Thursday, April 24, 2008

"PAUL SIMON: American Tunes" at BAM

The Brooklyn Academy of Music presented "Paul Simon: American Tunes," part-tribute concert, part-Paul Simon concert, and mostly an opportunity to hear many of the standards from the Paul Simon solo catalog from a different musical perspective. Simon opened the show with the Roche Sisters and his superb band, with "American Tune" which never sounded so relevant as it does today. When that song was first released on "There Goes Rhymin'Simon", in the era of Watergate and the dismay at the apparent closing of the Age of Aquarius and AntiWar- liberation movements, we thought that we had "issues" as a nation when we realized that our politicans were corrupt and malfeasant in their disruption of the political process, and that the Viet Nam war had lead the U.S. down a dark corridor. Well, who knew then that "we hadn't seen anything yet". This was followed later by "Me and Julio" which was warmly received.

Simon left the stage for a while, as the Roche Sisters, provided lovely interpretations of Cecelia and other tunes. One tune, "Another Galaxy" concluded withthe comment how great it was to be "In Brooklyn--Another Galaxy". "That's right!" someone shouted. Next,

Amos Lee performed "Peace Like a River" from the first post-S&G Simon solo album. Amos Lee, a Philadelphia-born musician has played with Bob Dylan and others. His intense, blues-tinged folk, gave a deep undercurrent of sad truths told joyfully. Grizzly Bear, a Brooklyn-band, took the stage, complex arrangements from a spare 4 piece group.

Olu Dara, combining jazz, blues, Afro-caribbean rhythms, performed "50 Ways to Lose Your Lover" and other tunes. Dara made a peculiar joke to the audience not to litter since his band mates earned money on the side cleaning up after the show. This felt a little awkward, one of a few attempts that Olu Dara made at connecting with his large audience, but this sort of fell flat. At any rate, I guess it seemed like patter for a smaller club and a different audience.

That said, the show was interesting since it attracted a diverse audience with a core of long time Simon fans but it was not strictly a Paul Simon-retrospective performance. In fact, after the 3rd or 4th performances without Simon, someone yelled out "Where's Paul ?" Although all of the musicians appear well established, the show seemed to highlight the irony that rock music, essentially an American and avant garde form, is subject to certain cultural and aesthetic assumptions, apparently not the least of which is based on age.Rock music rolls on. Those Simon and S&G recordings are only a snapshot. The music, like the musician, is ever changing, subject to new interpretations and musical passions. After the first couple of sets, and one realized that Paul would not be on stage all evening, it was great to just sit back and let all of the music happen all around you, hear familiar Simon tunes done by different voices and different, though essentially faithful to the original, arrangements. The fact that new generations of musicians are equally in love with the Simon songbook was just such a powerful statement on the originality and relentless creativity of this great artist.

Josh Groban, a fabulous singer with an incredibly strong and clear voice, brought new depth and range to "Bridge Over Troubled Water". Remarkable too, Gillian Welch and partner David Rawlings, performing "Duncan" with Simon. Stylistically, Welch is an intense and hard to categorize fusion of bluegrass, folk, country and blues.

Simon returned with his band and tore through "Train in the Distance, " "How Can You Live in the Northeast", "Late in the Evening" and more. Mark Stewart, Simon's musical director, of Polyphonic Lounge and Bang on a Can Festival, an remarkable multi-instrumentalist, stands out in Simon's already tight and very high powered band.

There were so many songs it was hard to keep track, but it was a night for, by, and about Paul Simon. It was an amazing amazing show all around.

Paul Simon: American Tunes extends through April 27 at BAM's beautiful Howard Gilman Opera House.

Current Reading

  • Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War- Tony Horwitz
  • A Sultan in Palermo - Tariq Ali
  • Hitch-22: A Memoir - Christopher Hitchens
  • Negropedia- Patrice Evans
  • Dead Funny: Humor in Nazi Germany - Rudolph Herzog
  • Exile on Main Street - Robert Greenfield
  • Among the Truthers - A Journey Among America's Growing Conspiracist Underworld - Jonathan Kay
  • Paradise Lost - John Milton
  • What Is Your Dangerous Idea? Thinking the Unthinkable - John Brockman
  • Notes from the Edge Times - Daniel Pinchbeck
  • Fringe-ology: How I Can't Explain Away the Unexplainable- Steve Volk
  • Un Juif pour l'exemple (translated as A Jew Must Die )- Jacques Cheesex
  • The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
  • Pale King - David Foster Wallce
  • David Bowie: Starman bio - Paul Trynka
  • Tobacco Stained Mountain Goat - Andrez Bergen
  • The Future of Nostalgia -Svetlana Boym
  • Living in the End Times - Slavoj ZIzek
  • FIrst as Tragedy Next as Farce - Slavoj Zizek
  • How to Survive a Robot Uprising - Daniel Wilson
  • Where is My Jet Pack? -Daniel Wilson
  • Day of the Oprichniks - Vladimir Sorokin
  • Ice Trilogy - Vladimir Sorokin
  • First Civilizations
  • Oscar Wilde -Andre Maurois
  • The Beats - Harvey Pekar, et al
  • SDS - Harvey Pekar, et al
  • The Unfinished Animal - Theodore Roszak
  • Friends of Eddy Coyle
  • Brooklands -Emily Barton
  • Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter - Seth Grahme-Smith - Entertaining and historical
  • Dictionary of the Khazars - Pavic
  • Sloth-Gilbert Hernandez
  • War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
  • Charles Addams: An Evilution
  • Life in Ancient Greece
  • Time - Eva Hoffmann
  • Violence - S. Zizek
  • Luba - a graphic novel by Gilbert Hernandez
  • Life in Ancient Egypt
  • Great Apes - Will Self - riveting and disturbing
  • Lost Honor of Katherina Blum - Heinrich Boll - could not put it down
  • Yellow Back Radio Brokedown - Ishmael Reed (author deserving of new wide readership)
  • Living in Ancient Mesopotomia
  • Landscape in Concrete - Jakov Lind - surreal
  • 'There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor's Baby'-Ludmilla Petrushevskaya - creepy stories - translation feels literarily "thin"
  • Mythologies - William Butler Yeats (re-read again & again)
  • How German Is It ? - Walter Abish
  • The Book of Genesis - illustrated by R. Crumb - visionary
  • "Flags" - an illustrated encyclopedia - wish I could remember all of these. Flag culture
  • Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
  • Ubik - Philip K. Dick
  • Nobody's Fool - Richard Russo
  • Hitler's Empire - Mark Mazower
  • Nazi Culture - various authors
  • Master Plan: Himmler 's Scholars and the Holocaust - Heather Pringle
  • Eichmann in Jerusalem - Hannah Arendt
  • Living in Ancient Rome
  • Traveling with Herodotus -R. Kapuszynsky
  • Oblivion - David Foster Wallace - Some of his greatest work
  • Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace - still wrestling with this great book
  • Netherland - Joseph O'Neill - staggeringly great read
  • Renegade - The Obama Campaign - Richard Wolffe
  • Mount Analogue - Rene Daumal
  • John Brown
  • Anathem - Neal Stephenson - love Stephenson but tough slogging first few chapters
  • 7 Deadly Sins
  • ALEX COX - Alex Cox
  • FIASCO by Thomas Ricks
  • I, Fellini - Charlotte Chandler & Federico Fellini
  • Best of 20th century alternative history fiction
  • Judah P. Benjamin - Eli Evans - Confederacy's Secretary of State & source of the W.C. Field's exclamation
  • Moscow 2042 - Vladimir Voinovich - Pre-1989 curiosity & entertaining sci fi read; love his portrayal of Solzhenitsyn-like character
  • Gomorrah - Roberto Saviano - Mafia without the It-Am sugar coating. Brutal & disturbing
  • The Sack of Rome - Celebrity+Media+Money=Silvio Berlusconi - Alexander Stille
  • Reporting - David Remnick - terrific journalism
  • Fassbinder
  • Indignation - Philip Roth
  • Rome
  • Let's Go Italy! 2008
  • Italian Phrases for Dummies
  • How to Pack
  • Violence - Slavoj Zizek
  • Dali: Painting & Film
  • The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight - Jimmy Breslin
  • The Good Rat - Jimmy Breslin
  • Spook Country - William Gibson
  • A Blue Hand - The Beats in India - Deborah Baker
  • The Metaphysical Club - Louis Menard
  • Coast of Utopia - Tom Stoppard
  • Physics of the Impossible - Dr. Michio Kaku
  • Managing the Unexpected - Weick & Sutcliffe
  • Wait Til The Midnight Hour - Writings on Black Power
  • Yellow Back Radio Brokedown - Ishmael Reed
  • Burning Down the Masters' House - Jayson Blair
  • Howl - Allen Ginsberg
  • Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
  • The Palace Thief - Ethan Canin
  • John Adams - David McCullough
  • The Wooden Sea - Jonathan Carroll
  • American Gangster - Mark Jacobson
  • Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Gawker Guide to Becoming King of All Media
  • Jews and Power - Ruth Wisse
  • Youth Without Youth - Mircea Eliade
  • A Team of Rivals - Doris Goodwin
  • Ghost Hunters -William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death - Deborah Blum
  • Dream -Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy - Stephen Duncombe
  • Love & Theft - Eric Lott
  • Exit Ghost - Philip Roth
  • Studio A - The Bob Dylan Reader

Current Listening

  • Alexi Murdoch Wait
  • Wilco Summer Teeth
  • Wilco The Album
  • Carmina Burana - Ray Manzarek (& Michael Riesmann)
  • Polyrock - Polyrock
  • 96 Tears - Garland Jeffries
  • Ghost of a Chance Garland Jeffries
  • Yellow Magic Orchestra
  • Mustang Sally Buddy Guy
  • John Lee Hooker
  • Black and White Years
  • Together Through Life - B. Dylan
  • 100 Days 100 Nites - Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
  • DYLAN: 3 disc Greatest...
  • Glassworks - Philip Glass
  • Wild Palms - Soundtrack -Ryuichi Sakamoto
  • Dinah Washington - Best of..
  • Commander Cody& His Lost Planet Airmen Live at Armadillo