Jon Pareles is Reviewing Everyone I've Seen Recently: Stephen Marley

I just saw Stephen Marley (feat. Damian too) at Jazzfest, so in reading Jon Pareles' review of their recent NYC show in today's NYTimes, I was really surprised to read that Stephen did so many of his father's songs at the Nokia theater show too. (he did the same thing at the N.O. fairgrounds, but I thought that was b/c the audience there would be more likely to come see him based on his last name than his whole name...) I agree that, as much as I love the elder Marley, he really doesn't need to play as much from Legend as he does. His own sound (esp. combined with his songs from his brother's stuff) can more than make for a great show on its own.

BTW, Damian has the longest dreads I've ever seen in my life. They're like down to his knees. Crazy cool.

And at jazzfest, they had an adorable little kid dancing around with a flag onstage (maybe one of Stephen's sons?), and I also loved that the band included some elder Rastafarians. I'm a sucker for seeing multiple generations on stage. That's actually very common to see in New Orleans in general... I wish it were more common more broady.

Highlight of JazzFest: Corinne Bailey Rae

We saw a lot of great shows, and, to be honest, I thought the songwriting on her album as a whole was inconsistent & could get boring... but, live in person, Corinne Bailey Rae was *incredible*. She plays her voice like a master instrumentalist -- she's got this seemingly intuitive, amazing control and timing. She also has a lot more power than you would guess from hearing her radio hits. In the studio recordings, her voice can sound maybe a little too precious. Live, it is more raw and complex. She plays around with her vocal timbre -- sounding sweet for moments, yes, but many notes are complemented by this raspy finish that lingers in its reluctant release of your chest. In a good way.

And the other cool thing about her as a performer is that her whole being smiles throughout her show. Not only her mouth, but her eyes twinkle, her skin glows... and it's actually not weird. You know those people that never stop smiling, even when what they're saying isn't worthy of this big grin - those awkward smiley people? That is not what I'm talking about. The way she smiles -- you get the sense that it's completely authentic - that it's the result of just completely surrendering to the inherent beauty in all *real* human emotion & experiences-- even the complicated and not-all-sunny ones.

You don't have to have the range of Mariah to be worthy of divahood.

If you ever have a chance, please see this woman live.

Here's a preview - not from our show at Tipitina's, but from an earlier show at Webster Hall:

She Still Has Slightly Purple Hair

So Rich and I were wandering aimlessly around the French Quarter late this afternoon when we heard a trio of Brits talking/walking behind us. A girl and two guys. They were butchering the pronunciations of the streets, and the girl was lamenting her bad sense of direction. Rich was endearingly smirking at their accents. I took pity on them, being known for both a bad sense of direction myself as well as a compulsive tendency to try to help any people I can. I turned around and said "Decatur Street is that way" to the girl behind me. She laughed, put her hand on my shoulder warmly and said in her smoky voice, "oh thank you so much! ha - I wasn't even saying it right. Cheers, thanks again, cheers!" I turned back around and as we walked away, it hit me why she looked so familiar: it was Joss Stone! She was -- somewhat surprisingly to me -- really down-to-earth and lovely. And also, like just about every celebrity I've ever met/seen, incredibly normal in real life. I mean, yes, there's the slightly purple dark hair (i think the dirty blonde looks better on her) and multiple? nose rings, and she was wearing pants with huge hearts all over them ... but she had acne "just like US", and her hair was frizzing along with mine in the NO humidity, etc. etc. Hahaha - we should have told her that one of her songs was featured on our wedding save-the-date CD...

I kind of felt badly that I was criticizing her songwriting on this blog just days ago... I do love her voice though.

In a more "local" sighting, we walked by guitarist Ian Neville (Art Neville's son; Aaron Neville's nephew) who was standing outside of Port Of Call - he still looks about five years younger than he is (I think he's like 25 now?) Hopefully he'll pop on stage at some point tonight at the Howlin' Wolf.

Countdown to Our Trip to New Orleans JazzFest

This weekend I'm in Ann Arbor, celebrating my sister's ascendance to "master" status. Go Bec! We're having lots of fun, but in terms of music, all I've really heard while out thus far has been Fergalicious from a jukebox (groan) and the like. It's okay... this weekend is all about my awesome sis, and next weekend is all about MUSIC. Let the countdown begin to our trip to the second weekend of JazzFest!

JazzFest is perhaps my most favorite event in the world, in one of my most favorite places. And we didn't make it last year, so I'm getting even more giddy than usual just thinking about it. All kinds of amazing music of all different genres, almost 24 hours a day, all over the city (way beyond just the fairgrounds)... I CAN'T WAIT.

I just started studying the grids for the fairgrounds schedules and the nightclubs. The goal is always to try to see as many artists/bands as possible in every 24 hour period there, while still leaving time for just enough sleep & food to keep Rich from committing me to an institution for OCD (I am prone to get a little scary compulsive with our daily music itineraries during JazzFest -- I prefer to call it ambitious...) .
It helps that the food is so good, of course... I was just reading Adam Duritz's JazzFest food favs and it's true... how can I mind taking set breaks when it's for Central Grocery's muffalettas? Brunch at Mother's? Crawfish Monica at the fairgrounds? For the record, I also completely agree with him that it's all about the iced teas and strawberry lemonade during the day -- save the Abitas for the night or else you might not see night!!!!

All right, time to watch Bubba drop wisdom to the UMich grads and remind me what a president is supposed to sound like on a podium.

Soulive - playing NYC tonight & new album

I first heard Soulive a few years ago at one of those scheduled-for-2 am JazzFest shows that Rich & I have now decided we're to old & lame to handle (thank you Scott for dragging us there late night that year!). This band can JAM and through a bunch of different genres, too: funk, soul, jazz, latin, hip-hop, R&B, a little pop and rock at times. Basically, if some groove can be found in it, they're down. Instrumentally, they are one of the most consistently tight bands I've ever seen. Eric Krasno & both the Evans brothers are just solid. If your head isn't nodding at one of their shows, you might not be human (or hearing). I especially love the drummer, Alan (shown in the pic). There might be some kind of correlation between how big your hair is and the quality of your stick skills, since my other fav drummer also sports an awesome 'fro. Hmm... maybe there's a new research study for me. Ha. Does anyone know if Erykah Badu can drum? Actually, maybe I just really like huge 'fros. My favorite Soulive guest vocalist, Reggie Watts is yet another with larger-than-life hair.

Which brings me to some potentially disappointing Soulive news, actually. This new album (7/31/07 release date), No Place Like Soul, features the vocalist Toussaint who has apparently become a full-time member of the band... and while Toussaint is fine(I like his reggae band!)... from the few new tracks I have heard thus far, I think his influence makes the band's sound just a tinge too sunny (that reggae influence maybe). I like Soulive better with slightly more hard-edged soul & NYC swagger (Reggie!!). But have a listen and you decide... hopefully when the whole album comes out, I'll decide I was wrong.

Of the Myspace new tracks, I like "Outrage" (pure instrumental) & "Comfort" the best (they're the groovier ones naturally).

Sample of "She's Hooked" - Soulive ft. Reggie Watts [c/o Amazon.com]

Soulive's Myspace page, to check out 4 of the new tracks