Southern Bookman

Farewell, Tina Turner, an American original

I felt unexpected sadness at Tina Turner's death.

Driving home from Sandy Springs, listening to the '60s channel on Sirius/XM satellite radio, I heard about the great entertainer's death at age 83 at her home near Zurich, Switzerland. She'd suffered from a range of illnesses.

Overcoming debt and career reversals, Tina achieved superstardom relatively late in life, a triumph of perseverance and innovative talent.

After announcing Tina's death, disc jockey Pat St. John strangely played "Proud Mary," the Grammy Award-winning hit she recorded with her abusive husband, Ike Turner before she courageously escaped from his control. It's too bad St. John didn't play one of the songs that brought her fame as a solo artist.

Tina's dynamic stage performances overshadowed her singing. She had a distinctive voice, rising from a low register to impressive power. She fully expressed the desolation of the sexual hookup culture on her biggest hit, "What's Love Got to Do With It?"

Love had everything to do with her career. With all of her star power, she displayed an empathy with her fans, giving courage to women like her caught in abusive relationships.

She traveled a long way from her childhood home in rural Tennessee near the Mississippi River. She never lost her small-town optimism and courage to succeed.

 

Beatles vs. Stones just one of pop music rivalries

Pop music fans love to debate who recorded the best version of a song.

Beatles haters say the Isley Brothers' original recording of "Twist and Shout" excels the Fab Four's cover, one of the band's first hits.

The Rolling Stones' "Time Is On My Side" receives the same negative rating when compared with Irma Thomas' rendition.

While Aretha Franklin reached the top of the charts with "Respect," many swear by Otis Redding's recording of the song, which he wrote. I've never cared for the "sock it to me, sock it to me" chorus in Aretha's version.

Then there's the dueling covers of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," by Gladys Knight and the Pips and Marvin Gaye.

Rolling Stones and Beatles fans have engaged in the most heated rivalry over the years, like competing tribes. Certain personality traits have been identified with the followers of each group.

Such disputes aren't new. Some prefer Richard Rodgers' songs written with Lorenz Hart over those he composed with Oscar Hammerstein II. 

For years, I was in the Hart club, but I more and more appreciate Hammerstein's work with Rodgers in "Oklahoma" and other musicals. The late Stephen Sondheim, whom Hammerstein mentored, criticized Hart for his loose rhymes.

As aging fans mellow, many see that all music is wonderful, no matter who recorded it. 

Farewell Chris Strachwitz, intrepid musicologist and Arhoolie Records founder

Reading about the career of Arhoolie Records founder Chris Strachwitz, I was surprised at how much he'd touched my life.

Strachwitz, who died May 12 at age 91 at an assisted living facility near San Francisco, recorded a number of previously little known black, Latino, Cajun and country artists who gained popularity among the rock generation.

A German immigrant, Strachwitz made stars of blues guitarists and singers Mance Lipscomb, Lightnin' Hopkins and Mississippi Fred McDowell, Cajun zydeco master Clifton Chenier and folk singer Country Joe McDonald.

Guitarist and musicologist Ry Cooder credits Strachwitz for awakening his love for folk traditions, which he's promoted through his long and brilliant career.

The success of Country Joe McDonald and the Fish's "I Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die Rag," a Vietnam war protest song that the band introduced to acclaim at Woodstock, allowed Arhoolie to keep recording obscure musicians.

Like Alan Lomax before him, Strachwitz preserved strands of American music that might have been lost. Following Strachwitiz's retirement, his Arhoolie recordings and archives were acquired by the Smithsonian Institution.

Reading about Strachwitz, I realized that he was one of the pioneering folklorists who awakened my appreciation for early American music.

Growing up, I was enamored with Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Acuff and Johnny Cash. Later, I came to love the less refined music of the Carter Family, Jim and Jesse and the Louvin Brothers.

As with many others, I entered the world of Southern black blues through the portal of the British invasion.

The Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin, Eric Clapton, the Yardbirds and the Beatles' love for the blues led me to Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Howlin' Wolf, Bessie Smith and Mississippi John Hurt. 

Later, I came upon Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley's haunting "Last Kind World Blues," released in 1930.

The Allman Brothers' rise also inspired me to search out black musicians from the 1920s and 1930s whose recordings were re-released in the 1960s to huge popularity.

I'd heard about Arhoolie Records, but didn't know anything about Strachwitz until reading obituaries about him in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Thanks to him, I received the gift of two memorable concerts: Clifton Chenier at the LSU Union and Lightnin' Hopkins at the long closed Lakeshore Lounge.

 

 

Farewell Gordon Lightfoot, master folk storyteller

Gordon Lightfoot's folk songs possess a timeless quality, like early English ballads.

Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain" updated the English folk tradition to the age of airplanes and international travel.

Yet the narrator's longing for a lost love and the metaphorical identification with nature could have come from a Shakespearean sonnet.

Listening to Lightfoot's music following his death Monday at age 84 in his native Toronto, I'm struck by how well-constructed his songs were. His arrangements, chord sequences and guitar work matched the poetic quality of his words.

Rising from Toronto's Yorkville neighborhood, which rivaled New York City's Greenwich Village, Lightfoot initially gained fame with his ballads, frequently covered by folk artists like Peter, Paul and Mary.

His distinctive voice had a richness that colored his lyrics, heightened by his virtuoso rhythm guitar patterns.

After the demise of the folk era, Lightfoot like Bob Dylan shifted to rock, producing the massive hit "Sundown," with its signature driving beat and lead guitarist Red Shea's jazz-influenced solos. 

In the narrative of sexual desire and jealousy, Lightfoot's resonant voice dramatizes the lyrics with an emotional range of regret, menace and wounded love.

His six-minute epic "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," honors the 29 men killed in 1975 when their ship the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sunk during a storm on Lake Superior. The song, with its inventive rhymes and documentary realism, stands out with its rare cinematic quality.

Reminiscent of Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins' 1875 poem "The Wreck of the Deutschland," Lightfoot's work captures the horror and tragic heroism of disaster.

Lightfoot like fellow Canadians Joni Mitchell and Neil Young wrote anthems of the 1960s and '70s that continue to reach younger generations.

Along with countrymen Robbie Rotertson, Rich Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson, who joined Arkansas native Levon Helm to produce the Band's masterpieces, Lightfoot wrote and performed with a sense of history and tradition, an enduring frontier essence.

Dylan hailed Lightfoot's music. As with Dylan's classics, Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," and "Sundown" will last as long as guitarists gather on front porches and in living rooms to play eternal songs.

Willie Nelson birthday concert brings memories of Baton Rouge performance

Willie Nelson marked his 90th birthday over the weekend with a two-day concert at the Hollywood Bowl, feted by a dazzling lineup of music and film stars.

The Los Angeles concert brought back memories of when Nelson celebrated his birthday with an all-star festival at a meadow in Baton Rouge sometime in the early 1970s.

I'm sure the site somewhere out Perkins Road in South Baton Rouge is now a subdivision full of McMansions.

As a young man, I attended Willie's "birthday party" with several of my childhood friends, camped out on the ground to hear Nelson and other outlaw country stars in their first burst of fame after leaving Nashville. I vaguely remember Jimmy Buffet, Jerry Jeff Walker and David Allen Coe. Perhaps Waylon Jennings also performed.

Nelson, who had recently released "Red-Headed Stranger" to widespread acclaim even from psychedelic rock freaks, appeared last. In my memory, he kept playing until sunrise for a dwindling number of fans huddled in blankets against the morning chill.

An Internet search found no mention of the mini cosmic cowboy Woodstock, although I saw a flier about a similar event in the 1970s at the Baton Rouge State Fairgrounds starring Willie, Emmylou Harris, Leon Russell, Johnny Paycheck, George Jones and Asleep at the Wheel. I would have loved to see that concert, but I must have left Baton Rouge by then.

Willie and I have come a long way since that Baton Rouge concert.

Just before Covid struck, my daughter and I saw Willie perform at Atlanta's Chastain Amphitheater. Willie was still giving his fans his all, as he did on that magical morning in Baton Rouge all those years before.

 

 

 

United Talent Agency's arts exhibit space elevates Atlanta's cultural scene

Atlanta's receiving a burst of attention as a fine-arts center.

The United Talent Agency, which represents actors, comedians, screenwriters, musicians and artists, recently opened a fine arts exhibit space at its Atlanta office in Midtown.

That's a significant boost for the Atlanta arts scene. The Atlanta gallery is only UTA's second, following an earlier one in Beverly Hills.

The new gallery gives Atlanta artists fresh hopes that they no longer have to go elsewhere to find success.

Yet an article Wednesday in The New York Times Arts section raised doubts about whether the UTA space will benefit Atlanta and Southern artists, or mainly represent those with already established international reputations in New York or Los Angeles.

Writer Tariro Mzezewa's feature titled "Can a Global Talent Agency Make Atlanta an Arts Destination" expressed local arts boosters' expectations that regional artists will find the UTA a nurturing home. 

Displaying a regional awareness, the new gallery opened with Atlanta artist and musician Lonnie Holley's exhibit "The Eyes Were Always on Us," which continues through the end of April.

The black Birmingham native's works examine racial violence in the South, the struggle for civil rights and the perseverance of black culture.

While the new gallery should aspire to encourage regional talent, a mixture of international exhibitions will boost Atlanta's global stature, moving away from from the city's long-established provincialism. As a major international presence, the UTA center can accomplish multiple objectives.

UTA's arts gallery is another jewel for Atlanta's Peachtree cultural corridor, encompassing the Woodruff Arts Center, the Museum of Design Atlanta and the Peachtree branch of the Fulton County Library.

The Fox Theater rises a few blocks south, near the Atlanta History Center's Margaret Mitchell House, which has not yet reopened after shutting down during the Covid epidemic.

While Atlanta's fine arts and entertainment scenes flourish, the city's theater community suffers from declining audiences and funding.

As the city's movie lovers welcomed the imminent reopening of the Tara Theater, the Lyric Theater announced its closure after 42 seasons.

The Lyric's shutdown mobilized the Atlanta theater community, which issued an emergency letter calling for more financial support from corporations, business leaders and local and state government.

Atlanta's theaters are spread across the metro area. The failure of a campaign to build a grand opera house at the Woodruff Arts Center led to the Atlanta Opera Company joining the Braves in moving to Cobb County. The Atlanta Ballet Company also performs outside the city.

While suburban theaters have done admirable work through the years, Midtown's art district needs more live theater along with the Woodruff's Alliance and the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern.

A new professional company on Peachtree would showcase the original work of regional playwrights, as well as perform worthy plays from elsewhere. Midtown also needs a new music venue for classical, operatic and popular performances

The UTA gallery is only one step in Atlanta fulfilling its artistic dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Sebastian and Lovin' Spoonful songs stand as rock classics

John Sebastian and Lovin' Spoonful produced a number of hits, yet the band has always been underrated.

Sebastian wrote sunny pop tunes expressing the joys and sorrows of teenage love, and the joys of life.

While Sebastian and Lovin' Spoonful songs are criticized as insubstantial compared with those of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and so on, they stand the test of time.

Sebastian's songs display a subtle lyrical and melodic sophistication, and the Spoonful's Zal Yanovsky, Joe Butler, and Steve Boone added inventive jazz stylings to rock rhythms.

Spoonful songs "The Younger Girl," "Do You Believe in Magic," "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice," "Summer in the City," "Nashville Cats," "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind," and "What a Day for a Daydream" hold a special place in the rock canon.

Emmylou Harris, Atlanta Symphony make for memorable "staycation" in Midtown Atlanta

We stayed in Midtown Atlanta over the weekend for concerts at Symphony Hall.

Our suite at the Starling Hotel at 14th Street and Peachtree next to Colony Square offered a great view of Atlanta looking north toward our Buckhead neighborhood, which we were happy to learn will stay in the city after the Georgia State Senate defeated an absurd secession bill.

The window view made clear Buckhead's connection to Atlanta, linked by the spine of Peachtree, the city's central thoroughfare. Atlanta's growth north from the 19th century could be traced, a united vision that the Buckhead separatist movement sought to disrupt. For now, the outrageous attempt to dismember the city is dead.

On Friday night, we walked through soft rain to the Woodruff Arts Center to see Emmylou Harris, who gave an intimate show blessedly free from the pyrotechnics of big stadium concerts.

The notorious acoustics of Symphony Hall at times muddled Emmylou and her fine band, and her friendly banter between songs. She gave a rousing and energetic performance, her voice gaining strength during the hour and a half show.

Playing new material along with a selection of old favorites, she thrilled her audience of mostly longtime fans. One of the great country musicologists, she gave a tour of Nashville history with her renditions of Kitty Wells' "Making Believe," Bill Monroe's "Get Up John," Ralph Stanley's "Green Pastures," and Towns Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty," before which she gave a 90th birthday shoutout to Willie Nelson.

She also performed "Wheels," one of the signature numbers of Gram Parsons, with whom she recorded two memorable albums at the start of her career. Parsons' death from a drug overdose devastated her before she embarked upon her brilliant solo career, eventually moving to Nashville and connecting with country traditions.

In an encore, she performed the song that the audience had been waiting for "Boulder to Birmingham," which expresses her grief for Parsons. As she sang "I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham/If I thought I could see, I could see your face," her enraptured fans would make that same commitment, just to hear her voice.

The next night, after the return of perfect springlike weather, we returned to Symphony Hall to hear the marvelous pianist Awadagin Pratt perform with the Atlanta Symphony, led by resident conductor Jerry Hou.

Pratt's keyboard dexterity revealed the full range of young composer Jessie Montgomery's 17-minute "Rounds," a composition for piano and stings inspired by one of T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets."

While the piece at times appears derivative, depending too much on runs up and down the keyboard, Pratt highlighted its prevailing originality. Pratt along with the symphony's string section brought out the promise in Montgomery's work.

A scintillating rendering of noted composer Joan Tower's "1920/2019" opened the evening. Tower's concerto celebrates major advances in women's history with a range of musical passages.

The ASO's performance testified to Tower's stature as a major American composer. The piece deserves to receive frequent symphonic performances.

Closing with a virtuoso performance of Bela Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra," first performed in 1943, Hou and the ASO illuminated the composition's symphonic depths.

Several sections of the Hungarian Bartok's work reflect World War II's destruction of Europe, with a hopeful finish evoking the return of peace. The ASO performance gained contemporary relevance coming after the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the continued horror of the war.

Hou engaged the orchestra's full resources, from twin harps to brass and percussion as well as violins, cellos and other string instruments, to show why the concerto is a masterpiece.

In two days, we'd completed an expansive musical journey, carried out from the same small stage.

Our weekend stay in Midtown revealed our city's magic.

 

 

 

Farewell Wayne Shorter, whose jazz innovations connected with rock generation

Wayne Shorter's compositions and solo saxophone flights kept jazz alive for the rock generation.

Shorter's soaring solos on Miles Davis' "Bitches' Brew" reached a higher plane than the prevailing psychedelic guitar sounds. Davis, known for the innovative post-bop jazz album "Kind of Blue," ventured into rock "fusion" along with Shorter and other jazz luminaries like pianist Chick Corea on the the ambitous recording.

The album, with its surging rhythms and expansive solos, became a rock generation favorite along with albums by Led Zeppelin, the Moody Blues, Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones, Procul Harem and the Beatles.

Later, Shorter contributed to jazz-flavored pop albums by Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan.

Shorter, who died Thursday at age 89 in Los Angeles, was also a jazz innovator who helped lead the genre's move toward abstraction and cerebral compositions that lessened its mainstream appeal.

Yet as the leader of Weather Report and the Wayne Shorter Quartet through changing lineups, he still attracted pop fans as well as jazz purists. He had a successful collaboration with the pianist Herbie Hancock, another "fusion" pioneer.

Shorter's expansive career set the stage for today's generation of musicians seeking to regain jazz's mainstream relevance. Late in his career, Shorter kept moving toward the future, playing with rising stars like Esperanza Spalding.

Burt Bacharach, Frank Zappa both explored new musical territory

Burt Bacharach's musical inventiveness was matched by Frank Zappa.

Bacharach, who died recently at age 94, like Zappa wrote songs with unusual time signatures and rhythms, often within the same composition.

The iconoclastic Zappa and popular music dynamo Bacharach took opposite views of American culture.

Bacharach achieved mass success, turning out anthems to middle-American romance and material success. Zappa's outrageous satire skewered the same culture celebrated by Bacharach. From different realms, they both pushed beyond the boundaries of American pop music.

Unlike Bacharach, Zappa spurned Top 40 hits. Zappa, who died in 1993, gained a devoted cult following as the leader of the Mothers of Invention, a band known for its musical sophistication in carrying out Zappa's innovative arrangements on a number of concept albums.

After the band's early satirical work "Freak Out," "Absolutely Free," "We're Only in It for the Money" and "Lumpy Gravy," Zappa reached new levels of artistic brilliance with a series of symphonic jazz compositions. His later avant garde work brought him renown as a major composer. 

Bacharach in contrast concentrated on popular hits, while branching out to write the Broadway show "Promises, Promises" and movie soundtracks.

While Zappa often collaborated with symphony orchestras late in his career, Bacharach declined offers to write symphonies. Yet Bacharach's arrangements with their range of instruments and memorable horn lines mirrored Zappa's musical virtuosity.

Bacharach and Zappa were opposites in many ways, but they both possessed ground-breaking talent, extending the boundaries of modern American music.