James Taylor, Sally Nyolo, Montreal Jazz Festival, Radio Beat
(WILLIAMSTOWN, July 1, 1999) -- Let's face it. James Taylor owns this coming weekend. The irrepressible, genre-defying singer-songwriter will undoubtedly break all previous records for attendance as he performs back-to-back concerts at Tanglewood in Lenox on Saturday and Sunday nights at 7. Seats in the shed for both concerts have been sold out for weeks - isn't it amazing a man like him can sell that way? - and lawn tickets were looking pretty scarce as of this column's deadline earlier this week. Seiji Ozawa can jump up and down and resign all he wants, but he won't steal an ounce of fire and rain from Sweet Baby James, who has shown time and again that he owns Tanglewood. Whenever you see his smiling face you have to smile yourself, because you love him. Remember, plan to arrive plenty early, or else you'll be damning that traffic jam, backed up on the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston - and how you hate to be late! The Independence Day Weekend festivities (that's what they call them) actually begin on Friday night at 8:30, when Boston Pops heartthrob Keith Lockhart conducts the Pops Esplanade Orchestra in a program of "American patriotic favorites," big-band hits and swing tunes, as well as the obligatory "1812" Overture by that great American patriotic composer, Tchaikovsky. (637-5165, www.bso.org) Surveying the scene The Castle Street Café in Great Barrington offers a full menu of live jazz nearly every night of the week this summer in its Celestial Bar. Pianist Charlie Hoyt owns Thursday nights throughout the season, with a revolving cast of players changing nightly. Tomorrow night guitarist Jay Messer leads his trio, and Saturday night Ann Correa and Company hold forth. The venerable and ubiquitous Mike Schiffer tickles the ivories on Sunday, followed by John Sauer playing the black-and-whites on Monday night. George Carroll and Steve Murray will hold forth on Wednesday night. Music starts each night at 8, and there is no cover charge, which is in part what makes it celestial. (528-5244) Character oozes from the very walls of the Old Egremont Club in South Egremont, one of the county's oldest and most revered nightspots - a real, old-fashioned roadhouse. Proprietor Rick Tiven is himself one of the best musicians you'll find in these parts, and he runs an old-fashioned hootenanny every Thursday night. He also picks the cream of the crop of local and regional bands to entertain patrons, and this weekend's lineup is typical of Tiven's taste. Longtime favorites Bev Rohlehr and the Colbys perform on Friday night, followed by guitarist Steve Ide's Rhythm Method on Saturday night. And Tip Top Deluxe, a group of young, hot blues players from area high schools, will be featured next Wednesday night. (528-9712) Further afield, Cameroonian native Sally Nyolo, a former member of world-pop vocal group Zap Mama, brings her new ensemble, Afroblue, to the Iron Horse in Northampton tonight at 7. Nyolo's most recent album, the aptly-titled "Multiculti" (Tinder), is a tapestry of world-beat styles, with haunting African vocals sailing over circular rhythms and native percussion brushed with the sounds of contemporary pop music. Her approach is so cosmopolitan she even has a song called "Reggae in Japan." Also coming to the Iron Horse is Gillian Welch, whose dark, death-haunted roots-folk album, "Hell Among the Yearlings" (Almo), was one of the best of last year. Catch her Tuesday at the Horse with her partner David Rawlings (413 586-8686). If you missed Bonnie Raitt earlier this week in Northampton, you can catch her tonight at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, Conn. Pop-soul diva Whitney Houston is at the Saratoga (N.Y.) Performing Arts Center on Friday night, and Dean Friedman, of "Ariel" fame, is at Caffé Lena in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Saturday night. And if you're in the mood for a road trip, you might want to head north for the 20th anniversary edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, which begins today and runs through July 11. Over 2,000 musicians from over 20 countries will perform in this year's festival in 400 concerts - 300 of them free - including appearances by Dave Brubeck, McCoy Tyner, Joe Lovano, Toots Thielemans, Branford Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Olu Dara, Diana Krall, Caetano Veloso and John McLaughlin. In addition to jazz proper, the festival includes Cajun, zydeco, salsa, Brazilian, Corsican, Egyptian, blues, and other world-beat styles. Jazz's avant-garde will also be represented by the likes of Bill Frisell, Tom Harrell, Archie Shepp, Charlie Hunter and Leon Parker, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. (www.montrealjazzfest.com , 1-888-515-0515) Radio Beat Every so often, we run a playlist of the CDs, new or old, that are garnering the most airplay on our imaginary radio station. Think of it as an instant snapshot of The Beat's favorite music of the moment.
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 1, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy rogovoy@berkshire.net music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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