Recent Concerts You've Enjoyed

Thought this might be a fun thread and a way to find out about acts on tour.

My wife and I saw the Smoke Fairies at the Tractor Tavern last evening as the opening act for Rasputina. The Smoke Fairies are a 'folk blues' duo from Wales and have been described as "Bob Dylan's dream." I thought that their debut release "Through Low Light and Trees" was one of last year's best. It was just the two principles singing and playing guitar. Really terrific concert with excellent acoustics and thankfully not too loud.

If you are ever in Seattle, the Tractor Tavern is a great venue in the Ballard neighborhood. Very fun people watching...I think my wife and I were the only ones without tattoos! I got to chat with them after their set and had my LP signed. I love the lilting Welsh accents!

Here's a video of "Hotel Room" from their debut LP:

[video]

 

 

 

 

some more from The Sphere

 

 

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Lady Blackbird at The Triple Door last night.

 

Lady blackbird was fantastic at the london palladium January

 

The Cookers last night:
Cecil McBee, Azar Lawrence, George Cables, Eddie Herderson, David Weiss, Donald Harrison, Billy Hart
Highlight was a 20 minute Donald Harrison solo, plus going with the wife and kids.

without their instruments





with

 

Friday and Saturday the 9th of Mahler is scheduled in Palermo at the Politeama theater, a symphony rarely performed because For the performance of Mahler's Ninth, about 80-90 instrumentalists are required, with an ensemble that includes strings, winds and horn. Saturday I will make a complete report and I hope to post some videos too

 

My wife and I went to Barcelona last month just to see Nadine in her most famous role as Violetta in La Traviata. I guess you might say I'm a Nadine groupie. I saw her in Rigoletto at the Met last October, and also at the Met in Lucia di Lammermoor a year prior. Her performance in Lucia convinced me of her greatness (the mad scene is unforgettable), but her performance as Violetta convinced me that I am witnessing a singer who might very well be considered another Callas or Sutherland some day. I was literally moved to tears at the end of Act 1. She's in her prime now at 36. I'm waiting for next season's Met schedule to be announced shortly and hope she's there doing something...anything really. I'd go just to watch her walk on to the stage.

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Been a bit slack on the old opera, but a couple coming up in the next month. Active in many other musical and dancing departments.

A very pretty Balanchine outing this weekend. Prodigal Son for Ballet Russes in 1929, last show for Diaghilev before he died, Serenade for the students of the American Ballet in 1934, his first full length US ballet, and Symphony in C for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1947.

Camera phones out for Marienella Nunez.

 

Saw Isaiah Collier at Black & Tan Hall last night. Amazing performance by a very tight band. Kept thinking that this must have been what it was like to hear a young Sonny Rollins or Coltrane. The pianist was terrific and looked young enough to be in high school.

 

Mahler 3 at the CSO

"Mäkelä returns with a thrilling and exuberant Mahler Third"

Chicago Classical Review » » Mäkelä returns with a thrilling and exuberant Mahler Third

chicagoclassicalreview.com

An excellent concert! We sit near a young man and his adorable four (4) year old son - perfectly well behaved and a real Mahler fan. He was wearing a shirt with a classic Mahler portrait. I invited them to join me at the post concert reception. Maestro Mäkelä said that he loved the boy's shirt. BTW, Mäkelä is only 29...

 

"Rich, extraordinary Dvořák highlights Mäkelä’s final CSO program of season"

Chicago Classical Review » » Rich, extraordinary Dvořák highlights Mäkelä’s final CSO program of season

chicagoclassicalreview.com

I heard the full concert on Thursday night from my usual Gallery (6th floor) seat. On Wednesday morning I heard the Dvorak in rehearsal. The first half was in the Lower Balcony (3rd floor). For the second half I picked a seat on the main floor. The Lower Balcony sound is louder and brighter that the Gallery and has a much more intimate view. The main floor sound was dominated by the strings (as that's all you can see). Fortunately for the CSO's finances, lots of people buy main floor seats....

 

"Rich, extraordinary Dvořák highlights Mäkelä’s final CSO program of season"

Chicago Classical Review » » Rich, extraordinary Dvořák highlights Mäkelä’s final CSO program of season

chicagoclassicalreview.com

I heard the full concert on Thursday night from my usual Gallery (6th floor) seat. On Wednesday morning I heard the Dvorak in rehearsal. The first half was in the Lower Balcony (3rd floor). For the second half I picked a seat on the main floor. The Lower Balcony sound is louder and brighter that the Gallery and has a much more intimate view. The main floor sound was dominated by the strings (as that's all you can see). Fortunately for the CSO's finances, lots of people buy main floor seats....

Excellent. I have heard the Dvorak 7th Symphony with the Boston Symphony Orchestra last season, with Domingo Hindoyan as conductor. It was amazing, with also Roberto Sierra's 6th Symphony (composed 2020) in a riveting performance. Elgar's Cello Concerto was excellent as well:

Domingo Hindoyan conducts Sierra, Elgar, and Dvořák with Pablo…

www.bso.org

 

Not a traditional "concert" but what a performance...

This B'way season has been one of the best in recent memory. I saw the original production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Blvd" decades ago. It is now being performed in a brilliantly directed 'stripped down" version (no sets!) on Broadway as a revival production that was just nominated for 7 Tony Awards. I have never heard of Nicole Scherzinger, a member of the group "Pussy Cat Dolls", but I sure know who she is now.

In over 50 years of attending shows on Broadway, I have never seen anyone receive as many standing ovations during a performance as Scherzinger did when I saw the show 2 nights ago. It's as if the entire audience was filled with her groupies. She is a tour-de-force and I have to believe the best actress Tony is hers to lose. (We'll find out on June 8).



If you are in NYC, try to catch her breathtaking performance and if you can't, try seeing "Buena Vista Social Club", a music about an iconic true story about musicians at a famous Latin jazz club in Havana (Ry Cooder's Grammy winning album of the same name was released in 1997) that I'm hoping wins the Tony for best new musical. Just wonderful. Broadway at its best.

 

Mahler 3 at the CSO

"Mäkelä returns with a thrilling and exuberant Mahler Third"

Chicago Classical Review » » Mäkelä returns with a thrilling and exuberant Mahler Third

chicagoclassicalreview.com

An excellent concert! We sit near a young man and his adorable four (4) year old son - perfectly well behaved and a real Mahler fan. He was wearing a shirt with a classic Mahler portrait. I invited them to join me at the post concert reception. Maestro Mäkelä said that he loved the boy's shirt. BTW, Mäkelä is only 29...

You don't know how lucky you are to have heard M3 with Esteban Batallan on Principal Trumpet for that performance. As you may know, it was a coup when the CSO recruited Esteban about 2 years ago. But for reasons that are not clear, he wasn't happy there and the Philly Orchestra managed to poach him a year ago. And for reasons equally unclear, no sooner was he in Philly. that he recently decided to return permanently to the CSO beginning next year. (Did he have a problem with Philly cheesesteaks?) We saw M6 with Yannick/Philly at Carnegie about 2 weeks ago where Esteban played principal trumpet and a few days later, you saw M3 with the CSO where he played principal trumpet. That guy is getting in his frequent flyer miles, that's for sure. Some think he's the finest orchestral trumpet player on the planet and splitting his time between Chicago and Philly this year must have been challenging to say the least. Bud Herseth's esteemed CSO chair looks like it will now be in great hands for quite a while with Batallan's return to Chicago, assuming he doesn't jet off to yet another orchestra anytime soon!

 

Madame Butterfly , Ukraine Opera @ Glasgow concert hall

 

My best concert was Mahler's 5th Symphony, by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev. I remember the first 5 minutes, then the alpha state followed. Something incredible, never experienced before.