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2007 Tanglewood reviews

James Taylor One Man Band at Tanglewood

Friday, August 24, 2007 performance reviewed by Ronald K. Baker

The unseasonably cool weather lurking in the Berkshires for a week or so gave way to the warmth of a typical summer day as the overflow crowd gathered for Lenox’s favorite son, James Taylor and his keyboardist accompanist, Larry Goldings. As concert time neared many on the lawn and near the shed were seen covering themselves with insect repellent. Indeed there was a hatch of tiny flies with clear wings falling like rain out of the early evening sky. Their numbers seemed endless. They were more of a nuisance than a threat. They didn’t bite. Happily they seemed to go away as the music started.

James Taylor One Man Band show Tanglewood Aug. 24, 2007Taylor received a warm welcome which tapered off rapidly as he took to the stage. He donned his familiar acoustic guitar from which every note emanated in sparkling clarity. “Something In the Way She Moves” was fairly close to the original version, both pensive and passionate, as the artist’s signature sound of fluid finger picking joined with seemingly effortless vocals. Taylor described the concert as “the rare blessing of a ‘home game.’”

Goldings joined in on the second selection, “Never Die Young,” and made quick use of the string bass synthe attached to the grand piano with an evocative pedal point sustenuto which swelled voluminously toward the end of the piece. Then he accompanied Taylor on a jazz composition, “I Was an Old Man,” wherein Goldings got to stretch out with a groovy solo played masterfully. The two proceeded to read each other’s mail for the rest of the concert. They were indeed as close as one could imagine to the concert’s “One Man Band” title belying the relative newness of this approach on both their parts.

James Taylor One Man Band show Tanglewood Aug. 24, 2007With lengthy introductions in conversational manner, James Taylor showed his consummate ease and grace on stage. But he was put on notice early that Tanglewood, with its legions on the lawn, perhaps lacked some of the intimacy he’d presumed. Some in the crowd boisterously hollered that they couldn’t hear him. He seemed quite taken aback and vowed immediate action. He began to enunciate more clearly as sound technicians doubtless scrambled to ratchet up the system. As the first set came to a close it seemed curious that there had only been six musical selections. There were too many stories, anecdotes, and accompanying photos projected up on the big video screens. This had some patrons shifting nervously on blankets and in chairs as they waited anxiously for the next song.

Seeing and hearing Taylor’s much touted drum machine elicited a new sympathy for the Luddites of old. This infernal machine was almost eerie to behold with its mechanized arms hitting actual drums while huge wooden barrels rolled along in place. But that was not the technical coup de grace of the evening. After 16 members of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus appeared on screen singing background parts along with the live music, Taylor’s entire band joined in, courtesy of audio and video recording, for the immensely popular “Mexico” piece. The artist himself described this synergy as an elaborate “Karaoke” exercise. And they pulled it off flawlessly. No mean feat given the vicissitudes of live performance and the constraints of canned stuff.

As far as memorable moments, there were regrettably too few. Certainly one can understand his need to vary his presentation to some degree to keep it fresh. But shouldn’t the songs go pretty much the way we’ve come to love them? It’s unfortunate to hear the classic favorites sound more like someone doing a tribute to James Taylor than his own world class versions. In his effort at variation he comes perilously close to becoming a caricature of himself on over stylized occasions.

To quote lines from his song, “That’s Why I’m Here,” we “pay good money to hear Fire and Rain again and again and again.” Hey James, please don’t forget that’s why we’re here too. Dance with the gal that brung ya.

Somewhere in the process of six plus encores JT found a way to let it all hang out. Before all was said and done, gimmicks and all notwithstanding, we got what we came for. I may have missed Haight Ashbury ’68, and Woodstock, but I saw James Taylor at Tanglewood the summer of ’07. Sweet Baby James.

James Taylor’s One Man Band DVD concert Pittsfield, MA, July 19, 2007

James Taylor’s One Man Band DVD concert Pittsfield, MA, July 19, 2007

Article by Dave Read

What’s in a name? Hints, contradictions, teases… James Taylor’s “One Man Band” Show is but a handy approximation, while Pittsfield’s Colonial Theatre is so opulent “Imperial” would be a more-fitting moniker. Now, the two will forever be linked because Taylor rented the Colonial and brought in Sydney Pollack and Don Mischer to produce a DVD around two nights of sold-out concerts July 19 and 20, 2007.

We’ll surmise that Taylor aims with his current tour name to convey the image of a street musician wielding an ungainly musical contraption, such as he could’ve seen during his “magical” year in London while recording his first album for Apple Records there in 1968.

He told the audience at the Colonial how he came to the attention of producer Peter Asher and then became the first artist signed by Paul McCartney and George Harrison to record on the Beatles new record label – and of having plenty of time on the street while the Beatles were involved in “marathon recording sessions” for their White Album.

After opening the show with “Something in The Way She Moves,” Taylor said it was “not the first, but the first presentable” song that he wrote (while a teenager, going steady with neighbor Phoebe Sheldon). “Songwriting is what I do,” was one of the straightest things he said all night.

James Taylor One Man Band at Colonial Theatre, soundboard, Pittsfield, Mass.But this show is evidence of another vocation, monologist. He has a real gift for that as he interspersed a full concert set of 20 songs with a narrative that spanned the half-dozen decades of his life. Some of the narrative has a more serious feel to it, although couched with humor, as when he talks about his father and mother; more is sweet, poignant – like how he came to write “Sweet Baby James.” Then there are the stories of the songs that aren’t family-related, which are out and out stand-up comedy material.

“Line ‘Em Up” for example, a song born of President Nixon’s resignation and the mass Moonie marriage in Madison Square Garden, which he introduces to hilarious effect, the narrative illustrated by a slideshow projected onto a large wood-framed screen.

And this is where his declared vocation is manifest, in the ability to transform public events and characters into songs that not only satisfy his own need for expression but also entertain and stimulate an audience.

James Taylor One Man Band at Colonial Theatre Pittsfield, Mass.Today, of course, the wiley street musician is a cat with an Apple laptop from which can emanate not just the sounds of the busker, but the blues of the Hammond organ, or even the soaring harmonies of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus!

All of which were present in this show: Taylor is accompanied by Larry Goldings on piano, keyboards, and harmonium and, from his laptop computer, Taylor projects onto the screen recordings of sixteen members of the T.F.C. (including his wife Kim) accompanying him on “My Traveling Star” and “Shower the People.”

Then there’s the musical contraption, rolled out from the wings for two numbers tonight, a big, boxy Rube Goldberg-like drum machine. Taylor said that the idea to put together a “stripped-down version” of his show came to him about a year and a half ago, but we had an inkling something like it was coming after his 2002 Tanglewood performance with the Boston Pops, where he debuted songs from “October Road” accompanied by Goldings and guitarist John Pizzarelli.

The boldest number tonight was the rap song Taylor sang through a bullhorn to the irresistible rhythm of the drum machine; sure, it was funny, but it was good and affecting too, and we’d like more. Just as a whole ‘nuther side of James Taylor emerges when he straps on the electric guitar to wail and strut on “Steamroller,” the drum machine (and bullhorn) seem to give access to yet another aspect of this marvelously gifted and generous performer.

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