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Jazz

Tony Bennett Lady Gaga throng swamps Tanglewood

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga performing at Tanglewood, Tuesday, June 30, 2015 (Michael Blanchard)

July 1, 2015 Article by Dave Read

As Lady Gaga herself mentioned from the Koussevitsky Music Shed at Tanglewood early in her concert with Tonay Bennett June 30, 2015, it didn’t rain! But a steady drizzle and dreary skies did prevail all day long as a vast crowd assembled, causing miles-long traffic jams and overwhelming the usually efficient parking protocol at Tanglewood. With an hour to go before 8 pm showtime, Hawthorne St. was reduced to a single-lane parking lot – all the way back up Old Stockbridge Rd. to Lenox Town Hall. Tanglewood reported the audience a sellout of 19,000.

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga performing at Tanglewood, Tuesday, June 30, 2015 (Michael Blanchard)
Tanglewood law audience Tony Bennett Lady Gaga concert, June 30, 2015; photo:Dave Read
Tanglewood law audience Tony Bennett Lady Gaga concert, June 30, 2015; photo:Dave Read
Tanglewood law audience Tony Bennett Lady Gaga concert, June 30, 2015; photo:Dave Read

It seemed like a bigger audience than the 2012 James Taylor concert that included a guest appearance by Taylor Swift, but probably not equal to Taylor’s July 17, 2002 concert, with the Boston Pops, that set the Tanglewood attendacne record – 24,470, and which led to the B.S.O.’s agreement with the towns of Stockbridge and Lenox to cap ticket sales at 19,000.

Tony Bennett sings Cheek to Cheek with Lady Gaga

Altogether the concert included 31 songs in about two hours; duets included their grammy-winning Cheek to Cheek and Anything Goes, while Bennett did a set of Frank Sinatra songs, mentioning the Sinatra Centennial celebration later this year in Las Vegas. Ms. Gaga reminded us that Ole Blue Eyes called Bennett the greatest singer in the world. Besides all the costume changes and vamping, the highlight of her performance was a beautiful rendition of La Vie En Rose. They have taken the entertainment world by storm since teaming up a couple years ago, and this is no novelty act. Nearing 89, Tony Bennett simply sounds great – still. Nearing 30, Lady Gaga sure has chops, and it shouldn’t belong before she’s a great singer, too.

George Shearing tribute at Berkshire Gateway Jazz

George Shearing; photo:James Kriegsmann

George Shearing tribute at Berkshire Gateway Jazz

Article by Dave Read

George Shearing; photo:James KriegsmannThe 3rd Annual Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend, scheduled for various venues in Lee, MA June 5-8,2014, features The Sounds of Shearing, paying the music of former Lee resident Sir George Shearing. Sounds of Shearing is led by Charlie Shoemake on vibraphone, a member of one of Shearing’s Quintets, and includes Joe Bagg on piano; Ron Anthony, guitar; Luther Hughes, bass; and Bill Goodwin, drums. Concert is Fri. June 6 at 8pm, First Congregational Church; tickets are $20 advance; $25 at the door. Tickets & info.

Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend is ponsored by Berkshire Gateway Preservation, Inc., in collaboration with Berkshires Jazz, Inc.

The Sounds of Shearing starts its first-ever northeast tour in the town where Sir George spent his summers for 10 years (in fact, the band will be staying at the very residence where Shearing stayed, the home of Dee Dee Fraser). Sir George Shearing was one of the most beloved and honored jazz pianists of all time. His widow Ellie will introduce the band via video.

Sonny and Perley Thursday June 5

The festival opens on Thursday, June 5 with the exciting duo of Sonny Daye and Perley Rousseau. After a successful performance at last year’s event, Sonny & Perley return by popular demand. The duo achieves a rare musical symbiosis, having spent the last several years developing and perfecting their unique blend of jazz, bossa nova, American songbook standards, and international cabaret, which has become their musical signature. (Spectrum Playhouse, 8pm, $15 advance seating, $20 at the door). Tickets & info.

New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Saturday June 7

The June 7 concert marks the return of the New Black Eagle Jazz Band to the Berkshires after a five-year hiatus. Perhaps the country’s most renowned exponent of traditional jazz, this seven-piece band has delighted audiences all over the world for more than 30 years, with their huge and eclectic repertoire of jazz from the 1920s and 30s. (First Congregational Church; $20 in advance; $25 at the door).

The Black Eagles have a mature mastery of this great American music, from Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton to early Duke Ellington to Cole Porter; from blues to rags to popular songs of the era. In fact, the New York Times’ John Wilson wrote that the Black Eagles are “so far ahead of other traditional bands…there is scarcely any basis for comparison.”

Monty Alexander Trio at Tanglewood

Monty Alexander Trio in concert Aug. 25, 2013 at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall

Monty Alexander Trio at Tanglewood

August 25, 2004 performance; by Dave Read

Monty Alexander Trio in concert Aug. 25, 2013 at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall Monty Alexander peered out from the Ozawa Hall stage at Tanglewood, saw the auditorium half full, and proceeded to deliver a concert of upbeat and optimistic music to an enthusiastic audience that occupied way less than half the hall. Such is the nature of the Jamaican-born pianist, whose reputation apparently carries insufficient weight in the Tanglewood market, despite a fifty year career, more than 60 albums as a leader, and performance credits with legends of jazz including Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Benny Golson, and Oscar Peterson.

The concert began with a piece that quoted I Got Rhythm, begun by drummer Dennis Mackrel (Obed Calvaire was listed in the program) and bassist Hassan Shakur before Alexander made his entrance. A few minutes later, his composition Look Up seemed to be running alongside the A Train, and the next tune, Just Wait, was written in response to a successful bout with cancer.

Mr. Alexander evinced an easy rapport with the audience, even if he did seem to value his early experience with Sinatra more highly than today’s jazz fan would. And he was as generous with his sidemen as any leader could be. He stood aside while Shakur took a long ambling solo that somehow encountered The Pink Panther along the way. Other familiar tunes heard tonight were Come Fly With Me, Day O, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, and Sweet Georgia Brown.

The BSO was bolder than usual during the 2013 Tanglewood season with its “Popular Artist” programming. Tonight’s program had all the requisite merit on the artistic side, but as with a few earlier events, the marketing effort wasn’t up to par. That is unfortunate because, just as a full house can raise the level of excitement, a nearly empty one can be an un unhappy distraction.

Yo Yo Ma’s Goat Rodeo Show at Tanglewood

Yo Yo Ma's Goat Rodeo Show at Tanglewood; Hilary Scott photo.

August 15, 2013 performance by Dave Read

Yo Yo Ma's Goat Rodeo Show at Tanglewood; Hilary Scott photoIf Tanglewood were simply Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, its Tanglewood Music Center and eight or nine weeks of classical music performed by the BSO and their various guest soloists and conductors, we Berkshires locals would have plenty to be grateful for. But it is so much more, for so many reasons, not least of which is that Yo Yo Ma claims it as a sort of home for his seemingly boundless musical explorations. Incidentally, he also has an actual home in the Berkshires. (Goat Rodeo Show at Tanglewood photo: Hilary Scott).

His latest musical trip led to the Goat Rodeo Sessions, the 2011 album he recorded with bsssist Edgar Meyer, fiddler Stuart Duncan, and mandolinist Chris Thile, which won Grammys for Best Folk and Best Engineered non-classical. Both the album and tonight’s show featured singer Aoife O’Donovan, of Crooked Still and Sometymes Why. She reprised No One But You, Here and Heaven, from the album and added a stunning rendition of Bob Dylan’s Farewell, Angelina.

Everybody but Mr. Ma took turns on other instruments; Meyer played piano on Franz and the Eagle, and No One But You; Thile, whose singing blended nicely with Ms. O’Donovan’s, also played fiddle and guitar; Duncan also played banjo. Except that Ma seemed to indicate that Meyer is musical director, the impression from the audience is that these are four musicians equally expert in their own domains and equally excited to be making music with peers, just for the fun of it.

Hotels in the Berkshires

Berkshires hotelsFind hotels near Tanglewood with user reviews, check amenities, nearby attractions, availability and then book your room reservations at these lodging establishments through our partner, International Hotel Solutions (IHS), the leading provider of secure online hotel reservations.

2019 Tanglewood schedule

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has released the schedule for the 2019 season at Tanglewood, which will be remembered for the opening of the Tanglewood Learning Institute, the four buildings overlooking Seiji Ozawa Hall on the Leonard Bernstein camopus.

Music director Andris Nelsons will be present for the month of July, conducting 13 programs, including the world premiere of a new work by Kevin Puts, The Brightness of Light, based on letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz on July 20, and a concert performance of Wagner’s complete Die Walküre on july 27 and 28.

Esperanza Spalding at Tanglewood

Esperanza Spalding at Tanglewood

Esperanza Spalding at Tanglewood

August 4, 2013 performance; by Dave Read

Esperanza Spalding at Tanglewood
Esperanza Spalding in performance at Tanglewood; Hilary Scott photo.
Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood was transformed Sunday evening into Ms. Esperanza Spalding‘s neighborhood; she is the phenom, who at age 4 made up her mind to have a life in music while watching Yo Yo Ma perform on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. A year later she had taught herself how to play violin; by 20, she was on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music; and in 2011 she won the Best New Artist Grammy, the first time it was awarded to a jazz musician.

Tonight, her neighborhood was the locale for a session of the Radio Music Society, comprised of a crackerjack 11-piece band, which takes its name from her 2012 double-Grammy release. The horn section was set up behind music stands covered by a giant radio facade. Ms. Spalding made her entrance a few moments after the band had begun laying down the hypnotic beat of Radio Song. A little later, she implored our indulgence while she got a few things off her mind, relating to “friends. family, loved ones…”. For most in the near-capacity audience, it was easy to assent to her wish, if not an outright privlege to attend to her artistry.

Going back and forth between upright acoustic bass and electric bass guitar, Ms. Spalding occupied a musical space that could evoke a range of progenitors from Willie Dixon, to Jack Bruce, to Ron Carter. And her singing is just as impressive and various, if not peerless. For an encore, she cut loose with some terrific scat in duet with pianist Leo Genovese, promising us that it would be an improvement over the previous night’s effort at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Over the course of nearly 2 hours, we were treated to an abundance of jazz that was so contextualized that if you zoomed in to a small fragment, it was indistinguishable from mainstream jazz, but when you relaxed and took the long view, the music was the dominant fragment of a larger work, and any number of sub-genres could be identified, from hip hop, to blues, to opera.

Yes indeed opera! A case could be made that opera is the most appropriate milieu for Esperanza Spalding. Besides her duly noted accomplishments as bassist, composer, and vocalist, she evinces a perfectly entertaining knack for story and drama – a sort of sturm und drang marked by a wink and a smile.

Radio Music Society followed Ms. Spalding’s Chamber Music Society, and after tonight’s performance, the last in the US, we’re left in eager anticipation of her next venture. Besides entertaining and delighting audiences, it’s probably a good bet also that she inspires young would-be musicians, because she exudes the same joy in performance as Yo Yo Ma does. How’s this for a coincidence? Mr. Ma was the featured soloist at this afternoon’s Boston Symphony Orchestra concert next-stage over in the Koussevitsky Music Shed!

Terrence Blanchard Quintet performance Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood

Terrence Blanchard Quintet performance June 28, 2013 Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood

Terrence Blanchard Quintet performance Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood

June 28, 2013 performance, by Dave Read.

Terrence Blanchard Quintet performance June 28, 2013 Ozawa Hall, TanglewoodThe Terrence Blanchard Quintet filled Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall with two sets of dense jazz before a sparse audience on June 28, 2013. It was a lovely evening in the Berkshires, but rain had been forecast, so maybe that had something to do with the nearly empty lawn and four-fifths empty hall. Has the Berkshire county reached the tipping point, where there’s so much stuff going on, that so many tickets for such an accomplished artist as Blanchard could remain unsold?

Terrence Blanchard Quintet performance June 28, 2013 Ozawa Hall, TanglewoodBy “dense” we mean that the music made by Blanchard and his band occupied all the space available; the spacious Ozawa Hall with its renowned acoutistics sometimes seems to be accompanist, rather than mere facilitator, for a musical performance. Besides his brillance as a trumeter, Mr. Blanchard is a charming m.c., engaged with the audience, and generous to his band, which is terrific. He told a funny story about the Tuscon Jazz Society by way of introducing tenor sax player Brice Winston, a wonderful player who is heavily involved in jazz education.

Terrence Blanchard features new release Magnetic in Tanglewood performance

Terrence Blanchard Quintet performance June 28, 2013 Ozawa Hall, TanglewoodThe rhythm section was good enough to be booking their own gigs! Pianist Fabian Almazan, from Cuba, shone especially brightly on his composition, Pet Steps Sitteres Theme Song. The tune is on Blanchard’s current Blue Note release, Magnetic, which also includes Time to Spare, a groovy up tempo composition by Winston, which got the evening underway in good order. Robert Hurst lll was on bass; his 2nd set solo was mesmerizing. Blanchard told us drummer Justin Brown “has great time” and a great career ahead. Blanchard himself demonstrated total artistic mastery of the trumpet, including loud high passages where it felt like notes bolted off the stage and became hecklers in the empty balcony.

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