2011 Tanglewood reviews

Steely Dan at Tanglewood

The July 26, 2011 Steely Dan concert at Tanglewood attracted close to a capacity crowd that seemed to enjoy the rare opportunity to witness live renditions of all-time favorites such as Aja, Bodisatva, Dirty Work, My Old School, Show Biz Kids, and Reelin’ in the Years. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, calling themselves “jazz-rock ambassadors to the galaxy,” brought their Shuffle Diplomacy Twenty Eleven tour to the Berkshires, not far from Bard College, where they first teamed up in the 60s. They were accompanied by the Miles High Big Band and the Embassy Brats.

Photos of Steely Dan at Tanglewood

Photos by Mark Connolly.

More info: Tanglewood 2011 schedule.

James Taylor, Amy Grant, Vince Gill at Tanglewood

July 3 & 4, 2011 concerts reviewed by Dave Read.

Independence Day weekend 2011 is bound to be remembered as the Dawn of the New Millennium of Peace & Understanding because that was when James Taylor leapt across the cultural divide into the arms of Amy Grant and Vince Gill, in front of back-to-back sold-out audiences at Tanglewood. This was a big surprise; we don’t do country at Tanglewood. (Photo: Scott Caltron )

They tried it Fourth of July 2006 with LeAnn Rimes – really good concert, but half-empty Shed. That experience may have factored in to the secrecy leading up to these shows and the fact that the guest performers weren’t announced until the day before the show, well after they had been sold out, even though the date had been made months earlier.

Here’s the shocking news: the two shows were seamless; there were no jolts, nothing at all abrupt in the transitions between the several numbers each of the guests did in the midst of Taylor’s concert routine. It’s all pop entertainment, people, despite the machinations of merchandisers and principalities such as the CMA and the Grammys.

Furthermore, any dissimilarity between and among songs of James Taylor, Amy Grant, and Vince Gill were washed away by the sameness of self-deprecating adulation each evinced for the other headliners on stage.

Amy Grant is a knock-out, plain and simple, wholesomely pretty appearing toward the end of the first set in sexy summer dress with shawl that got lost for the second set both nights as did her shoes! She did her 20 year old Baby Baby to everybody’s delight.

Vince Gill too looked right at home in the Koussevitsky Music Shed, wearing grey slacks and jacket with a black collarless shirt – rather metropolitan. His song Pretty Little Adriana was a highlight of his mini-sets, especially his deft, searing blues guitar playing. No wonder Gill is a regular at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads festival.

James Taylor was no less good, and effusive as always in his regard for his band with whom he worked up a fresh sampling from his ouvre for these shows. Our favorite both nights was Steamroller, delivered in about half the time but with maybe double the oomph of earlier Tanglewood performances. Two or three minutes into it, ace sideman Larry Goldings took the lead on the Hammond B3, then it segued neatly back to Walt Fowler on muted trumpet, before coming front and center for James Taylor and Vince Gill’s guitars. Very cool.

Another highlight for us was some jazzy singing by Taylor – several little riffs that were like the vocal equivalents of guitar solos. They emphasize the joy he takes in his work and make it feel as is he is truly into the current presentation of the song and bringing it to life rather than merely involved in yet another recitation of it.

We sensed that, in his patter this week, Taylor has given additional prominence to his 1968 anointing by the Beatles. As grateful as we are to him for introducing Amy and Vince to us this year, perhaps he’ll be more Beatle-esque next summer and invite to Tanglewood some mixed-up homesick youngster at the dawn of a startling career?

BSO opens 2011 Tanglewood season

The Boston Symphony’s summer residency at Tanglewood in the Berkshires got underway July 8th with a all-Italian program under the direction of guest conductor Charles Dutoit. Here is a video clip from the opening night performance, showing Angela Meade singing an excerpt from Bellini’s opera Norma.

James Taylor with the Boston Pops and John Williams at Tanglewood

July 1, 2011 concert reviewed by Dave Read.

The Boston Pops tuned up for their annual 4th of July concert for hundreds of thousands on the Esplanade in Boston by sharing the bill at Tanglewood on July 1 with James Taylor for a relatively intimate gathering of eighteen thousand souls. Led by laureate conductor John Williams, the Pops had the Koussevitsky Shed stage to themselves for the first half of the program and fairly thrilled the audience with a suite of excerpts from Williams compositions, opening with a fanfare for the city of Boston called Jubilee 350, and including pieces from the movies Far and Away, Cath Me If You Can, and Superman.

The Pops got to display their jazz chops for the Escapades from Catch Me If You Can, which featured an ad hoc sax, vibes, and bass trio that the crowd applauded loudly, especially the solo bass coda that allowed simple notes to reverberate through the Shed with the same force, but maybe more eloquence, as a multi-instrument finale.

After intermission, James Taylor appeared, looking like a tycoon in suit and tie but seeming somewhat like a tyro – displaying an unusual nervousness. Undaunted, he began with an ironic choice in his chosen hometown, Getting to Know You, even whistling some.

But just a few tunes into the set, by the time keyboardist Larry Goldings had taken the lead on Mean Old Man, Taylor seemed completely at ease. Perhaps it took the involvement of his sidemen, Goldings plus Jimmie Johnson and Chad Wackerman on bass and drums, for him to achieve work mode? Whereas the artist named James Taylor is an individual, there’s a performer with the same name who’s hardly ever alone, and who is most comfortable while plying his trade amid peers.

It was an earlier James Taylor Boston Pops John Williams triple bill that set an attendance record of 24,470 which resulted in such traffic snarls that the BSO promised the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge to cap ticket sales at 18,000.

Photos by Mark Connolly.

James Taylor and friends at Tanglewood Ozawa Hall

June 30, 2011 performance; by Dave Read

James Taylor and Friends was the billing for the first of the four James Taylor concerts at Tanglewood during the 2011 season. It attracted a capacity crowd to Seiji Ozawa Hall, where the audience spilled over the rise leaving some members of lawn nation with a better view of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s old place than of Mr. Taylor. Playing second fiddle to the headliner, just barely, was mother nature, who was lauded all night for delivering just the sort of setting June and the Berkshires were meant to be presented in. The video is a glimpse from the lawn showing how the concert can be enjoyed via the mini-jumbotron.

We need to resist the temptation to describe Taylor’s performance as being measured, as one would expect at the outset of a run of four concerts in five days. The concert felt like a recital, which befits the venue and it’s 1,200 seats – intimate in comparison to the 5,100 seat Koussevitsky Music Shed, where the other three concerts will take place. It was a discrete event, featuring everybody’s neighbor and friend, accompanied by his longtime keyboards player and vocal quartet, augmented by wife Kim, whose birthday it was, plus a contingent from the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and BSO cellist Owen Young.

Taylor is as expert with patter as he is with the songs so that an evenings’ performance coheres; without making the audience feel like anything other than peers, Taylor talks about being in the studio with Paul McCartny and George Harrison – in 1968, for heaven’s sake – that’s when for all anybody else knew, the Beatles were rearranging the universe. But James Taylor was auditioning his song “Something in the way she moves,” which not only scored him an Apple Records contract, but also inspired Harrison to write “Something,” which is on everybody’s list of best Beatles songs.

In what may be an indication that more of the audience was from away than is usually the case for a James Taylor Tanglewood concert, the Stockbridge reference in Sweet Baby James aroused not much more than a loud smattering of applause rather than the roar of recognition remembered from earlier shows.