(Review by Lance)
Put simply, this was possibly the most entertaining
evening of my life so far! 21, 999 other folk probably agreed with me. Yes, you
read me correctly, 22,000 paid big bucks over two nights to see, arguably, the
greatest living entertainer on the planet.
From the
opening Brand New Day to the final
goodbye – You Were Always on my Mind – the unbroken two hour show simply flew by. He had us
in the palm of his hand with no two numbers the same. We shouted, we screamed,
we sang along, we stood up and danced.
My notes are
just a scrambled mess – at a time like this, who keeps score? When I Fall in Love, When Your
Smiling, Where or When, Buena Sera/Just a Gigolo (à la Louis Prima); Teenage Wedding (à la
Chuck Berry), a White Christmas that
was more early Elvis than Bing, Such a Night that
harked back to Johnny Ray and a host more including some originals and in
between it all the patter.
The patter was good and,
no doubt repeated with regional variations in the other towns and cities of the
tour. A black and white scarf appeared at the ringside – lots of cheers. “I’m a
football fan”, he said, then added “I support Sunderland” – lots of boos (now I
realised why they frisked you before you went in) but it was good natured boing,
he’d been well primed. With other artists it could have been cringe-making but
with MB it came across quite naturally and nobody cringed.
Of course this couldn’t
have happened without the 32-piece orchestra. Think Nelson Riddle and you’ve
got it. Jumaane Smith had a feature on You’re
Nobody Till Somebody Loves You singing it down the catwalk into the
audience, following in the steps of “The Master”, before running it down with
some stratospheric trumpet playing. The band played Where or When featuring pianist Chang before Bublé went into Sinatra
mode to take it out. Tenor and trombone also had their moments. Good to see
Vayenas who has appeared on many CDs that have been reviewed on BSH.
The 15 girls in the string
section, when not sawing away, were on their feet dancing like the rest of us (see photo) –
this was New Year’s Eve come early.
Yes it was indeed, such a
night – yes it really was!
Lance
Michael Bublé
(vocal) w. Alan Chang (MD/piano); Justin Ray, Jumaane Smith (also vocal), Jean
Gaze + 1 (trumpets); Joshua Brown, Nick Vayenas + 2 (trombones); Tim Green + 1
(alto saxes); Jake Saslow +1 (tenor saxes); Jacob Rodriguez (baritone sax);
Marcel Camargo (guitar); Erik Kertes (bass); Marion Felder III (drums); Blake
Strauss (guitar/keys/percussion); Loren Battley, Loren Smith, Jarrett Johnson
(backing vocals).
13 comments :
Told you he was worth it Lance.
It was a truly magical night. A great entertainer with a fabulous orchestra.
I was at the Globe - couldn't get parked...!! Know where I would have rather been - you lucky people!!
Jen
Told you so!! when I saw him at the 02 a few years ago, he had exactly the same effect on me, he was so natural, easy going & likeable. I shall never forget that night, and I know last night will be the same for you Lance.
One of my sons has a friend who he only brings out at Christmas and always compares him to Buble. I have lots of xmas albums so have no need of him, even at christmas. Sometimes you think there's nowhere in the world you'd rather be: Malta was one such moment, as was Steve Hackett. Buble - no, sorry.
Steve Hackett doesn't hack it for me but - to each his own.
Hackett doesn't hack it for me either, which is why I missed most of the first set. It's true a generation of punk-rockers were brought up to think prog-rock was a joke. As Monkhouse might say, they're not larfing now.
I used to like this Blog when it was all about jazz !
This brings us to the eternal question of what is and what isn't jazz. Personally, a big band swinging, some great soloists and a singer adding his own interpretaion of the lyrics, may not be jazz in some folks' eyes but it sure is close enough for me. As I said to the other Steve - to each his own...
People call allsorts of things jazz nowadays, but people call allsorts of things rock, soul, blues, even reggae. It's terribly right-on for people to say they don't like categories but I wouldn't be very impressed if I didn't know who Buble was and bought one of his albums because it's in a jazz section. Same would be true of Queen, Dusty, Bonamassa and UB40 respectively.
Just as the boundaries of our political parties are never clearly defined and are constantly shifting so are the what is? and what isn't definitions of jazz. Ignoring the record store classifications which sometimes seem to be sheer guesswork - John Coltrane in "Easy Listening" - for me the frightening thing is the festivals. I'm prepared to acknowledge there is room for debate re Bublé. Harry Connick Jr. Tony Bennett but when I see some of the bands headlining big name festivals - not just UK but worldwide - I'm horrified that these should be paraded under the name of jazz.
One could argue that they're providing the do-re-mi to finance the jazz side and that maybe - and it's a very tenuous maybe - in doing so their fans will hit the road to Damascus and end up in Ronnie's or Birdland or your neighbourhood jazz pub.
Why not let us live peacefully? I'd hate to see someone at a concert with a placard - Go home dirty rapper, although, if it was a jazz gig I'd wonder what he was doing there in the first place!
Chrissie Hinds and Iggy Pop at London absolutely horrified me. They've made their millions and now want to be taken seriously. P!$$ off back to Glastonbury.
Who wasn't at Buble, which was kind of the point, but was at Steve Hackett, while others weren't.
HMV in Manchester used to put the Clash in the reggae section, presumably because they did a version of Police and Thieves by Junior Murvin, and despite its producer Lee Perry telling Strummer they'd ruined his record, which was kind of the point of punk-rock.
I used to move them to the kids section or the comedy section, though it wasn't very funny.
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