by Michael Sherer
With George Benson releasing his first record exactly fifty years ago, he has enough material to play for at least week straight. In terms of selecting hits though, they began ‘76, with Benson’s breakthrough smash record, ‘Breezin’, which has sold over 10 million copies. This, by th way, makes it the best selling jazz type music of all time, although it’s quite pop infused. Benson opened with its title song, and delved into a trove of more hits from there. They included: ‘Give Me The Night’, ‘Love X Love’, ‘Turn Your Love Around’, ‘This Masquerade’, ‘On Broadway’, ‘Moody’s Mood For Love’, ‘Love Ballad’, ‘Lady Love Me (One More Time)’, ‘Nature Boy’, ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You’ and ‘The Ghetto’. Benson, 71, is a guitar master and can still play at a very high level. His main guitar, a pearl white signature GB 10 by Ibanez, was the only guitar he played. It looked striking against his blue suit.
by Michael Sherer
Before I address the event, I’d like to provide some key context. Aretha Franklin, 72, has been recording for fifty eight years, and is revered to a degree that few singers are. In my view, her best period was the late ‘60’s while recording for Atlantic Records, her second label after Columbia. One of the main reasons for that was due to the great guidance of its vice president, the late Jerry Wexler. Wex, as he was commonly known, also produced Aretha’s best records for the company, and right from the start. The key to this was bringing Franklin back to her church roots with Southern musicians, and making it a soulful, gritty affair. This was in stark contrast to what the late John Hammond did at Columbia, which was to mold Franklin as a “middle of the road” singer in a Rosemary Clooney type fashion. It was only when Franklin was set in Wexler’s cast that she could become her true self and be dubbed “The Queen Of Soul.”
by Michael Sherer
Lenny Kravitz’s has been a busy man lately. His 10th record, called “Strut,” just came out. So did a hard cover, career spanning photo book, simply called “Lenny Kravitz”. Then there’s a film coming out next year that features Kravitz, called “Who Shot The Sheriff.”
Kravitz, 50, was welcomed with a standing ovation when host Anthony DeCurtis announced him to the stage. He immediately appeared relaxed, informal, somewhat soft spoken and thoughtful. The first topic of discussion was the new record. In answering DeCurtis’ question regarding where inspiration came from for the new record, Kravitz replied that it wasn’t anything specific. He said that he had just wrapped up his Black and White America world tour, had filmed for two films prior to that, and wound up on the Atlanta based set of the latest Hunger Games series installment, called “Catching Fire.” His role is that of as a fashion whiz named Cinna. This is an apt one, as Kravitz has always been quite fashion conscious and is very into clothing and having his own style. This event was no exception, as Kravitz was dressed to impress in mostly black.
by Sal Serio
Often, I have unease and doubts when a metal show is brought to Madison, as far as whether there truly is an audience that will turn out to show their support. Especially if it’s a progressive and mega-heavy band, as opposed to the more generic pop-metal heard on the radio. The Periphery concert at the Majestic provided some welcome relief to this trend, in both the music’s challenging aesthetic, and the solid turnout there to appreciate it.
by Bruce Alexander
Matthew Sweet has been playing these annual gigs at The City Winery for some time, now. For this round, he performed a selection of favorites from his past albums. He started his set with “Time Capsule”, a tune from his Altered Beast album. “Birddog,” a recent tune from his “Sunshine Lies” release followed.
Not only is Sweet an excellent songwriter and singer, he also knows how to wail on that guitar of his. Sweet’s band is a tight group of players that consists of Ric Menck banging out wild percussion on drums, Dennis Taylor providing rock solid guitar riffs and Paul Chastain playing amazing bass lines.
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