THE BEAT
Top 10 Concerts of 1996
by Seth Rogovoy(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Dec. 26, 1996) -- Last week we looked at the year's best recordings. This week we celebrate the best live performances of the past year, in and around in the Berkshires.
1. Ani DiFranco, Night Shift (April), Newport (R.I.) Folk Festival (August): While she may come across as strident to some listeners on her albums -- although this is less the case with her more recent recordings, which take more and better advantage of the digital medium -- in concert DiFranco's hard-edged, social and political screeds are tempered and opened up by her generously effusive personality, full of warmth, humor and mischief. But more than that, DiFranco has found a way to invest acoustic folk songs with the sonic and generic impact of sledgehammer funk-rock, along the way suggesting the first genuinely new path rock has seen in ages.
2. Bob Dylan, Springfield Civic Center (April): Dylan has been such an erratic performer in recent years -- in recent decades, rather -- that it was easy to forget that at his best, he is a riveting and dynamic entertainer, as he was on this rare night last spring.
3. Betty Carter, Tanglewood (August): The art of jazz vocals reaches its pinnacle in the hands of Carter, who more than perhaps any other jazz singer ever is truly a musician who uses her voice as an instrument in both solo and ensemble arrangements. She is also, more than perhaps anyone else, a magnificent performer to watch.
4. The Nields, Iron Horse (February), Falcon Ridge (July), Eighth Step, Albany (December): The Nields have come up with a visual presence that compliments and illuminates their densely literate and emotional songs. Forget rock opera. This is rock ballet at its best.
5. Willie Nelson, Night Shift (September): The 60-something legend played a concert of legendary endurance, a nearly three-hour-long celebration of the American pop song tradition that encompassed country, blues, jazz, folk, rock, pop and even reggae, with an improvisational approach that even the Grateful Dead might envy.
6. David Krakauer, St. James Church, Great Barrington (August): In his work as a leader and with the Klezmatics, Krakauer has been at the forefront of the new-klezmer revival, fusing downtown, jazz and other influences with this traditional Jewish music to create a compelling and surprisingly contemporary fusion.
7. Jim Infantino/Jim's Big Ego, North Adams State (February), Milltown Studios (October): Infantino's dramatic narratives come alive in person, when his spontaneous wit mixes with his Robert DeNiro-like, maniacal presence. His trio, featuring John Kiehne on Chapman stick and Hillary Koogler on drums, is a deft, versatile ensemble that creates sonic pictures to suit Infantino's skewed, neo-Beat fantasies.
8. Joe Lovano, Tanglewood (September): Neo-hard bop saxophonist Lovano played with a vitality and level of athleticism and risk- taking rarely encountered at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival. Beautiful.
9. Cormac McCarthy, Berkshire Community College, (February): One of Birch Tree's more successful efforts was McCarthy, who has mastered the trick of unwrapping an evening's worth of songs as if it were Christmas morning -- each one a gift.
10. Ray Davies, Berkshire Theatre Festival (September): While perhaps technically it was more a theatrical event than a concert, Davies one-man show, "The Storyteller," offered an intimate, revealing and ultimately generous look into the making and breaking of a rock 'n' roll survivor.
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Time is running out! E-mail us your picks for the top concerts and albums of the year for inclusion in an upcoming edition of The Beat.
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Dec. 26, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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