to a house concert at Karl and Susan Monetti’s place featuring wizard guitar player Chris Proctor. We were treated to two hours of extraordinary music, fingerstyle guitar performed by a master (and former national champion).

Proctor composes terrific music, and is also a gifted arranger of everyting from Scottish ballads to pop tunes. One of his original compositions, “Meriwether,” was lovely and sent me to iTunes immediately upon getting home. But his arrangement of a medley of the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreaming,” the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black,” and Del Shannon’s “Runaway” was equally good.

Proctor plays fingerstyle, and draws a rich spectrum of sounds out of his six string guitar. He can carry a strong bass line while simultaneously running arpeggios that take your breath away. He played Celtic, blues, jazz, pop and classical music, all with delicacy and a seemingly effortless fingering. He’s also very good at managing the intimate environment of a house concert, not a venue that works for all artists.

Terrific music and a wonderful time. Mrs. WC and WC both extend warm thanks to Karl and Susan Monetti, and especially to Chris Proctor.

WC can’t speak for his fellow Baby Boomers, but for WC there were certain songwriters who seemingly wrote the soundtrack for WC’s life. Those songwriters would include Jerry Leiber and Nick Ashford.

Jerry Leiber was the lyricist half of the terrific songwriting duo, Leiber-Stoller. Beginning in 1950, they collaborated on dozens of Top 40 songs, including Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” and Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog” (Leiber loathed Elvis Presley’s cover of the song, although it didn’t stop him from writing a string of hits for The King.) Many of the songs were admittedly silly, like “Poison Ivy,”

Measles make you lumpy
And mumps will make you jumpy
And chicken pox will make you jump and twitch
A common cold will cool you
And whooping cough will cool you
But Poison Ivy, Lord she’ll make you itch.

But he also wrote “Spanish Harlem,” “Walkin’ in the Sand” and “On Broadway.” You can forgive a writer for “Yaketty-Yak” if he also wrote “Stand By Me.” Leiber died August 22 at age 78.

Nick Ashford and his wife, Valerie Simpson, wrote some of MoTown’s greatest songs. Overshadowed by the incomparable Smokey Robinson, they still made their mark with songs like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.” The obvious love and passion between Ashford and Simpson when they performed live together was utterly astonishing. They nearly set the stage on fire at the Chicago Opera House in 1973. There really isn’t anything like the real thing, and Nick Ashford proved it.

New York Times reporter Steven Holden reviewed a 2007 Ashford-Simpson concert: “When Ms. Simpson sits down at the piano and begins to sing in a bright pop-gospel voice, unchanged since the 1970s, she awakens the spirit and tosses it to Mr. Ashford, whose quirkier voice, with its airy falsetto, has gained in strength from the old days. Soon they are urging each other on. By the time their romantic relay winds to a close, both are sweating profusely, and the audience is delirious.” Nick Ashford  also died August 22 at age 70.

Musicians are fortunate that their music lives on long after they are gone. But it hurts to know they are gone forever. RIP, Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber. And thanks for the great songs.