This edition of ON the Beat was originally emailed to subscribers on May 23, 2024. To receive Josef Woodard’s music newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.
Calendars are critical tools for the avid and hopeless fans of live music. But sometimes, the magnetic pull of music shows up when and where you least expect it.
So you’re walking down State Street on a late Thursday afternoon when you notice some special hubbub in the Red Piano, and not just the club’s usual post-piano lounge pop song parade. It turns out that the venue has been commandeered for a special Waldorf School fundraiser and the headlining act is the inimitable and tall Zach Gill. Gill is well-known as long time friend and right hand keyboardist foil in Jack Johnson’s famed, globetrotting band, along with leading his jam-banding aggregate ALO.
But Gill also cooks up a special homebrew in solo mode, a mixologist whose menu ranges from perky cover tunes to originals which can be quirky and/or poignant. On this special afternoon-into-evening set, Gill opened not by playing the joint’s titular red piano, but standing on top of it with his accordion in tow. (Do not try this at home.) Punchy, squeeze boxed versions of “Jump,” “Sweet Child of Mine,” and “Careless Whisper” warmed up the crowd and led into the piano-based portion of his show. Touching odes to his grandmother and college-bound daughter segued into drum-machine danceteria-style tunes, sometimes with favored Red Piano mainstay Jason Libs joining in.
Alas, Gill was not the only bright light on the bill, a fact attesting to the diverse talents of parents invested in school fundraisers. I arrived too late to catch the formidable jazz pianist Benny (a k a Benjamin) Lackner — the Berlin-based but mostly Santa Barbara–bred artist who has been on an extended stay in his old hometown just after recording his second album for the prestigious ECM label. Chalk one up for civic pride well-earned: the only other ECM artist in these parts is Charles Lloyd. At the Red Piano, Lackner reportedly graced the digital ivories and backed up another talented parent, singer Nalini Gill, whose husband Johnny Gill also resounded in song.
Speaking of talented parents on the world stage level, the event closed with a brief but powerful performance by world-renowned soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, who has settled in town and now heads up the UCSB Opera Department. Bayrakdarian served up a delicious small plate of gorgeously and lustily rendered tangos, including one from her Armenian heritage.
Let’s hear it for the all too rare treat of hearing serious music in a nightclub setting, and also for bumping into good music by surprise.
Regaining her Timing Again, Late in her Career
Judy Collins is such a living legend on her own terms that we may forget her legacy as a legendary kindling force for other artists we now deem iconic. The heartfelt and clean-toned soprano started her recording career in the early ‘60s and ushered into the public such promising upstarts as Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen. Though an interesting songwriter, on occasion, Collins belongs to the older pop tradition of interpreting the tunes of others. That special skill also served her well when she created her consummate version of Stephen Sondheim’s great “Send in the Clowns.” Her stylistic range, from folk and pop to classical and musical theater, extended from a rich high/low musical upbringing in Denver.
All of the above factoids could be gleaned from Wikipedia, but we got a much more up-close-and-personal, this-is-my-life report when Collins paid a return visit to the Lobero Theatre last week. Her’s was less a standard brand concert than a long and witty saga about her now 85-year journey, sprinkled with snippets of story-illuminating songs along the way. And yes, she is out promoting a new album, Spellbound, No. 55 in her discography-to-date.
For her official set list, Collins mostly played a 12-string guitar, backed by nimble pianist Russell Walden, and a few later tunes with her on piano. She surveyed such classics as Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Masters of War,” Cohen’s “Suzanne” and a Denver omelet medley of “Country Roads” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” Collins’ instantly recognizable voice was mostly strong and confident, and didn’t seem to need the excessive reverb she is prone to slather her voice with.
She wisely framed the set with signature hits. Joni’s “Both Sides Now,” popularized by Collins, was played with a rhythmically-loose amble, while the closer “Send in the Clowns” contained an ironic new focus on the line “isn’t it queer/Losing my timing this late in my career.” Her timing is always right on time, and she remains plumbed deeply in histories going back 65 years or so.
TO-DOINGS:
Rumors of the demise of the sturdy Santa Barbara Acoustic series of unplugged guitar wizards are greatly exaggerated. Intrepid series founder Kevin Gillies had a fond farewell to Santa Barbara and the series when he moved eastward. But he’s back. Ditto the series, bringing impressive acoustic guitarists from around the world, in the instrumental steel string guitar subculture, to town.
Currently, the venue has shifted from SOhO to the intimate beachfront Casa Las Palmas, and next up is Django-phile Joscho Stephan Gypsy Jazz Trio (maybe they should change the name to the Roma Jazz Trio, for political correctness’ sake).
Now that its season is up and running in multiple genre and demographic directions, the Santa Barbara Bowl beckons in different ways to different music fans. This week’s roster leans back to artists who made their mark in the ‘90s and ‘00s, with pop-folk individualist Natalie Merchant (May 23) and those lovable hook-wranglers and alt-stompers Queens of the Stone Age (Friday, May 24).
On Wednesday, May 29, the Lobero Theatre goes to high school, so to speak, when the stage is given over to the award-winning San Marcos High School Jazz Ensemble, fresh off winning the Chicago Heritage Festival trophy in April. And that win followed their winning the Dos Pueblos High School Jazz Festival earlier in the year. In short: this band, directed by Michael Kiyoi, is prime time and worth hearing in the hallowed hall of the Lobero. (Trivia note: I played guitar in the SMHS jazz ensemble a few, um, years/decades ago, although my jazz chops were not award-worthy).