Free MUSIC for GROWN-UPs Newsletter re-launched

After a lengthy delay, the free MUSIC for GROWN-UPs Newsletter has just been re-launched.

If you’re a subscriber, you should have already received your copy by email. If you haven’t, it’s probably because:

* your spam filter has rejected it - please ensure that my sending email address – info@musicforgrownups.co.uk - is in your spam filter’s Friends list

* you’ve changed your email address since registering to receive the free newsletter; if so, please re-register your new email address via the Music For Grown-Ups Home Page – it only takes seconds.

And if you’re not already a subscriber – why not register now, from the Music For Grown-Ups Home Page – it only takes seconds.

www.musicforgrown-ups.com

Receiving the free Newsletter is a foolproof way of catching up with new content on the web site that you may have missed.

The Newsletter is now mailed to subscribers on alternate Thursdays.

Thanks for your interest.



Gerry Smith, Editor


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RELAUNCHED FREE NEWSLETTER - JUST MAILED TO SUBSCRIBERS

MUSIC for GROWN-UPs: celebrating great musicians:
from Sinatra to the Stones, Miles to Mozart, and Dylan to David Bowie.

Exclusive news and views, emailed free to subscribers on alternate Thursdays.
Editor: Gerry Smith (info@musicforgrown-ups.com)



MESSAGE TO SUBSCRIBERS:

Hello again. Apologies for the break in sending you your copy of the MUSIC for GROWN-UPs newsletter. I curtailed it for a while to focus on finishing my new book, also called MUSIC for GROWN-UPs - check it out at http://www.musicforgrown-ups.com/

This newsletter is now published on alternate Thursdays, and you'll receive your copy at the email address you've already registered. I hope you like it and will tell fellow grown-up music fans about it.

If you haven't visited http://www.musicforgrown-ups.com/ for a while, please take another look - you'll find more articles and a sharper, easier-to-use design. And please continue to send me your news and views - of gigs you've enjoyed, new releases, and back catalogue discoveries – and I’ll be pleased to post them on the web site for the benefit of your fellow grown-up music lovers.


Gerry Smith, Editor (email: info@musicforgrown-ups.com)



NEW on MUSIC for GROWN-UPs
to read the articles listed, please log on to http://www.musicforgrown-ups.com/

* New albums from Springsten, Morrison, Morrissey, and maybe Dylan and Young
* Bartok, Baaba Maal, Bob Dylan
* Your last chance to win a copy of new Music For Grown-Ups book
* A fine Buddy Holly documentary
* Jose Carreras and Roberta Flack play Adelaide

* Morrissey, Dylan, Beethoven
* Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Jeff Beck
* John Martyn RIP
* Bob Dylan, American folk, Handel
* Astral Weeks - live


PREVIOUSLY on MUSIC for GROWN-UPs
http://www.musicforgrownups.com/

* Top Grown-Up Gigs of 2008
* Win a free copy of new book, Music For Grown-Ups
* Handel: Composer Of The Year, star of Music For Grown-Ups, the new book
* Prog Rock: music for grown-ups? Well, yes, sort of
* Beck, Roberto Alagna, Pentangle: least loved gigs of 2008

* Astral Weeks - Live in LA
* Purcell, Prog Rock, Michael Brecker
* Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst and John McLaughlin - top gigs for grown-ups
* Handel, Keith Richards, Prog Rock
* Roy Orbison profile - good music, weak analysis


MOST VIEWED RECENT ARTICLE on MUSIC for GROWN-UPs
http://www.musicforgrown-ups.com/

Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Jeff Beck: one week in Australia

Thanks to Andrew Robertson in Adelaide:

I have just enjoyed the most incredible week of music so I'll see if I can manage to share it with you...

Last weekend was the Australia Day long weekend and on Saturday night we saw Neil Young at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Ordinarily we would have stayed the whole long weekend in Sydney, as it is such a great city, but before I had booked flights and accommodation, it was announced that Leonard Cohen would be playing in Adelaide on the holiday Monday - so naturally I booked that. That meant coming home from Sydney on the Sunday, which turned out to be fortuitous because it was then announced that Jeff Beck would be playing in Adelaide on the Sunday night. Don't things have a way of working out in the end?

And then it was announced that Neil Young would be playing the Big Day Out circuit, including Adelaide, so I saw him again on Friday night - so that was 4 amazing concerts in one amazing week. Probably only surpassed by Van Morrison's Astral Weekend at Hollywood Bowl. Although the week I saw Dylan in Adelaide then Van twice in 2 nights in England, all in the same week back in 2007, was pretty good too!

So let's begin with Neil Young in Sydney...

(You can see the full text online at: http://www.musicforgrown-ups.com/)


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(c) Gerry Smith 2009

New albums from Springsten, Morrison, Morrissey, and maybe Dylan and Young: Encore #1

Thank to Pat Kenny:

“Like you, I prefer to celebrate rather than knock the output of great musicians – as all those listed above undoubtedly are.

“But, having bought the three albums already released, I have to admit I’m underwhelmed.

“Springsteen’s CD sees him treading water… Van the Man should have resisted the temptation to update his untouchable masterpiece… and does Morrissey have anything left to say?

“I’m not optimistic that the new Dylan or Young albums will be Earth-shattering, either.

“Time for me to take a rest from rock, and catch up on some recent jazz releases. I feel a Miles/Coltrane/Herbie/Wayne period coming on.”

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The big beasts in the rockpop jungle are stirring, with new albums from Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Morrissey, and maybe Dylan and Neil Young.

Springsten kicked off the season with Workin’ On A Dream. I’ve yet to hear it. Please let me know what you think.

Van Morrison was the second to stir with Astral Weeks Live last week. The original is one of my top three albums in any genre. After half a dozen plays of the new version, I’m suspending judgment.

Morrissey followed yesterday with Years Of Refusal. What do you think of it?

New Dylan album rumours are flying fast. Some have a new 10-track studio album already in the can and due for release at the end of April.

And it seems that Neil Young’s eternally delayed Archives box has been put back yet again to accommodate an original new CD, Fork In The Road, on 30 March.

Great days for grown-up rockpop fans!

All of these musicians are profiled in my new book, Music For Grown-Ups. For full details, please click on the book cover at the top left of this page/

the Home Page of the master website:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com




Gerry Smith

New albums from Bruce Springsten, Van Morrison, Morrissey, and maybe Dylan and Neil Young

The big beasts in the rockpop jungle are stirring, with new albums from Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Morrissey, and maybe Dylan and Neil Young.

Springsten kicked off the season with Workin’ On A Dream. I’ve yet to hear it. Please let me know what you think.

Van Morrison was the second to stir with Astral Weeks Live last week. The original is one of my top three albums in any genre. After half a dozen plays of the new version, I’m suspending judgment.

Morrissey followed yesterday with Years Of Refusal. What do you think of it?

New Dylan album rumours are flying fast. Some have a new 10-track studio album already in the can and due for release at the end of April.

And it seems that Neil Young’s eternally delayed Archives box has been put back yet again to accommodate an original new CD, Fork In The Road, on 30 March.

Great days for grown-up rockpop fans!

All of these musicians are profiled in my new book, Music For Grown-Ups. For full details, please click on the book cover at the top left of the Home Page of the master website:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com




Gerry Smith

Bartok, Baaba Maal, Bob Dylan

FREE! Music for grown-ups on the BBC this week

Hidden among its vast TV and radio output, the BBC broadcasts some magnificent music for grown-ups every week of the year. And it’s all free - well, sort of….

All of these musicians are profiled in my new book, Music For Grown-Ups. For full details, please click on the book cover at the top left of the Home Page of the master website:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com


Mon 16 Feb
1200 & 2200 Bartok, Composer Of The Week – BBC Radio 3 (1/5, continues Tues-Fri)

Wed 18 Feb
2315 Baaba Maal live, Late Junction – BBC Radio 3

Thurs 19 Feb
1400 Handel’s opera Silla – BBC Radio 3
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Online access: many BBC radio programmes are broadcast live online - please see the channels’ web sites for details. Some BBC radio and TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer






Gerry Smith

Late entries to win a copy of new Music For Grown-Ups book

Thanks for the flurry of late entries, including Top 5s like:

* Dylan, Mozart, Len Cohen, Cecilia Bartoli and Marcelo Alvarez

* Bach, Miles, Dylan, Mozart, Ella

* Warren Zevon, Stan Rogers, Paul Simon, Ray Davies, Stephen Sondheim

The competition closes in one hour and I’m looking forward to drawing the winner and compiling a ranking list next week.

Thanks again to all who entered – the response was excellent, the ranking list looks like it will be a revelation.



Gerry Smith

Your last chance to win a copy of new Music For Grown-Ups book

Your last chance to win a copy of the new Music For Grown-Ups book is fast approaching - the deadline for entries is 2359 GMT on Friday 13 Feb.

All you’ve got to do is email your ranked list (1 to 5) of your favourite musicians to info@musicforgrown-ups.com - please use TOP 5 as your subject header.

All responding readers will be entered in a free draw and the winner will be selected by lucky dip.

Thanks to readers for the many recent entries, including some welcome unusual choices like: Andy Sheppard, Bryan Corbett, Tord Gustavsen and Ketil Bjornstad (as well as the Beatles!)

Recent entries have also included nominations for: Ryan Adams, Eels, Bruce Springsteen, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Bob Dylan, Franz Schubert, Louis Armstrong, John Martyn, Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Cecilia Bartoli, Muddy Waters and Hank Williams.

Most of these great musicians are celebrated in the book!



Gerry Smith

Music For Grown-Ups competition: hurry – only two days left

Thanks to readers for yet more entries in the competition to win a copy of my new book, Music For Grown-Ups.

If you intend to enter, please remember that the deadline is fast approaching - 2359 GMT on Friday 13 Feb.

All you’ve got to do is email your ranked list (1 to 5) of your favourite musicians to info@musicforgrown-ups.com - please use TOP 5 as your subject header.

All responding readers will be entered in a free draw and the winner will be selected by lucky dip.

Thanks in advance. And good luck!

Recent entries have included nominations for:

Ryan Adams, Eels, Bruce Springsteen, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Bob Dylan, Franz Schubert, Louis Armstrong, John Martyn, Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Cecilia Bartoli, Muddy Waters and Hank Williams.

Nearly all these great musicians are celebrated in the book!



Gerry Smith

A fine Buddy Holly documentary

Last week’s BBC4 Buddy Holly documentary, from Arena in 1985, was a nice mixture of dramatic original footage and analysis by expert talking heads. As well as Crickets, both a Beatle - Paul McCartney – and a Stone – Keefe – testified to Holly’s overwhelming impact on their own musical development.

Recommended.

You can still catch it online – until midnight on Wednesday 11 Feb – on BBC iPlayer:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

Buddy Holly, like 170 other great musicians, is celebrated in my new book, Music For Grown-Ups. For full details, please click on the book cover at the top left of the Home Page of the master website:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com



Gerry Smith

Music For Grown-Ups – yet more book competition entries

Thanks to readers for yet more entries in the competition to win a copy of my new book, Music For Grown-Ups.

Remember - the deadline has been extended to Friday 13 Feb.

All you’ve got to do is email your ranked list (1 to 5) of your favourite musicians to info@musicforgrown-ups.com - please use TOP 5 as your subject header.

All responding readers will be entered in a free draw and the winner will be selected by lucky dip.

Thanks in advance. And good luck!

Recent entries have included nominations for:

Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Bob Dylan, Franz Schubert, Louis Armstrong, John Martyn, Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Cecilia Bartoli, Muddy Waters and Hank Williams.

Nearly all these great musicians are celebrated in the book!



Gerry Smith

Jose Carreras and Roberta Flack play Adelaide

Thanks to Andrew Robertson:

So a couple of weeks ago it was Neil Young, Jeff Back and Leonard Cohen.

This week’s fare was Jose Carreras and Roberta Flack, both of whom played with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (separate concerts on separate nights).

Quite an eclectic couple of weeks!

The ASO is a great orchestra, who just a few weeks ago played Carnegie Hall in New York. They often do collaborations like this – I have seen them with Herbie Hancock, Billy Cobham doing a Mahavishnu Orchestra set, Kurt Elling the jazz crooner and scatter, The Whitlams (great Aussie band), and so on.

Sometimes they mesh well, other times they don’t, but I think this is more about the way the featured artist chooses to use them. Roberta Flack was a case in point – she didn’t really use the orchestra effectively, or at least, I didn’t think so. So there was a bit of a sense of missed opportunity.

Carreras still has a fine voice, but to be honest I think I would rather see him in an opera than in concert. Reason being that he only ever sang two songs at a time, then went off stage – no doubt to rest his precious voice and fair enough, but it meant that the concert never gathered any momentum. The stop-start nature of it meant that it was hard to get emotionally involved and after all, isn’t that what makes the concert experience?

When he went off, Fiona Campbell, an Aussie mezzo-soprano, sang and she was very good too. Or sometimes the orchestra would play a piece on their own. It was all good, and hard not to be impressed by, it’s just that it was like an exhibition performance rather than a real music experience – a bit like the difference between watching an exhibition tennis match and a Grand Slam final, the tennis might still be good, and the players might be the same and therefore as good as ever, it’s just that the atmosphere, tension and excitement are different.

Roberta Flack on the other hand got a real vibe going in the second half of her show. The first half was only half an hour and seemed to be over as soon as it had started. But the second half was an hour and she had a great band who really cooked once they got going. The band comprised drums, bass, keyboards, an outstanding horn player and two singers – I was going to say “backing” singers but they were really more than that.

The horn player played sax, clarinet and flute and he was the star of the show – although the drummer came close. The bassist played a five string bass and there being no lead guitar, he often played bass as if it was a lead instrument, not just part of the rhythm section.

Roberta Flack played piano and while no virtuoso, she was good. And her voice was excellent, especially for someone in her 70s).

This concert varied between very smooth middle-of-the-road to good lounge jazz, but was always engaging. The favourites were all good, and delivered with feeling. She didn’t do Hey That’s No Way, but having heard Leonard Cohen himself sing it a couple of weeks ago, that was fine by me.

She said she is making a Beatles album and I thought, don’t tell me she’s going to play A Day In The Life as well, but no, she did Here Come The Sun in a very interesting, slow, jazz-inflected interpretation. Probably my highlight of the night.

Nothing booked for next week (what am I going to do?!) but John McLaughlin and Chick Corea the week after that – really really looking forward to that one!



Andrew in Adelaide

Morrissey, Dylan, Beethoven

FREE! Music for grown-ups on the BBC in the next 7 days

Hidden among its vast TV and radio output, the BBC broadcasts some magnificent music for grown-ups every week of the year. And it’s all free - well, sort of….

Nearly all of these musicians are profiled in my new book, Music For Grown-Ups. For full details, please click on the book cover at the top left of the Home Page of the master website:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com


Sat 7 Feb
2200 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Sun 8 Feb
2100 Folk America (3/3) – Blowin’ In The Wind – BBC4
2400 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC 6Music

Mon 9 Feb
1200 & 2200 Beethoven (last 12 years), Composer Of The Week
– BBC Radio 3 (1/5, continues Tues-Fri)

Wed 11 Feb
2000 Morrissey (interview/live gig) – BBC Radio 2

Thurs 12 Feb
1400 Handel’s opera Teseo – BBC Radio 3
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 13 Feb
2000 Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Sound Of The Sixties - BBC4
2010 Festival (Newport Folk, 1963—6) - BBC4
2140 Sings Dylan (cover versions) – BBC4
2230 Roger McGuinn et al, Folk America At The Barbican – BBC4


Online access: many BBC radio programmes are broadcast live online - please see the channels’ web sites for details. Some BBC radio and TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer






Gerry Smith

Win Music For Grown-Ups book – competition deadline extended to 13 Feb

Thanks to readers for lots more entries in the competition to win a copy of my new book, Music For Grown-Ups.

In view of the continuing stream of entries, the deadline has been extended to Friday 13 Feb.

All you’ve got to do is email your ranked list (1 to 5) of your favourite musicians to info@musicforgrown-ups.com - please use TOP 5 as your subject header.

All responding readers will be entered in a free draw and the winner will be selected by lucky dip.

Thanks in advance. And good luck!

Recent entries have included nominations for John Martyn, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Warren Zevon, Mark Linkous, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Beethoven, Cecilia Bartoli, Muddy Waters and Hank Williams – nearly all of whom are profiled in the book.



Gerry Smith

Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Jeff Beck: one week in Australia

Thanks to Andrew Robertson in Adelaide:

I have just enjoyed the most incredible week of music so I’ll see if I can manage to share it with you…

Last weekend was the Australia Day long weekend and on Saturday night we saw Neil Young at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Ordinarily we would have stayed the whole long weekend in Sydney, as it is such a great city, but before I had booked flights and accommodation, it was announced that Leonard Cohen would be playing in Adelaide on the holiday Monday – so naturally I booked that. That meant coming home from Sydney on the Sunday, which turned out to be fortuitous because it was then announced that Jeff Beck would be playing in Adelaide on the Sunday night. Don’t things have a way of working out in the end?

And then it was announced that Neil Young would be playing the Big Day Out circuit, including Adelaide, so I saw him again on Friday night – so that was 4 amazing concerts in one amazing week. Probably only surpassed by Van Morrison’s Astral Weekend at Hollywood Bowl. Although the week I saw Dylan in Adelaide then Van twice in 2 nights in England, all in the same week back in 2007, was pretty good too!

So let’s begin with Neil Young in Sydney. He was supported by My Morning Jacket who I thought were great. I don’t know much about them, but understand they play a variety of styles – that night they played mostly softer, more acoustic, country influenced music. If anyone can recommend which of their albums I should start with, I’d be interested to hear.

Shakey played a really great concert, with a set list that was about as good as you could hope for. Of course, it would be easy to come up with another whole set list of favourites he didn’t play, but when you walk out happy with everything he did play, it’s a good concert.

It was mostly electric, a short acoustic set in the middle, but mostly electric. However, without Crazy Horse he didn’t really extend out the songs with long, loud, grungy solos. I wondered if that was just Neil, like where he’s at right now, or whether it was a conscious decision to try to balance the “two Neils” for a mixed audience. For the grunge lovers, it was certainly loud and guitary enough. But for the folkies it wasn’t too grungy. I’m happy with both Neils, and was very happy with the way he played it on the night. A case in point was Cinnamon Girl, which probably only went for 3-4 minutes, like a single rather than an album track or an extended live version.

The only other time I’ve seen Neil Young was the Greendale tour with Crazy Horse, and their second set – after Greendale – went for 90 minutes with just 6 songs. A real blast. Raw power. Great songs.

Anyway, back to Sydney where he started with Love And Only Love, so it was a powerhouse opening. A real highlight was Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, which came very early in the concert and it was obvious he was on top of his game. He looked great, no sign of any health issues. And in great voice – his voice doesn’t seem to have changed over the years, unlike others (most notably Dylan).

No doubt in my mind that the highlight of the night was Cortez the Killer. Slow, powerful and menacing, the song just took hold of you – and took hold of him, as he doubled up to rip those notes out of his guitar. Doesn’t he have a great guitar style that is quite unique to him, and it’s songs like Cortez that really showcase that (Powderfinger too, but unfortunately we didn’t get that). Spirit Road was a very spirited performance, and reminded me how much I liked Chrome Dreams II (Ordinary People would be great live wouldn’t it?).

He then went to the organ (a proper one with pipes) and did a heartfelt solo version of Mother Earth, which led into the acoustic set. Highlighted by The Needle and The Damage Done, which still resonates today and which he still seems to feel deeply, but then there were some unexpected songs – Unknown Legend and One of These Days, both songs I really like from Harvest Moon, but not songs I was expecting. Similarly Words, from Harvest, which was great and led back into the electric finale.

I know I’ve forgotten a few, but he closed with Rocking in the Free World then came back to encore with The Beatles’ A Day in the Life which if you didn’t know otherwise you would have thought was his song. I’m sure Lennon would have approved. For a bit of theatre at the end he destroyed every string on his guitar in that cacophonous crescendo, before hitting two notes on a xylophone (or something like a xylophone). A nice ironic touch.

Jumping forward to Friday night, Neil played the Big Day Out in Adelaide. These are outdoor, all-day concerts for kids, with mosh pits, crowd surfing and the like. And bands I’ve never heard of and music that doesn’t really reach me (with exceptions, obviously – except that I don’t know what they are). I should stress, that’s my opinion only – but most new young music I hear doesn’t attract me to find out or listen more. Anyway, for the Big Day Out I was intending to go and listen and see if I could find some other music I liked. But then this monstrous heatwave descended on Adelaide so I decided not to – it was over 40C (that’s well over 100F). I skipped the whole day and arrived a bit after 8pm for Shakey’s set at 8.30 by which time the sun had gone down and a bit of a breeze was blowing. I got a great spot, a bit side on to be out of the mass of people, but still close to the stage.

Neil came on wearing a loose shirt and cargo shorts (!), no jacket, no hat. Again he looked great and I think they must have had enough cooling on the stage because he didn’t seem at all bothered by the heat. If anything, on the night he seemed more relaxed and into to it than Sydney (not that there was anything wrong with Sydney!). He started with Love and Only Love again, then ripped into Hey Hey My My. I wondered if the younger audience knew the significance of the song, in respect to Kurt Cobain’s suicide note – but judging from the incredible response to the whole set, I decided they all knew Neil’s work pretty well. The audience was still predominantly young, although quite a number of other “old farts” like me had turned up (probably mostly only for Neil too).

I half expected him to delete the acoustic set in this concert, thinking that “grungy Neil” might have been more appropriate for the audience, but I was wrong. And the acoustic set got huge audience response, especially Heart of Gold. As well as HoG, he also did Old Man, so that was two new acoustic songs we hadn’t heard in Sydney.

Another killer Cortez, but this night a new highlight would emerge: Like A Hurricane. Most of my friends think I’m crazy, but it is definitely worth going to more than one concert in the same tour (as everyone on these lists knows)! He unleashed his full throttle on Like A Hurricane, long, loud, spectacular.

And what an ending, reaching a massive guitar driven and drum crashing crescendo while Neil somehow wailed the chorus line above it all. A moment to remember! So with Hurricane and Hey Hey My My, there were two different electric songs to Sydney, as well as the two different acoustic ones. Another great Day In the Life to close, another 6 guitar strings destroyed.

Then Jeff Beck on Sunday night was a revelation. The reviewer in our local paper described it as guitar poetry or guitar sculpture, not mere guitar playing. And that wasn’t a bad description. I always liked Rolling Stone’s description of Clapton’s and Duane Allman’s playing on the Layla album: never have guitar heroics sounded so sweet. And Jeff Beck’s concert was in that category. Especially if you add “subtle” to “sweet”.

One thing that struck me. He used the same guitar, unchanged, all night – what’s with these other guys who change guitars after every song (is it just to keep the roadies busy?).

As probably everyone knows, the other interesting thing about him is the way he uses his fingers rather than a plectrum. And on one song he used the slide thingy on his “picking” hand rather than up the fretboard. Apologies if I’ve got the technical terminology wrong! Anyway, it sounded great – but more importantly, it sounded like music, it was right for the song, not a gimmick.

I’m not familiar enough with his body of work to list the songs – the only album I have of his is Blow by Blow, although I might now go and get some more. I was told that the set list was similar to the Ronnie Scott’s CD/DVD that has just been released which I will definitely be getting.

But one song I did recognize was The Beatles’ A Day in the Life, which I just couldn’t believe I was hearing – the very next night after Neil Young had encored with it. In Jeff Beck’s case, he closed his set with it before coming back for two encores.

This was a seriously great concert, one I was so pleased I didn’t miss. And for us Aussies it was great to see Tal Wilkenfeld, the young (22yo) female Aussie bass player, who was outstanding. Jeff Beck was quoted as saying she’s like Jaco Pastorius in Kylie Minogue’s body – great quote!

The best concert of the week, though, was Leonard Cohen. As every review I’ve read has said about this tour, from all over the world (including on MFGU) this was a privilege not a concert.

It was another weather-affected day in Adelaide, the concert being an outdoor affair, A Day on the Green at a Southern Vales winery, an hour south of Adelaide. Incidentally the promoters of A Day on the Green describe them as a Big Day Out for Grown-ups!

The first act, Augie March, started around 5pm in the real heat of the day. We just couldn’t sit out there, so had to just listen to them in the background from the shade of the cellar door. We did go out for Paul Kelly – he is unmissable – and he did a great set even though it must have been most uncomfortable. He just had Dan Kelly supporting him on lead guitar and backing vocals, no other support but it worked really well. I think Dan is his nephew.

Leonard Cohen’s first set started around 7.20 still in full sun and let me tell you, it was blazing. The sun was just going down an hour later as the first set finished, so after a short break it was quite pleasant for the second set. I wondered why they didn’t just push the whole thing back, but anyway it didn’t affect the quality of the music.

How to describe Leonard Cohen? I am not sure I have ever seen a performer so happy to be there, so impishly playful yet so masterfully intelligent, so humble yet so self confident, so respectful of his musicians yet so revered by them, and so equally respectful of his audience while having us eat out of his hands, in awe.

Excellent band – drums and bass, electric guitar, acoustic 12 string and mandolin, keyboards, sax and other “blowing” instruments, three wonderful backing singers and Leonard (who occasionally strummed a guitar or tinkled a keyboard, although seemingly unnecessarily).

This was poetry set to music, as everyone who appreciates Leonard Cohen knows. But I think compared to earlier Leonard Cohen, the music has become more integral to the songs rather than just the accompaniment to the words. A very complete and uplifting experience.

The highlights were many. In fact every song was a highlight – and there were many of them because I think he must have played for almost 3 hours.

Without trying to put them in any order, we were graced with: Suzanne, So Long Marianne, Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye, Tower of Song, Hallelujah, Bird on a Wire, I’m Your Man, Dance Me to the End of Love, and some of the more recent ones like Boogie Street, In My Secret Life and A Thousand Kisses Deep.

Having seen Van the Man doing Astral Weeks live at the Hollywood Bowl in November, and that being my all-time concert high watermark, this one came close – that’s how good Leonard Cohen was. Perhaps equal to Springsteen’s The Rising tour, which was my previous high watermark (at least I think it was – so easy to change your mind about these things!).

So that’s been my week – how about yours?

Andrew in Adelaide

John Martyn RIP

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

“No doubt you have seen that the great John Martyn has sadly passed away, aged just 60.

“Criminally overlooked in his lifetime, his vast output over 40 years holds up remarkably well and defies the simplistic categorisations of "folk" or "jazz".

“This was soul music of the most tortured kind, with Martyn's heart-on-sleeve song writing and naked vocals enhanced by the genius of his guitar playing.

“Much has been made of his superb 1970s output, including phenomenal live performances both solo and with long time sparring partner Danny Thompson, but he continued to write and record strong songs through the 80s and 90s.

“Releases such as "Glorious Fool", "Cool Tide" and 2004's "On The Cobbles" are as good as anything in his entire catalogue.

“Eccentric, innovative, joyous and moving - I can only hope that now in death he will at last reach as large an audience as his talent deserved.”

Normal service restored

Apologies to all readers and contributors for the lack of site updates and email acknowledgments on Monday and Tuesday – I got caught up in the traffic disruption following heavy snowfalls.

Normal service has been restored!


Gerry Smith

Bob Dylan, American folk, Handel

FREE! Music for grown-ups on the BBC in the next 10 days

Hidden among its vast TV and radio output, the BBC broadcasts some magnificent music for grown-ups every week of the year. And it’s all free - well, sort of….

Friday 30 Jan
1400 Cecilia Bartoli in Handel’s opera Rinaldo Act 3 – BBC Radio 3
2100 Folk America (2/3) – BBC4

Sat 31 Jan
2200 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Sun 1 Feb
2000 Folk America (2/3) – BBC4
2100 Neil Young, Don’t Be Denied - BBC4
2200 Neil Young, In Concert (1971) - BBC4
2400 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC 6Music

Tues 3 Feb
2355 Joni Mitchell, In Concert – BBC4
0105 Joan Baez, In Concert – BBC4
0135 Neil Young, In Concert (1971) - BBC4

Wed 4 Feb
2100 Buddy Holly, Arena (1985) – BBC4

Thurs 5 Feb
1400 Handel’s opera Il Pastor, overture & Act 1 – BBC Radio 3
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2
0055 Later… Folk America – BBC4

Fri 6 Feb
1400 Handel’s opera Il Pastor Acts 2&3 – BBC Radio 3
2100 Folk America (3/3) – Blowin’ In The Wind – BBC4
2200 Dylan At Newport – The Other Side Of The Mirror – BBC4
2320 Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, In Concert - BBC4


Online access: many BBC radio programmes are broadcast live online - please see the channels’ web sites for details. Some BBC radio and TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

All of the musicians listed above are profiled in my new book, Music For Grown-Ups. For full details, please click on the book cover at the top left of the Home Page of the master website:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com




Gerry Smith

Astral Weeks - live

Long-time readers might recall that Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks is one of the favourite albums of Music For Grown-Ups.

And regular readers might remember seeing the recent rave review of Astral Weeks Live: Andrew Robertson travelled to the two Hollywood Bowl gigs from his home in Adelaide, South Australia. As he reported here, it was the concert-going experience of his life.

Well, now, aficionados on the US East Coast and in England and Wales get a chance to exult in a live performance of this masterpiece.

Morrison’s Astral Weeks Live moves to MSG in NYC on February 27 and 28; and to Bristol’s Colston Hall on Sat 20 June and Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Sunday 21 June.

I’ve booked Cardiff: Mama!

The live CD from the Hollywood Bowl gigs is released on Monday 9 February, with a DVD to follow.

Now’s a good time for all those old Morrison fans (frinstance me, babe) who’ve sidelined the Man over the last six or seven years - disappointed by successive album releases and live shows – to celebrate his great art over and over again.

Van Morrison gets an extended profile in my new book, Music For Grown-Ups.



Gerry Smith

Win Music For Grown-Ups book

Your entries continue to pile in.

In addition to artists already mentioned, recent musician Top 5s have included: Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Olivier Messiaen and Beethoven.

Seriously eclectic – like the new book and the web site!

Please keep ‘em coming….



Gerry Smith


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Win Music For Grown-Ups book

Many thanks to readers for all the entries so far.

Lots more musicians who were expected are showing, including Van Morrison, Neil Young and Mark Knopfler.

As well as some unexpected names as diverse as Ali Farka Toure, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Gustav Mahler, Callas and Joan Sutherland.

Keep ‘em coming… Please email your ranked list (1 to 5) to info@musicforgrown-ups.com before the end of January and I’ll compile a readers’ ranking. Please use TOP 5 as your subject header.


Gerry Smith


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Win Music For Grown-Ups book


Many thanks for all the entries so far.

Lots of expected musicians are showing, including John Lennon, Brahms, and Herbie Hancock.

As well as some unexpected names – eg Elvis Costello, Schoenberg and Can.

Keep ‘em coming…

Please email your ranked list (1 to 5) to info@musicforgrown-ups.com before the end of January and I’ll compile a readers’ ranking. Please use TOP 5 as your subject header.


Gerry Smith

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Win a free copy of new book, Music For Grown-Ups

Music For Grown-Ups, my new book, profiles 171 musicians from all genres. If I had to choose a Top 5, there would be some obvious contenders to consider, including: Dylan, Miles Davis, Bach, Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald, Hank Williams, Handel, Coltrane, the Rolling Stones and The Smiths/Morrissey.

But who are YOUR Top 5 Musicians For Grown-Ups - the five you prefer to listen to before all others?

Please email your ranked list (1 to 5) to info@musicforgrown-ups.com before the end of January and I’ll compile a readers’ ranking. Please use TOP 5 as your subject header.

All responding readers will be entered in a free draw and the winner will be selected by lucky dip.

Thanks in advance. And good luck!




Gerry Smith

Top Grown-Up Live Shows of 2008

Thanks to Andrew Robertson:

2008 was another great year for live music, even in little old Adelaide – although my highlight was on the other side of the world, at the Hollywood Bowl.

Trying to select my top five, I came up with:

1. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks live at the Hollywood Bowl (counting both nights as one, as they were both the clear highlights of my life, let alone 2008)

2. Sting – Songs from the Labyrinth at the Sydney Opera House (music from the ages, definitely music for grown ups)

3. The State Opera of South Australia – Turandot at the Adelaide Festival Theatre (our very, very good local opera company, doing a performance that was as good as any opera I’ve seen)

4. Philip Glass – The Book of Longing (Leonard Cohen’s poetry set to music by Philip Glass – deliciously, eclectically grown up – but to be surpassed in 2009 by Leonard Cohen himself who I saw only yesterday)

5. Billy Cobham & Colin Towns, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra – A Celebration of the Mahavishnu Orchestra (an innovative collaboration between a very good classical symphony orchestra which also loves to stretch out into other genres, and a giant of jazz with Colin Towns as musical director and conductor to harmonise it all into one)

Honourable mentions:

* Ornette Coleman – another jazz giant

* John Mellencamp – my big surprise for 2008, a truly excellent show from an evolving artist

Win Music For Grown-Ups book

Many thanks to readers for all the entries so far.

Lots more musicians who were expected are showing, including Van Morrison, Neil Young and Mark Knopfler.

As well as some unexpected names as diverse as Ali Farka Toure, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Gustav Mahler, Callas and Joan Sutherland.

Keep ‘em coming… Please email your ranked list (1 to 5) to info@musicforgrown-ups.com before the end of January and I’ll compile a readers’ ranking. Please use TOP 5 as your subject header.


Gerry Smith


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Win Music For Grown-Ups book


Many thanks for all the entries so far.

Lots of expected musicians are showing, including John Lennon, Brahms, and Herbie Hancock.

As well as some unexpected names – eg Elvis Costello, Schoenberg and Can.

Keep ‘em coming…

Please email your ranked list (1 to 5) to info@musicforgrown-ups.com before the end of January and I’ll compile a readers’ ranking. Please use TOP 5 as your subject header.


Gerry Smith

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Win a free copy of new book, Music For Grown-Ups

Music For Grown-Ups, my new book, profiles 171 musicians from all genres. If I had to choose a Top 5, there would be some obvious contenders to consider, including: Dylan, Miles Davis, Bach, Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald, Hank Williams, Handel, Coltrane, the Rolling Stones and The Smiths/Morrissey.

But who are YOUR Top 5 Musicians For Grown-Ups - the five you prefer to listen to before all others?

Please email your ranked list (1 to 5) to info@musicforgrown-ups.com before the end of January and I’ll compile a readers’ ranking. Please use TOP 5 as your subject header.

All responding readers will be entered in a free draw and the winner will be selected by lucky dip.

Thanks in advance. And good luck!




Gerry Smith

Folk America: a must-watch/record series

Folk America, the central trio of one-hour documentaries in BBC 4’s timely new series of the same name, are must-watch/record programmes.

If they’re as good as BBC 4’s similar earlier series – Folk… Jazz… (etc)… Britannia they could well be the best documentaries of 2009.

The series starts tonight at 9pm: Folk America - new series exploring the revival of American folk music (Part 1), and is repeated late tonight and on Sunday. Part 2 - Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie et al – airs next Friday at 9pm, with repeats.

As for the rest of the programmes in the series – er, no thanks, not really my cup of tea.

Online access: Some BBC TV programmes are accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer



Gerry Smith


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Folk America on UK TV

Thanks to Martin Cowan:

A feast of viewing is on the horizon for Dylan Daily readers and Grown-Ups everywhere, as follows:

* Friday 23 January 2009 BBC4
8.00 Seasick Steve: Bringing it all back home (documentary about the blues singer)
8.30 Seasick Steve at Reading 2008 (live performance)
9.00 Folk America - new series exploring the revival of American folk music (Part 1)
10.00 Folk America at the Barbican - Hollerers, Stompers and Old Time Ramblers - concert
11.00 Desperate Man blues - profile of Joe Bussard

* Tuesday 27 January 2009 BBC4
11.15 Richie Havens in concert
11.55 Tom Paxton In concert
12.25 Judy Collins in concert
1.00 Joan Baez in concert
1.40 Crosby and Nash in concert

* Wednesday 28 January 2009 BBC4
8.30 - Tonight in Person - Peter Paul and Mary

* Friday 30 January 2009 BBC4
8.00 BBC4 session - Bruce Springsteen at the LSO, his tribute
to Pete Seeger
9.00 Folk America (part 2 - Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie et al)
10.00 Later...folk America (Norah Jones, Johnny Cash,
Emmylou Harris etc)
11.00 Arena Rock Docs - Woody Guthrie


Online access: Some BBC TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

Win new Music For Grown-Ups book

Many thanks for all the entries so far.

Lots of expected musicians are showing, including John Lennon, Brahms, and Herbie Hancock.

As well as some unexpected names – eg Elvis Costello, Schoenberg and Can.

Keep ‘em coming…



xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Win a free copy of new book, Music For Grown-Ups

Music For Grown-Ups, my new book, profiles 171 musicians from all genres. If I had to choose a Top 5, there would be some obvious contenders to consider, including: Dylan, Miles Davis, Bach, Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald, Hank Williams, Handel, Coltrane, the Rolling Stones and The Smiths/Morrissey.

But who are YOUR Top 5 Musicians For Grown-Ups - the five you prefer to listen to before all others?

Please email your ranked list (1 to 5) to info@musicforgrown-ups.com before the end of January and I’ll compile a readers’ ranking. Please use TOP 5 as your subject header.

All responding readers will be entered in a free draw and the winner will be selected by lucky dip.

Thanks in advance. And good luck!




Gerry Smith

Win a free copy of new book, Music For Grown-Ups

Music For Grown-Ups, my new book, profiles 171 musicians from all genres. If I had to choose a Top 5, there would be some obvious contenders to consider, including: Dylan, Miles Davis, Bach, Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald, Hank Williams, Handel, Coltrane, the Rolling Stones and The Smiths/Morrissey.

But who are YOUR Top 5 Musicians For Grown-Ups - the five you prefer to listen to before all others?

Please email your ranked list (1 to 5) to info@musicforgrown-ups.com before the end of January and I’ll compile a readers’ ranking. Please use TOP 5 as your subject header.

All responding readers will be entered in a free draw and the winner will be selected by lucky dip.

Thanks in advance. And good luck!




Gerry Smith

Key artists in your new book, Music For Grown-Ups?

Thanks to Clem Anderson:

“I’m intrigued by your new book, Music For Grown-Ups, and have ordered a copy from your site. Can we assume from the Home Page illustrations that Miles Davis, Dylan and Callas are the key artists?"

Not quite – but you only need to substitute JS Bach for Callas and then you do have my Holy Trinity! For full details, please click on the book cover at the top left of the Home Page of the master website:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com




Gerry Smith

Top gigs of 2008

Thanks to Glen Colegate:

I only went to about 20 last year but the top 10 – if you’re interested – were:

Mark Oliver Everett – St James’ Church, Piccadilly, London – Jan. Twas the day his wonderful book came out and was a one-off acoustic show sans eels

Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – Wembley Arena – Tbone, buddy miller in the band...and front row tickets – perfect

Bob Dylan – Lorca, Spain – hot night, 3or 4 thousand people in a tiny bullring in a Spanish hill top town and Bob well up for it!

Fleet Foxes – University of London Union (ULU)- couple of weeks before the album came out and the buzz has already started – and they deliver big time

Jenny Lewis – Koko - it’s just like 1972 never happened – indie pin-up and crack band make loud noise - crikey!

Terry Reid – Borderline – didn’t wanna go after god-awful Ronnie Scott’s show a couple of years ago but with a yank stoner band, no booze inside him, a bit of inspiration and kicking off with Ballad of Easy Rider, the voice shows he’s back in the game

Neil Young - Hammersmith Apollo – he saw, he came, he did Ambulance Blues – yep – he did Ambulance Blues

Leonard Cohen – Brighton Centre – arena that only holds four and half thousand seated- much better than the o2 methinks!

Dylan, Haydn, Handel

FREE! Music for grown-ups on the BBC in the next 10 days

Hidden among its vast TV and radio output, the BBC broadcasts some magnificent music for grown-ups every week of the year. And it’s all free - well, sort of….

Wed 14 Jan
1200 & 2200 Handel, Composer Of The Week – BBC Radio 3
(3/5, continues Thurs-Fri)

Thurs 15 Jan
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Sun 18 Jan
2400 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC 6Music

Mon 19 Jan
1200 & 2200 Haydn, Composer Of The Week – BBC Radio 3
(1/5, continues Tues-Fri)

Thurs 22 Jan
1400 Handel’s opera Agrippina Acts 1 & 2 – BBC Radio 3
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Friday 23 Jan
1400 Handel’s opera Agrippina Act 3 – BBC Radio 3
2100 Folk America – Birth Of A Nation (1/3) – BBC4

Online access: many BBC radio programmes are broadcast live online - please see the channels’ web sites for details. Some BBC radio and TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer


And Dylan, Haydn and Handel are profiled in my new book, Music For Grown-Ups, published on 15 Jan 2009.

For full details, please click on the book cover at the top left of the Home Page of the master website:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com




Gerry Smith

Handel: Composer Of The Year, recommended in Music For Grown-Ups, the new book

Handel is one of four Composers Of The Year selected by BBC Radio 3 for 2009.

The major celebration concerns the broadcasting of every one of his 42 operas, which started last week. And this week, Handel’s the subject of the consistently fine Radio 3 series, Composer Of The Week, broadcast at 1200 and 2200 each weekday and online at:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

Handel’s also highly recommended in Music For Grown-Ups – the book I’ve been working on while writing this daily column for the past six years – and now available.

Music For Grown-Ups - the book – celebrates 171 musicians from all genres, summarizing their art, recommending their best CDs and explaining why you might wish to give them a try.

Like the website, the book’s coverage is “seriously eclectic”, covering genres from rock to jazz, opera to country, blues to folk and many, many more.

Copies bought directly from the Music For Grown-Ups master website are supplied with an exclusive bonus not available from any retailer.

For full details, please click on the book cover at the top left of the Home Page of the master website:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com




Gerry Smith

Music For Grown-Ups – the brand new book – now available

Music For Grown-Ups – the book I’ve been working on while writing this daily column for the past six years – is now available.

Music For Grown-Ups - the book – celebrates 171 musicians from all genres, summarizing their art, recommending their best CDs and explaining why you might wish to give them a try.

Like the website, the book’s coverage is “seriously eclectic”, covering genres from rock to jazz, opera to country, blues to folk and many, many more.

Copies bought directly from the Music For Grown-Ups master website are supplied with an exclusive bonus not available from any retailer.

For full details, please click on the book cover at the top left of the Home Page of the master website:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com




Gerry Smith

Handel, Dylan, Morrissey

FREE! Music for grown-ups on the BBC in the next 10 days

Hidden among its vast TV and radio output, the BBC broadcasts some magnificent music for grown-ups every week of the year. And it’s all free - well, sort of….

Wed 7 Jan
1200 & 2200 Purcell, Composer Of The Week – BBC Radio 3
(3/5, continues Thurs-Fri)

Thurs 8 Jan
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Sat 10 Jan
2300 Roy Orbison, Legends – BBC4
2400 Roy Orbison And Friends: A Black & White Night – BBC4
(2350, Morrissey, new single video – C4)

Sun 11 Jan
2400 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC 6Music

Mon 12 Jan
1200 & 2200 Handel, Composer Of The Week – BBC Radio 3
(1/5, continues Tues-Fri)

Thurs 15 Jan
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 16 Jan
2000 Karajan: Beauty As We See It – BBC4

Online access: many BBC radio programmes are broadcast live online - please see the channels’ web sites for details. Some BBC radio and TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer


And nearly all of the musicians listed above are profiled in my new book, Music For Grown-Ups, published on 15 Jan 2009 – details at:

www.musicforgrown-ups.com




Gerry Smith

Prog Rock: music for grown-ups? Well, yes, sort of

BBC Four’s suite of programmes on Prog Rock confirmed the view that even Prog has some music for grown-ups.

The genre both attracts and repels this listener. On the positive side:

* Prog encompassed some gifted musicians, notably Robert Fripp, Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman.

* its leading lights were clever innovators; they were creatively courageous in ditching rock’s blues roots; some of their mixing of rock with classical and jazz fusion worked well.

But much Prog is off-putting, mainly because:

* where the music has lyrics, they’re rarely worth listening to.

* even the best musicians veer towards over-indulgence.

* apart from the major players, the bands are so samey that they undermine the genre’s claim to be innovative.

That said, I enjoyed (re)discovering albums like In The Court Of The Crimson King – King Crimson, and The Ultimate Collection - Emerson, Lake & Palmer. I wouldn’t listen to them frequently, but they are engaging, musically interesting and challenge my prejudices.

But I didn’t linger long over The Ultimate Yes or anything by Caravan or Genesis.




Gerry Smith

Prog Rock: music for grown-ups?

It’s a central commandment of this web site that every music genre contains at least some music for grown-ups.

Even Prog Rock? Genesis? ELP? King Crimson?

Well the commandment’s about to be tested to destruction by BBC Four TV’s series of Prog programmes to be broadcast tonight and over the weekend.

You can watch them online:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

Let me know whether you agree that Prog – yes, even Prog - has at least some music for grown-ups!



Gerry Smith

Beck, Roberto Alagna, Pentangle: least loved gigs of 2008

Having raved about some great gigs I saw last year, it’s only fair to add that there were a handful which I didn’t enjoy – not one jot.

Notable among them were:

* Beck

* Roberto Alagna

* Pentangle

I’ll resist the temptation to go into detail – preferring to praise great music rather than whine about it when it doesn’t come off – but these three were among the least enjoyable live shows I’ve ever attended. In all three cases, I’m keen on the artists/legacy but was underwhelmed by the performances.



Gerry Smith

Astral Weeks – Live

Fans of Van Morrison will be looking forward to Astral Weeks – Live At The Hollywood Bowl, due for UK release on 9 February.

Regular readers might recall Aussie Andrew Robertson’s rave review of the two historic gigs played by Morrison on 7 and 8 November (check it out in the Music For Grown-Ups Archive).

And readers who’ve been around for a while might also recall that the original Astral Weeks album topped this site’s poll to find readers’ favourite classic rock album:


Favourite Classic Rock Album:

Astral Weeks 35%
Blonde on Blonde 21%
Revolver 15%
Tonight's the Night 14%
Exile on Main Street 13%





Gerry Smith

Purcell, Prog Rock, Michael Brecker

FREE! Music for grown-ups on the BBC in the next 10 days

Hidden among its vast TV and radio output, the BBC broadcasts some magnificent music for grown-ups every week of the year. Xmas/New Year is particularly good. And it’s all free - well, sort of….

Thurs 1 Jan
1400 Gounod’s Faust, with Alagna and Gheorghiu – BBC Radio 3
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 2 Jan
2100 Prog at the BBC - BBC Four
2200 Prog Rock Britannia - BBC Four

Sat 3 Jan
1600 Michael Brecker, Jazz Library – BBC Radio 3
1800 Puccini’s La Boheme, Live from the Met – BBC Radio 3
2100 Prog Rock - BBC Four

Sun 4 Jan
2400 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC 6Music

Mon 5 Jan
1200 & 2200 Purcell, Composer Of The Week – BBC Radio 3 (1/5, continues Tues-Fri)

Tues 6 Jan
2315 Prog at the BBC - BBC Four

Thurs 8 Jan
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2


Online access: many BBC radio programmes are broadcast live online - please see the channels’ web sites for details. Some BBC radio and TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer





Gerry Smith

Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst and John McLaughlin – top gigs for grown-ups in 2008

The year just ending was a vintage year for live music. From grand opera house to sweaty rock dive, and worthy municipal folk gig to massive arena poprock spectacular, I saw some great musicians for grown-ups performing in 2008.

The five gigs which will linger longest in my memory were:

1. Leonard Cohen – London O2
2. Conor Oberst - Portsmouth
3. John McLaughlin - Barbican
4. Bjork - Plymouth
5. Cecilia Bartoli - Barbican

And the two next best were:
6. Morrissey - Roundhouse
7. Hansel & Gretel – Royal Opera House

What were your top 5 gigs? Please share your list with other readers – please email me at info@musicforgrown-ups.com


Gerry Smith

Gigs in 2008: probably my best year ever of live music

The year just ending was probably my best ever for live music. From grand metropolitan opera house to sweaty rock dive, and worthy municipal folk gig to massive arena poprock spectacular, I’ve seen some great musicians performing in 2008.

It really couldn’t get much better.

Here’s the calendar – be sure call back on Monday for the ranking of the Music For Grown-Ups Top 10 Gigs in 2008:


Jan 23: Morrissey Roundhouse
31: Roschmann - Lieder Musikverein, Vienna

March 8: Salome Royal Opera House (ROH)

April 22: Bjork Plymouth

May 2: Roberto Alagna Barbican
31: John McLaughlin Barbican

June 14: Don Carlo ROH
21: Ariadne ROH
29: Pentangle Royal Festival Hall

July 2: Beck Southampton
17: Leonard Cohen O2
19: Figaro ROH

Aug 26 Conor Oberst Portsmouth

Sept 12: Don Giovanni ROH

Oct 10: Calisto ROH

Nov 8: Elektra ROH
15: Jim Moray Lichfield

Dec 12: Hansel & Gretel ROH
13: Joyce DiDonato Barbican
17: Cecilia Bartoli Barbican





Gerry Smith

Seasonal greetings!

Seasonal greetings to you and yours, dear reader.

Whether you’re celebrating the birth of Christ, the winter solstice, or just a well-earned break from everyday toil, it’s time to slow down, be kind to yourself and reflect.

No blog here tomorrow, 25 Dec, but the site will be back to normal on Friday, 26 December. I hope you’ll be calling in!



Gerry Smith

Handel, Keith Richards, Prog Rock

FREE! Music for grown-ups on the BBC in the next 10 days

Hidden among its vast TV and radio output, the BBC broadcasts some magnificent music for grown-ups every week of the year. Xmas/New Year is particularly good. And it’s all free - well, sort of….


Wed 24 Dec
1200 & 2200 Puccini, Composer Of The Week (3/5, continues Thurs-Fri) – BBC Radio 3
1830 Carols from King’s – BBC2
1900 Bach at Christmas (3/3) – BBC Radio 3
2200 Bach, Christmas Oratorio from Weimar (4/6, concludes Thurs) – BBC Four

Thurs 25 Dec
1400 Festival Of Nine Lessons & Carols, from King’s – BBC Radio 3
1500 Hansel und Gretel, from Covent Garden – BBC2
1950 Handel’s Messiah, LSO/Davis, from The Barbican – BBC Four
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 26 Dec
1400 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC 6Music
2200 Quincy Jones: The Many Lives Of Q – BBC Four

Sat 27 Dec
2200 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Mon 29 Dec
1200 Berlioz, Composer Of The Week (1/5, continues Tues-Fri) – BBC Radio 3
2400 Keith Richards, My Top Ten (1/2) - BBC 6Music

Tues 30 Dec
2400 Keith Richards, My Top Ten (2/2) - BBC 6Music

Thurs 1 Jan
1400 Gounod’s Faust, with Alagna and Gheorghiu – BBC Radio 3
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 2 Jan
2100 Prog at the BBC - BBC Four
2200 Prog Rock Britannia - BBC Four


Online access: many BBC radio programmes are broadcast live online - please see the channels’ web sites for details. Some BBC radio and TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer


And on the commercial networks:

Thurs 25 Dec
1810 The Three Tenors – More4

Sun 28 Dec
2400 White Stripes Live In Blackpool – 4Music




Gerry Smith

Roy Orbison profile – good music, weak analysis

Watch out for repeats of the recent one-hour profile of Roy Orbison in BBC Four’s Legends series.

It has lots of inspiring career-spanning footage of the Big O crooning and soaring - from his early Sun days to the Traveling Wilbury sessions in the late 1980s. And clips from several revealing interviews with the man himself.

But the programme suffers from rather too many talking heads: Elvis Costello and Bill Wyman make intelligent contributions; the rest I could do without.

The danger with treating pop music in a grown-up, BBC4-type way is that few interviewees have anything to say that’s worth hearing. Like many of the pop subjects in the admirable Legends series, the Orbison programme suffers from a surfeit of show biz gush and weak analysis.

In show biz, entertainment and pop music, grown-ups are generally in short supply.


Gerry Smith

Bob Dylan's new album, Tell Tale Signs: the verdict

Thanks to Martin Cowan:


I thought now the dust had settled it would be a good time to take a look in detail at the latest volume of Dylan's Bootleg Series.

Having had the opportunity to live with this CD set for the last few months, it seems to me that Sony have wanted their cake and to eat it too. I believe that pickings are too thin to spread across three discs and while there are some gems on Disc 3, it is disgraceful that Sony saw fit to charge such an inflated sum for the 3 disc version.

My view is that there is a cracking 2 disc set here and one can only speculate on what further gems still remain in the archives. If anything, what this set suffers from is uncertainty about what it is.

Is it a collection of unreleased songs? Is it a set of "never ending tour" live versions? Is it a set of "never released before on a Dylan album" songs? Well, some of all these, and that could be the problem.

Funny also that the cover photo recycles an image previously in the deluxe version of Modern Times!


CD1

1) Mississippi #1
The pick of the versions of this song. The lyrics are in place (as heard on the later Love and Theft) but the simplicity of the twin guitar arrangement suits the song perfectly. An intimate vocal which shows how poorly served Dylan was by Lanois' production of his voice on Oh Mercy and Time Out Of Mind. Superb.

2) Most of the Time # 1
Possibly the most radical thing here, Dylan sounds fresh out of the 70s, with heartbreaking harmonica to match. Again, the intimate vocal is superb and it is remarkable to hear this song in an acoustic setting.

3) Dignity
Again, the best version of this admittedly slight, Dylan-by-numbers song. This version gains immensely from the intimate vocal (he sounds like he's in the room with you!) and the solo piano accompaniment.

4) Someday Baby
Hypnotic, with Dylan's older than God vocals. The melody line is flattened to the point of being one note throughout, but as this has a more up to date backing, it hides its origins as Muddy Waters' Trouble No More - the Modern Times version was too much of a straight lift for my liking.

5) Red River Shore # 1
One of the gems of this collection, this is classic Dylan. Again, the vocal is intimate and demonstrates that rumours of the demise of his voice are greatly exaggerated. The arrangement of the songs builds as it progresses and it is hard to find any fault with this at all. It reminds me of Angelina, and again you have to wonder how this didn't find its way onto Time Out Of Mind.

6) Tell Ol Bill
Marvellously out of kilter piano, and a fine, understated vocal. Again, this is an improvement on the previously released version of this song. Lyrically, this is one of the more interesting songs on this collection as it eschews Dylan's recent habit of recycling old blues lyrics.

7) Born In Time
Here is the Under The Red Sky gem dressed up in its Lanois shimmer. Not as good as the previously released version as it has none of that performance's light and shade.

8) Can't Wait
Another of this set's gems, we hear Dylan suggesting they "do it in B flat" before a Dirge-like piano signals the opening of the song. Again, a superb vocal performance from Dylan, naked without Lanois' studio trickery, and a song that makes more sense lyrically than the released version.

9) Everything is Broken
There's not much to recommend the inclusion of this - a slight song in Dylan's canon in any case. The lyrics are not as polished as the Oh Mercy version and much of the backing track sounds the same as the previously released version. Very much a work in progress.

10) Dreamin of You
This kicks off with a snap of snare and a hypnotic piano figure, before Dylan's upfront vocal launches into what clearly sounds like a dry run for the (inferior) Standing In The Doorway which saw the light of day on Time Out Of Mind. This version is head and shoulders above that - Dylan in total control vocally, some fantastic lyrics, and a great production. Superb.

11) Huck's Tune
This sounds like an old folk song - a beautiful melody, a sensitive arrangement, and Dylan's superbly cracked vocals. One of the gems of this set, this song packs a huge emotional punch in the way the wistful lyrics, the folky tune and Dylan's heartfelt vocals all come together.

12) Marchin to the City
Another highlight, this is an early version of Til I Fell In Love With You but is greatly superior to the TOOM version. Shorn of Lanois' production, the vocal is vintage Dylan - up close and in your face - and kicks off like a song from Saved. The lyrics are mysterious and magical and vastly superior to the rather ordinary cliche-ridden Til I Fell In Love With You. Another of Dylan's "why on earth didn't he release this?" moments.

13) High Water
A smoking live version of this “Love And Theft” tune. It takes Dylan a few lines to get going, but once he is warmed up he attacks the lyrics with gusto. A showcase for his live band, 2003 vintage, Dylan leans into the vocals and whoops and hollers in the finest way possible.


CD2

1) Mississippi # 2
Again, lyrically intact, but the arrangement is all over the place here. Dylan seems to be singing in a key which doesn't suit his voice - way too low - this version of what is probably Dylan's last great masterpiece makes you realise why he didn't release it on Time Out Of Mind.

2) 32-20 Blues
A great outtake from World Gone Wrong. Nice to have this at last.

3) Series of Dreams
This is where the pickings start to get slightly slim. This is in every way inferior to the previous Bootleg Series version. In fact, the vocal take sounds to me exactly the same as the Bootleg version (I don't believe Dylan would be able to sing a song the same way twice even if he wanted to.) The only thing this includes is a second verse which was obviously excised from the previously released version.

4) God Knows
As with Born In Time, this is Lanois' version of what became a vastly superior song in the hands of the Was brothers on the criminally underrated Under The Red Sky LP. Forgettable.

5) Can't Escape From You
This kicks off like Can't Help Falling In Love - Dylan growls and croaks in his best Tom Waits fashion, and the lilting melody recalls the folky nature of Huck's Tune. My only reservation about this is that is that he does sound in trouble vocally and there is perhaps one too many verses. But overall, an interesting selection.

6) Dignity
Dreadful rockabilly version of this Dylan-by-numbers song. Horrible rubbery sounding bass, with Dylan sounding like he couldn't care less - a clunker.

7) Ring Them Bells
Dylan's 1992 Supper Club shows have gone down in folklore, especially as the shows were billed as Dylan unplugged (before he recorded his contribution to that franchise) and were allegedly filmed. It was widely hoped that an audio/visual release for these shows would make up a future Bootleg Series release. The fact that this heartfelt version of this song appears here would seem to suggest that this is all we are going to get. Dylan is vocally committed and this performance highlights Bucky Baxter's sympathetic steel guitar. Lovely.

8) Cocaine Blues
A similar version to this has been previously released on the Love Sick CD singles, and this version adds nothing.

9) Ain't Talkin’
Very similar in pace to the Modern Times version, though this has a rockier edge - in fact, the backing track sounds very similar to What Was It You Wanted. Not sure that this adds much to the previously released version.

10) The Girl On the Green Briar Shore
A nice live version. Remember when Dylan would play acoustic guitar on his own? This is a reminder of those days.

11) Lonesome Day Blues
This sounds like a field recording - somewhat tinny - and collectors have already got this version as it used to be available as part of the now sadly defunct performances section of the official Dylan website. That said this is a smoking version of the “Love And Theft” song, with Dylan attacking the vocals and the soaring guitars kicking up a right old racket behind him.

12) Miss the Mississippi
More sessions that have gone down in folklore, those recorded by Dylan with Dave Bromberg in 1992 - before he released Good As I Been To You. This has been available to collectors for some years but is a very good song - nice production and superb singing from Dylan. Not sure where this leaves us for the rest of the Bromberg sessions ever being officially released.

13) The Lonesome River
A nice recording, with Dylan on fine form vocally. However, this has been previously released on a Ralph Stanley album.

14) Cross The Green Mountain
Another late-period Dylan gem. Stirring lyrics, sympathetic arrangement, and a superb vocal performance from Dylan. This song exudes the American Civil War from its every pore - emotional, a cinematic tour de force. Superb.


CD3

1) Duncan and Brady
A stonking cover from the Bromberg sessions - has much of the gut-bucket flavour of Under The Red Sky. Loose as a goose vocal from Dylan, great smears of guitar, great fun, fantastic. A superb way to kick off the most expensive disc Dylan has ever released!

2) Cold Irons Bound
A great live version of this Time Out Of Mind classic - Dylan is fully focussed as he attacks the vocals, and the backing from his band swirls and soars like a great rattling stagecoach - fantastic.

3) Mississippi # 3
A dreadful reggae lilt adorns this, the weakest version of this song collected here. Lyrically all over the place, Dylan has yet to focus his late great narrative. One for completists only.

4) Most of the Time # 2
Rather like the version of Series of Dreams over on CD 2, this sounds to me like exactly the same vocal as the released Oh Mercy version. The phrasing and intonation is identical - the only difference is a couple of lyric changes, which were obviously "dropped in" prior to the release of Oh Mercy. In fact, listening again to this, it sounds like the new words are actually "dropped in" to this version. Superfluous.

5) Ring Them Bells # 2
A longer intro, less cluttered, naked vocal from Dylan - this kicks off starting like a superb alternate take. However, we've been had. While the first verse is clearly a different version, the rest of the song is the same vocal track as the officially released Oh Mercy version. Shame.

6) Things Have Changed
I've never been as much of a fan of this song as Dylan obviously is and this version is a case in point. The backing from the band is great, but the vocal is lacklustre - not a great performance, Dylan sounds on autopilot here.

7) Red River Shore # 2
Another version of this masterpiece, more muted than that which appears earlier on CD1. Dylan sounds like he's maybe sung it one time too many, and the arrangement is not as sympathetic as the earlier version.

8) Born In Time
Another Lanois stab at this tune, long available to collectors and inferior in every way to the superb Under The Red Sky version.

9) Trying To Get To Heaven
This is one to get my pulse racing as Dylan does that which he is often accused of - completely reworks a song's melody so it becomes another song. This is Dylan as Sinatra, a lounge version of the Time Out Of Mind masterpiece. Committed vocal, superbly realised alternate tune, he's done to this what he did to I Want You and Tangled Up In Blue during the 1978 tour - magical and heartbreaking.

10) Marchin’ to the City # 2
Kicks off with some Rainy Day Women drums, and bounces along to an organ-driven back beat; not as good as the version that graces CD 1 but intriguing none the less.

11) Can't Wait # 2
Spooky organ intro, spooky Dylan vocal. Mesmerising, this meanders along in mysterious and moving ways. Dylan as supreme blues singer, just great.

12) Mary and the Soldier
Another fantastic and touching performance from the sessions that spawned the superb World Gone Wrong album. Flawless.

Cecilia Bartoli: three world-ranking mezzos #3

Wednesday night’s Cecilia Bartoli gig at London’s Barbican was breathtaking. I knew what to expect from several earlier Bartoli gigs - she gives spectacularly good show. Last night underlined her credentials as the most grown-up of grown-up musicians.

Performing for two hours with only piano accompaniment a repertoire rarely heard – Rossini and other bel canto chansons from mid-19thC Paris salons – she demonstrated her trademark technical mastery and emotional depth time and time again.

Whether in playful coloratura trills or in sombre, doleful ballads she showed why many (f’rinstance me, babe) regard her as the world’s pre-eminent singer, in any genre of music. If I were told I could only ever attend one more gig and asked to choose one musician, it would be Ms Bartoli.

Extraordinarily expressive singer… peerlessly intelligent musician… and a great creative artist - following her own agenda.

It doesn’t get any better than this – you could have guessed that from the full house, the standing ovation and the three encores.



Gerry Smith

Joyce DiDonato: three world-ranking mezzos #2

Of the three world-ranking mezzo-sopranos performing in London this week, the Kansan Joyce DiDonato is the least established.

She’s a fast-rising star, though – I’ve previously enjoyed her 2006 performances in Barber Of Seville, the lovely Rossini opera, at Covent Garden, in a semi-staged Handel opera at the Barbican, and a Wigmore Hall recital.

Saturday’s Barbican gig, backed by chamber orchestra Les Talens Lyriques, was part of a European tour promoting the singer’s new disc, Furore: Handel’s Scenes Of Madness.

The lovely setlist and striking performances cemented DiDonato’s growing reputation. She has a rich, creamy tone, an expressive, intelligent reading of the texts and enviable voice control – her dynamics and legato are always a thrill. She delivered a very enjoyable gig: must buy the album.

But the empty seats in the hall told you that DiDonato isn’t quite yet first division – Bartoli, Gheorghiu, Fleming, for example, are substantially more popular – but I wouldn’t bet against her morphing into a top drawer diva in the next few years.

Another odd Barbican audience! As for Roberto Alagna earlier this year, a mix of the cognoscenti you also encounter at Covent Garden or Vienna’s Musikverein, alongside an overabundance of Classic-Lite seniors who get way too excited (usually over the wrong things).



Gerry Smith

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EARLIER RELATED ARTICLE:

Barber of Seville - another Rossini triumph for Covent Garden

Contrary to some tepid reviews, the new Royal Opera House production of The Barber of Seville, Rossini’s mature comedy, is a delight. While the Financial Times critic thought the staging “tedious, gaudy, boxy, contrived”, I found the production to be thoroughly engaging. And very funny.

Joyce DiDonato’s Rosina was well-nigh perfect. Her rich voice and expressive acting come from the top drawer: DiDonato’s a talent to follow carefully. Ditto George Petean, in the title role.

And, just as they triumphed with last season’s Rossini at Covent Garden, Il Turco, directors Leiser and Caurier presented a colourfully witty feast for the eyes.

Bach, Lou Reed, Count Basie

FREE! Music for grown-ups on the BBC in the next 10 days

Hidden among its vast TV and radio output, the BBC broadcasts some magnificent music for grown-ups every week of the year. Xmas week 2008 is spectacularly good. And it’s all free - well, sort of….

Thurs 18 Dec
2100 Louis Armstrong, Omnibus – BBC Four
2210 Louis Armstrong, Show Of The Week – BBC Four
2300 Louis Armstrong, Good Evening Ev’rybody – BBC Four
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 19 Dec
2130 & 0220 The Swing Thing – BBC Four

Sat 20 Dec
1215 Puccini Season, Music Matters – BBC Radio 3
1600 Count Basie, Jazz Library – BBC Radio 3


1700 Massenet’s Thais, from the Met, with Renee Fleming – BBC Radio 3
1900 Louis Prima, Legends – BBC Four
2100 Count Basie & His Orchestra – BBC Four
2200 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2
2330 Artie Shaw, Quest For Perfection – BBC Four

Sun 21 Dec
1900 Bach, Christmas Oratorio from Weimar – BBC Four
2230 Oscar Peterson In Concert – BBC Four
2300 Billie Holiday, Reputations – BBC Four
2400 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC 6Music

Mon 22 Dec
1200 & 2200 Puccini, Composer Of The Week
(1/5, continues Tues-Fri) – BBC Radio 3
1900 Bach at Christmas (1/3, continues Tues-Wed) – BBC Radio 3
2200 Bach, Christmas Oratorio from Weimar – BBC Four

Wed 24 Dec
1830 Carols from King’s – BBC2

Thurs 25 Dec
1400 Festival Of Nine Lessons & Carols, from King’s – BBC Radio 3
1500 Hansel und Gretel, from Covent Garden – BBC2
1950 Handel’s Messiah, LSO/Davis, from The Barbican – BBC Four
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 26 Dec
1400 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC 6Music
2200 Quincy Jones: The Many Lives Of Q – BBC Four



Online access: many BBC radio programmes are broadcast live online - please see the channels’ web sites for details. Some BBC radio and TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer



And on the commercial networks:

Tues 23 Dec
0125 Spectacle: Elvis Costello with Lou Reed – C4




Gerry Smith

Angelika Kirschlager: three world-ranking mezzos #1

With a rare chance to compare three world-ranking mezzos in London in the space of five days, I saw the first, Angelika Kirschlager, in Hansel und Gretel at Covent Garden last Friday.

She – and the opera - were magnificent. In her usual “trouser role”, this time playing a youthful country boy, Kirschlager impressed all night long. Her singing was supple yet powerful, her comic and dramatic acting delightful.

Ms Kirschlager wasn’t the only reason for my visit, though - locally revered baritone Thomas Allen was predictably luminous as the confused Father and Diana Damrau is a compelling soprano whose acting eventually matched Kirschlager’s. The house band under Colin Davis was consistently reliable, occasionally moving.

My pre-show doubts about a fairy tale subject written by a one-hit wonder (Humperdinck) were entirely misplaced. This is an engaging version, directed by the Leiser/Caurier duo who’ve been responsible for some outstanding Covent Garden shows in recent years.

You can catch it on BBC Radio 3 tomorrow, Tuesday 16 December, at 1930.



Gerry Smith

Big screens at Bob Dylan’s London O2 show next April: “slim chance”

Thanks to Matthew Zuckerman:


"But if the big screens aren¹t used the Dylan show could be embarrassingly poor."


The chances of Dylan allowing screens to be used at the London O2 gig are slim. How slim? Well, he has insisted that the screens be turned off at just about every festival he has played over the years, so it would be a big turnaround. (Mind you, he did allow cameras at Woodstock 2, and how many of us would have bet their mortgages -- even in the present economic climate -- against the possibility of Bob writing his memoirs, hosting a radio show or advertising ladies underwear . . . right up until the moment when he did it?)

This may be annoying for those in distant seats, particularly if Bob stays behind his keyboard all evening, as he has done most of the time in recent years, but that's the way he works.

That's what he's doing on stage, working, and like every successful worker, he takes the opportunity to arrange his working conditions the way he likes them. And the way he likes them is to have everything conducive to his being able to put maximum concentration into his performance.

This means:

1) No cameras flashing in his eyes [There are countless mobile phones
pointed at him, to be sure, but they don't flash -- at least, not with the strength of a professional photographer's camera -- and they are far enough away to be ignored]

2) No cameramen dressed in black creeping around his stage on the periphery of his vision, cameras Quasimodo-like on their shoulders [I hear that he likes as few people as possible around the stage, and even insisted that the likes of Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard cleared the backstage area when he was touring with them a few years ago]

3) No distracting chatter with the audience [Just one 'thank you' and the names of the band members, plus a smattering of words every dozen or so concerts if there's something he really wants to say -- eg on election night]

4) No eye contact with the audience [This is, I would guess, one of the reasons he likes to stay behind the keyboard, on the side of the stage and angled away from the audience. A few times a concert he might come to centre stage or look out at us, but he can choose the times and curtail them whenever he wants]

Now if you are stuck at the back of Earl's Court, the NEC or the O2 arena, the gig will be a whole lot less affecting than if you were lucky enough to get a seat up front, but that's the way the man works.

Would it be better if he played smaller venues and left the arenas to the Rolling Stones, U2 and -- since he is at ease with the cameras and with reaching out to large crowds -- Leonard Cohen? As long as you can get a ticket it would be, but if Dylan stopped playing arenas, ticket demand would be fierce and many would be left with nothing at all. (He can hardly double the number of shows to compensate!)

I have seen Dylan at Portsmouth Guildhall and the Urawa Bunka Centre just outside Tokyo, both small halls, as well as his residency at the Brixton Academy, and the performances have been wonderful. But no more wonderful than his 2005 performance at the cavernous NEC in Birmingham, possibly the finest of the 50 or so shows I have witnessed.

P.S. I know I am a bit of a Luddite (I prefer vinyl to digital and shellac to vinyl, for example), but when I saw the Rolling Stones at Tokyo Stadium in 1994 I had an excellent seat about 10 rows from the front, and yet still found myself drawn to watch the giant close-ups of the screens. The result? It might have been a great cinematic show, but it was not the kind of 'live' performance that I would expect from a Dylan concert. In order to achieve a standardized attractive appearance, supermarket produce often sacrifices the true flavour of the fruit and we are frequently in danger of doing the same with music. If you're looking at a screen, something in your mind tells you that this is cinema or a TV programme, and you become less present in the moment. Enjoy being in the same room as Bob, even if you are at the back of the room.

Kirschlager, DiDonato and Bartoli: three world-ranking mezzos play London

In the space of the next five days, I’m due to see Angelika Kirschlager, Joyce DiDonato and Cecilia Bartoli, three world-ranking mezzo-sopranos, singing at three different London gigs:

· Kirschlager in Hansel und Gretel at Covent Garden tomorrow,

· DiDonato singing Handel repertoire at the Barbican on Saturday,

· and Bartoli in a Rossini recital, also at the Barbican, next Wednesday.

Music for Grown-Ups Heaven!

Having seen all three before, several times each, my expectations are astronomically high: three of the greatest female voices on the planet - on show in one city at virtually the same time. It’ll be instructive, if invidious, to compare and contrast. Watch Music For Grown-Ups for reviews.




Gerry Smith

Louis Armstrong, The Police, Angelika Kirschlager

FREE! Music for grown-ups on the BBC in the next 10 days

Hidden among its vast TV and radio output, the BBC broadcasts some magnificent music for grown-ups. Every week of the year. And it’s all free - well, sort of… .

Wed 10 Dec
1200 & 2200 Robert Schumann, Composer Of The Week
(3/5, continues Thurs-Fri) – BBC Radio 3

Thurs 11 Dec
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 12 Dec
2100 Roy Orbison, Legends – BBC Four
2200 Roy Sings Orbison – BBC Four

Sun 14 Dec
2400 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC 6 Music

Tues 16 Dec
1930 Hansel und Gretel, featuring Angelika Kirschlager,
live from Covent Garden – BBC Radio 3

Thurs 18 Dec
2100 Louis Armstrong, Omnibus – BBC Four
2210 Louis Armstrong, Show Of The Week – BBC Four
2300 Louis Armstrong, Good Evening Ev’rybody – BBC Four
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 19 Dec
2130 & 0220 The Swing Thing – BBC Four



Online access: many BBC radio programmes are broadcast live online - please see the channels’ web sites for details. Some BBC radio and TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer


And on the commercial networks:

Mon 15 Dec
2405 Spectacle: Elvis Costello with The Police - C4




Gerry Smith

“New” Neil Young live album – and then there were ten

I’ll be buying Sugar Mountain, the new Neil Young live album, later this week. But I’ll be buying it – the tenth live album by Young - only through force of habit, the need to keep the Shakey collection complete.

Hell, I already have nine live albums, and I only ever listen to the top three - Live Rust, Weld and Unplugged. Young’s a great live performer, but do I really need ten gigs?

I’ve been swayed because Sugar Mountain was recorded very early – Nov 1968, just before the release of the disappointing eponymous first album – and it could repay careful scrutiny.

The other Young live albums are:

Live At the Fillmore East (1971>2006)
Live At Massey Hall (1971>2007)
Time Fades Away (1973)
Live Rust (1979)
Weld (1991)
Arc (1991)
Unplugged (1993)
Year of the Horse (1997)
Road Rock vol 1 (2001)




Gerry Smith

Music for grown-ups on the mag racks: two new Miles, one new Dylan cover

Key musicians for grown-ups Miles Davis and Bob Dylan feature prominently on the magazine racks this month.

Promoting the sooopah-dooopah new Kind Of Blue box, my two favourite jazz mags both have Miles cover features. Jazzwise (Dec/Jan) uses one of the iconic Sony photos for its eight-page feature.

Jazz Magazine (Paris) uses a less familiar shot of Miles on the evocative cover of its Dec issue to trail a multi-part feature.

They nicely complement the striking portrait used by Jazziz for its September issue.

www.jazzwise.com

www.jazzmagazine.com

www.jazziz.com

The new issue (1066, 27 Nov) of the redesigned Rolling Stone has a mid-‘60s Dylan photo on its cover (he’s one of four different collectors’ covers) announcing its Special Issue – The 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time.

Dylan manages seventh place in the top 100, which was compiled by polling a couple of hundred celebs/music bizzers. I didn’t bother reading any of the short articles on the “great singers” (Dylan’s praises are sung by Bono), but the issue is a lovely addition to the collection of Dylan cover issues.

Surprisingly, there’s no place in the top 100 for tenors like Pavarotti, sopranos like Callas or lounge greats like Sinatra and Ella. Rolling Stone must have run out of space to insert the qualifying adjectives “Baby Boomer-plus rockpop” between “Greatest” and “Singers Of All Time”. Without them, the title of the otherwise admirable 40-page feature is laughable.

www.rollingstone.com




Gerry Smith

Sting sings Dowland in Sydney: encore

Thanks to Jerry Crew:

“Enjoyed reading the review from Andrew Robertson. For those who would like to hear/see/learn more about this phase of Sting’s career, you can pick up the excellent CD/DVD combo pack titled “The Journey & The Labyrinth: The Music of John Dowland”.

“It contains excerpts from a performance by Sting and Edin Karamazov at St. Luke’s in London, which sounds to be similar to the Sydney performance.”

Herbie Hancock, Roy Orbison, Robert Schumann

FREE! Music for grown-ups on the BBC in the next 10 days

Hidden among its vast TV and radio output, the BBC broadcasts some magnificent music for grown-ups. Every week of the year. And it’s all free - well, sort of… .


Wed 3 Dec
1200 & 2200 Olivier Messiaen, Composer Of The Week
(3/5, continues Thurs-Fri) – BBC Radio 3

Thurs 4 Dec
2300 Salif Keita, BBC Four Sessions – BBC Four
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 5 Dec
2315 fRoots magazine’s Album of the Year, World On 3 – BBC Radio 3

Sun 7 Dec
2400 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC 6 Music

Mon 8 Dec
1200 & 2200 Robert Schumann, Composer Of The Week
(1/5, continues Tues-Fri) – BBC Radio 3
2315 Herbie Hancock At The London Jazz Festival – BBC Radio 3

Thurs 11 Dec
2300 Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour – BBC Radio 2

Fri 12 Dec
2100 Roy Orbison, Legends – BBC Four
2200 Roy Sings Orbison – BBC Four


Online access: many BBC radio programmes are broadcast live online - please see the channels’ web sites for details. Some BBC radio and TV programmes are also accessible online via iPlayer for a short period after transmission:

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer




Gerry Smith

Sting sings Dowland in Sydney

Thanks to Andrew Robertson (in Adelaide)


Why, if a person who plays the flute is a flautist, is a person who plays the lute a lutenist?

On Sunday night, we saw Sting playing his “lute concert” at the Sydney Opera House, the day after the architect who had designed the Sydney Opera House, Joern Utzon, had died. Before the concert started the boss of the Opera House came out and spoke warmly about Utzon, although the history of Utzon and his Opera House was controversial. He hadn’t been appreciated and acknowledged appropriately at the time, and the project went way over budget. As a result, Utzon had never actually seen the finished building and I believe felt some bitterness about it right to the end. Maybe there are people who know more about this than me?

Sting then spoke about his excitement and pride of playing in such an iconic venue, particularly at this poignant time. He said he’d been coming to Australia for 30 years and had never thought he’d be playing at the Opera House.

And in a world where the word “iconic” has lost some of its currency through over-use, there is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is an icon. Catching a ferry across the harbour framed by the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House is one of the world’s great travel experiences – no matter how often you do it, it can still take your breath away.

So to the concert, and what a thoroughly charming evening it was.

I was asked what were the other differences between the flute and the lute, apart from the names of those who play them, and I said the way they are played – one is played with the lips and the other with the fingers. I was informed, with a glint in her eye, that this is a big and important difference indeed! I wonder what she meant…

The concert opened with a trio comprising grand piano, cello and classical guitar playing original music (written by the pianist) which was warm and inviting, somehow contemporary in style but also with a sense of timelessness, as great classical music is. Was this great music? I am not sure, as I am probably not qualified to judge, but it was a great experience sitting there listening to it.

Then after a short interval where champagne was obligatory as we stepped outside the Opera House to look across the water at the Bridge in lights, out came Sting, accompanied initially only by Edin Karamazov, a man who I am sure is the finest lutenist in history. As the concert continued, in some songs they were accompanied by an 8 piece choir, 4 male and 4 female voices, with all of the right mixes of baritone, tenor and the rest – beautiful, although possibly slightly under-utilised as they seemed to be really only providing the harmonies when I’m sure they were capable of more. But when you have a voice like Sting’s, what more do you need?

Having heard Sting in his own jazz-inflected band back in the early ‘90s (around the time he was pursuing South America influences to create some really wonderful music) and also more recently in the Police reunion tour, I didn’t realize how good his voice really is. In the pop/rock/jazz idioms the vocal is often competing for space against all of the other instruments, and also against the sheer volume of the sounds, but against a musical backdrop of the lute, the whole lute and nothing but the lute, the voice was on full display. I am not musically literate enough to know how describe it, but I am sure it is a classical voice of rare quality.

He commented that after playing to audiences of 20-30,000 people that it was a bit intimidating to play to a small audience where he could actually see everyone’s face. The Opera House has a number of auditoriums, and this concert hall was quite small – at a guess, not more than 2,000 people, possibly less. We were close, and it was wonderfully intimate. If he was intimidated, it didn’t show – he was in command, it was very definitely his show, but in a way that expressed confidence rather than arrogance. It was also very honest – here he was doing something heartfelt, following his own musical journey and arguably risking much in terms of his reputation and audience.

The music was the songs of John Dowland from 16th century England – but songs which resonated today. Musically Sting had been quoted as saying that these songs had a direct lineage through to the Beatles, and in the encore when he played In My Life it was as if to demonstrate that. The encore also included Fields of Gold and Message In A Bottle, both of which worked beautifully in this context.

Prior to the concert I had wondered what other accompaniment he would have, other than the lutenist Karamazov. I was surprised that there was none other – but it didn’t need any more, the lute was such a rich accompaniment on its own. Particularly played the way Edin Karamazov played it. Sting also played the lute, in about half the songs, possibly more – he was good, but kind of like the rhythm lutenist to Karamazov’s lead.

Sting was very generous in his appreciation of Karamazov, and also the backing choir. Again, he came across as very human and very likeable.

In a world in which I think experiences are more valuable than things, this was a priceless experience.