Re-building the archive

We’re in the process of re-publishing reviews that originated on this site before 2008, when it went into a kind of hibernation while we concentrated our efforts on BerkshireLinks.com, where current information about the cultural Berkshires can be found.

Visiting the Berkshires?

You can find out what’s available in the Berkshires, from performing arts to outdoors recreation, on our handy one page Berkshires travel planner.

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A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood, with Garrison Keillor, July 3, 2004

July 3, 2004 performance, reviewed by by Dave Conlin Read.

A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, a delight to radio audiences since the first live broadcast July 6, 1974, has been a favorite on the Berkshire summer calendar since being added to the pre-opening week schedule at Tanglewood in 2000. The fifth local show, July 3, 2004, was an especially memorable one because it included an encore.

The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, for this show joined by Sam Bush (mandolin, fiddle) and Howard Levy (harmonica), was doing such a great job entertaining the departing audience of 10,570 that many simply stayed put. The prolonged ovation that followed their impromptu jam session brought Garrison Keillor back onstage, where he remarked on the rarity of encores in the world of radio and also mentioned that he would be having dinner in a few days with people who were with him on that first broadcast 30 years ago.

Then he took hold of the mic and led the audience in singing a beautiful Bahamian folk song, “I Bid You Goodnight,” which, rather than closing the session, only gave rise to another sing-along, “Amazing Grace.” The loquacious and oh-so-seasoned pro Keillor was so moved by his audience that he stood mute for the final chorus before offering an inaudible “thank you” and finally walking slowly off stage.

Highlights of the show included:

  • Inga Swearingen – It was the Californian’s 3rd appearance on APHC since May, and she simply stole the show with her beautiful, charming presence, radiant smile, and improbably varied vocal gifts that allow her to juxtapose husky textures with silky lightness;
  • humorist Calvin Trillin, whose “deadline poems,” rhythmic polemics on the Bush administration, were so apt they inspired us to take a subscription to The Nation, where they are published (and archived);
  • and, of course, the “News From Lake Wobegon,” wherein Keillor set off in praise of fresh strawberries and rhubarb and wandered into a meditation on the vagaries of true love and the stories that our mothers may or may not have to tell us!

Keillor also showed himself to be as fierce a patriot as he is a partisan and closed a riff on the primacy of individuals over groups with the image of Ray Charles and Ronald Reagan rafting the Mississippi in place of Jim and Huck Finn. Continuing the practice of including a Tanglewood-afilliated guest, we were introduced to the Existential Bass Quartet, comprising 30 year TMC faculty member Larry Wolfe and TMC students, who did a fun rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

GASB guitarist Pat Donaghue played a beautiful re-worked version of Mississippi John Hurt’s “Louis Collins” in honor of Hurt’s 111th birthday, and also led the band in a beautiful composition of his own, the “Tanglewood Waltz.”

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Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at Tanglewood, June 27, 2003

June 27, 2003 performance, reviewed by Dave Conlin Read

Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis performed at Tanglewood June 27, 2003.

Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis performed at Tanglewood June 27, 2003.

The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis gave a spell-binding concert in the Shed at Tanglewood Friday night for an audience of 5,378; two sets with the whole contingent, 15 brilliant jazz players duded up in matching Brooks Brothers suits, followed by a mini-gig featuring Marsalis accompanied by the rhythm section and saxophonist Wes “Warmdaddy” Anderson. And you gotta know something about spelling to write about it because the titles of the compositions played include words such as “rhapsody,” “diminuendo,” “crescendo,” and “blues.”

This is the LCJO’s “Rhythm is our Business” tour so let’s mention the rhythm section first: Eric Lewis, piano, Carlos Henriquez, bass, Herlin Riley, drums. Second thing to say about them is that the second set was their’s, a set consisting of but one number, John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” which we didn’t time but must have run 45-50 minutes. The first segment of the piece built up to Henriquez’ haunting bass solo with the rest of the band chanting/intoning “a love supreme, a love supreme…”. Instead of being a tasty coda, that just gave way to a searing sax solo and then came “top professor” Eric Lewis’ virtuoso piano solo that not only kept the audience rapt for a long time but also seemed to stun his colleagues, who peered at him in awe and looked at each other with expressions that ranged from disbelief to joy.

All the while in the back sat Herlin Riley, keeping time, always smiling, glancing over his left shoulder at Mr. Marsalis, and then he started hitting the rim and sides of his drums and we were off to rhythm heaven – all we can report is that it’s a beautiful place. Mr. Riley’s tour de force elicited movement from everybody in the house, of course, except for professor Lewis, who looked as if he were alone in a mountain-top monastary, head bowed before an altar. The collegial leader Wynton Marsalis, who was a warm and witty m.c. throughout the concert, and spoke of his special affection for Tanglewood (but mumbled the not-that-long-ago year of his T.M.C. fellowship!), remained seated for his own lofty solo which coalesced the extraordinary rendition of Coltrane’s eloquent composition, and brought the most-appreciative audience to its feet for a prolonged and heart-felt ovation.

Lastly, the first half consisted of the Marsalis composition “Back to Basics” followed by the novelty of a 3-minute rendition of Fletcher Hendersons’s arrangement of Ravel’s Bolero, then LCJO trombonist Ron Westray’s arrangement of the Charles Mingus tone poem “The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady,” Billy Strayhorn’s arrangement of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” and closing with Duke Ellington’s “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue.”

Marsalis and the LCJO last performed here on July 25, 1999, sharing the stage with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for a program in celebration of the centennary of Duke Ellington’s birth. The featured composition that night was Edvard Grieg’ “Peer Gynt Suite” and the program alternated between Marsalis leading the LCJO in Billy Strayhorn and Ellington’s arrangement with Ozawa leading the BSO in the Grieg score of the same passages. Pretty cool.

Marsalis will return to the Shed with his septet on August 31 to close the 2003 Tanglewood Jazz Festival. Members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra:

  • Wess Anderson – sax
  • Seneca Black – trumpet,
  • Walter Blanding – tenor sax,
  • Vincent Gardner – trombone,
  • Victor Goines – sax,clarinet,
  • Andre Hayward – trombone,
  • Carlos HenrĂ­quez – bass,
  • Ryan Kisor – trumpet,
  • Eric Lewis – piano,
  • Ted Nash – sax, clarinet,
  • Marcus Printup – trumpet,
  • Herlin Riley – drums,
  • Joe Temperley – sax, clarinet,
  • Ron Westray – trombone.
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2003 A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood, with Garrison Keillor

June 28, 2003 performance, reviewed by Dave Conlin Read

For the fourth year in a row, the first Saturday of the Tanglewood season saw the Koussevitsky Music Shed become the capital of the public radio universe, as “A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keillor” closed their 2002-03 live performance season far away from their Minnesota home.

And for the 3rd time in 5 days (James Taylor-Tuesday, and Wynton Marsalis-Friday) the Tanglewood headliner had a special, personal connection with the venue, and although Keillors’ mayn’t be quite so profound as the others,’ he outdid them in his praise, laying on enough encomiums to make a lesser venue blush, calling it “the Mecca, the Vatican, maybe the Cooperstown” of classical music.

(And they even created “A Tanglewood Lollapalooza” about their previous visits to the Berkshires on their website, which is probably the best of its kind.)

This show was just about as good as it gets; a seamless 2 hours of aural entertainment, with just the right mix of humor, comedy, pathos, several examples of musical virtuosity, all knit together by the pretty good singer and great monologist Keillor, who even exposed his really-nice-guy-ness by devoting the show’s closing minutes to a lovely farewell to 3 departing staff members.

(Funny how these things work, but the little tune that’s been looping in my mind for days now is the Irving Berlin song “What’ll I Do (When You Are Faraway And I Am Blue)?” that Keillor personalized for his departing friends.)

Hsing Ay Hsu performs on A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood June 2003.

Hsing Ay Hsu performs on A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood June 2003.

The guest line-up was perfect, besides the Nilsson Quartet which augmented the “house band,” there was accordian wizzard Dan Newton, who created the “Norman Rockwell Polka” for the show (he did that by squeezing together 14 or 15 popular American melodies), the brilliant guitarist Leo Kottke, and Tanglewood Music Center fellow Hsing-Ay Hsu, a dazzling talent on the piano with oodles of star quality, too.

She even had a bit of a go -’round with the host, trying to get the audience to decide between Chopin and Debussy compositions, which Keillor nixed, saying “I choose the Chopin, this isn’t a democracy, we tried that, it didn’t work.”

And speaking of democracy, we found the show’s most profound moment to be the line from the Ketchup Advisory Board skit, “Ketchup has natural mellowing agents that help us to accept the fact that the big problem with democracy is that it depends so much on people like us.”

Keillor’s disdain for George W. Bush came through loud and clear in the “Hobo” skit, which featured “Waco George,” but the swipe he took at journalists during the re-working of “Where have all the flowers gone” with guitarist Pat Donohue was more telling (” Are they having too much fun/ Embedded down in Washington,/ When will they look around/ And see what’s going down? “)

A treat available only to the Tanglewood audience was to see the great affection with which Keillor addressed Hsing-Ay Hsu, already seated at the piano, adding an un-heard element to the introduction that told of the Tanglewood Music Center and Boston University Tanglewood Institute being the true heart and soul of the globally-popular Tanglewood experience.

We ain’t picking no nits here, but there were 2 errors of fact that jumped right out at us: Norman Rockwell didn’t paint all his masterpieces in the Berkshires (see current Stockbridge exhibit: “Norman Rockwell’s Vermont Years”) and, despite the the Shed’s nonpareil acoustics, during his July 4, 1991 Tanglewood concert, Bob Dylan was largely unintelligible.

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July 2, 2005 A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood

July 2, 2005 performance review by Dave Conlin Read

Inga Swearingen and Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion; photo Denise Mangen

Inga Swearingen and Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion; photo Denise Mangen

The sixth annual visit of A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keillor to the Koussevitsky Music Shed at Tanglewood on July 2, 2005 may be remembered by the 11,000+ in attendance as the “Palms of Victory” show because of the little “non-sectarian” hymn they were taught by Mr. Keillor, who told them they could use it as a call-sign if they should ever encounter him in the airport, but it also will be remembered particularly for Gillian Welch & David Rawlings and Inga Swearingen, who gave strikingly evocative performances that left the audience eager for more.

The humor was as good as it gets, too; the Royal Academy of Radio Acting nailed the Guy Noir episode about the Sprocket tycoon’s $200 million gift to Tanglewood being hijacked for the establishment of the Tanglewood Center for Songwriters, Inc; a wickedly funny Cafe Boeuf with Peter Schickele, and then Schickele’s P.D.Q. Bach duet with David Dusing on the loopy “If Love is Real.”

With the virtual town of Lake Wobegon and it’s fabulous citizenry at its heart, Mr. Keillor’s show is all about community and when the show is on the road, an effort is made to embrace the actual locale, and not only with the funny business. To make that point most emphatically, this show, recognizing that “this is Mohican land,” included a song composed by a Wisconsin-Stockbridge Mohican, Brent Michael Davids.

It was sung by Ms. Swearingen and Prudence Johnson, accompanied by the crackerjack Guys All Star Shoe Band, and the Edith Wharton String Quartet, culled from the Tanglewood Music Center just for this show. The latter group acquitted themselves splendidly and no doubt will have fond tales to tell of this day decades down the road when they are wiley veterans of orchestras in places such as Cleveland, Chicago, and Boston.

This was no Tanglewood debut for Mr. Davids; his “Mohican Soup” was sung by Chanticleer to open Tanglewood’s 1999 Festival of Contemporary Music in Seiji Ozawa Hall. In his remarks to the audience that day, he attributed the creative energy in the Berkshires to a foundation established by the Mohicans during their 6,000 year stewardship of the region.

We contacted Mr. Davids at his studio in St. Paul to learn more about him and his song. Several weeks ago he met Mr. Keillor at a local literary gathering and once their conversation got around to their mutual Tanglewood connections, Keillor said “We’re doing a show there next month, will you write something for it?”

So he wrote Stockbridge Mohican Song and sent Keillor the music, lyrics, and demo mp3 file and, as of yesterday (July 5), hasn’t heard from him again. He did listen to the broadcast and liked what he heard, though. In response to our surprise that the whole operation was accomplished so quickly, Mr. Davids said simply, “That’s what I do, I’m a composer.”

Stockbridge Mohican Song

We are coming together (k’MUH yuh WE h’now)
We say Thanks (o NEE oh we KSEE now)

We see the old ones (NAH wuh hah kah CHIGH sock)
We say Thanks (o NEE oh we KSEE now)

Today is a beautiful day (o NAHH kuh MAOW NO no)
We say Thanks (o NEE oh we KSEE now)

Mohican Land (muh HEE kun NEEw AHH kee)
We say Thanks (o NEE oh we KSEE now)

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2005 Tanglewood on Parade review

July 26, 2005 performance, reviewed by Dave Conlin Read

The 2005 Tanglewood on Parade may be remebered as the Five Conductors show for the parade of maestros to the podium in the Serge Kousevitsky Music Shed during the gala concert that culminated the all-day musical celebration for the benefit of the Tanglewood Music Center, now 65 years old. By nightfall, an audience of 12,345 had massed at the Shed after an afternoon of recitals, concerts, and demonstrations throughout the campus by students of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center.

First to the podium was Music Director James Levine to lead the B.S.O. in Berlioz’ Roman Carnival Overture. Wearing a tuxedo on a very hot day, the ruddy-faced maestro wrung a rousing performance from his casually clad players. So swept up was he in the final measure that it looked like he was twirling a lariat, about to rope a brace of basses. Smart programming that, forcing the audiences attention back to the delights of music and away from the joy of the fancy picnic.

Up next was Boston Pops principal guest conductor Bruce Hangen to lead the Pops in the Symphonic Dances from T.M.C. alumnus Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. This was a bravura performance that showcased both the brilliance of the orchestra and the genius of the composer. There were moments when you could’ve mistook Hangen and the Pops for Benny Goodman and his Big Band, so swell did they swing!

Then Pops conductor emeritus John Williams took over, and delighted the audience that had so warmly welcomed him by conducting the Pops in two passages from his own Star Wars score. Maestro Levine came back onstage after intermission, straddling a chair backwards like a kibitzer at a card table, to invoke the spirit of Serge Koussevitsky, express his feelings about being at Tangelwood, and to introduce his predecessor, “colleague and friend” Seiji Ozawa.

The beaming Ozawa sprinted to center stage, hugged Levine, glanced at the adoring audience, clasped hands with four or five T.M.C. players and got right to work leading the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in a thrilling performance of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3.

They simply blew the roof off the joint, these young musicians who didn’t know each other until last month and who weren’t even born until Seiji Ozawa was into the second decade of his Tanglewood tenure. The nimble Ozawa, whose contract with the Vienna State Opera was recently extended through the 2009-10 season, was lithe as ever on the podium – a whole body conducting manner that’s both commanding and eloquent.

Frequent Tanglewood guest conductor Hans Graf was the right choice to lead the combined orchestras in the grand finale, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Wearing a white tunic and projecting a stately demeanor, he conducted a fine aural war, satisfying our appetites for the lush and romantic as well as the savage and martial.

(There were 4 conductors on the Tanglewood on Parade program in 2001, Seiji Ozawa’s last as B.S.O. Music Director, including Andre Previn. A new composition by Chris Brubeck was given its Tanglewood debut, and Ozawa was given an authentic Civil War cannon.)

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Sir Roger Norrington leads BSO in Beethoven’s Ninth at Tanglewood

August 25, 2002 performance, reviewed by Dave Conlin Read

Under the exuberant direction of Sir Roger Norrington, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and a quartet of vocal soloists closed the orchestra’s 2002 Tanglewood season with a truly joyful performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus 125.

This most familiar composition, so often used to commemorate solemn occasions around the world, today was given a mirthful reading appropriate to the true nature of the event – the culminating high point of an annual festival. It has been the Tanglewood finale each August since 1997, but made amazingly new by Norrington, including a re-ordering of the orchestra’s seating arrangement.

The setting outside was as splendid and brilliant as the sound coming from inside the Koussevitsky Shed, the opening of which in 1938 was memorialized with this same symphony. Over the bluegreen hills surrounding the Tanglewood campus, cumulous clouds slowly drifted along, moved by a generous breeze that was a boon to frisbee flingers but a bother to paper plate picnickers among the nearly 13,000 attendees.

Adding to the enjoyment of the performance was the fact that Norrington’s rendition clocked a mere 66 minutes, including an extra minute or two between the first and second movements to allow for the seating of scores of tardy people, way less than the usual 74 minutes, a standard that was used to set the maximum capacity of the compact disc when it was introduced twenty years ago.
(Phillips and Sony each name Beethoven’s Ninth as the ideal)

During that betwen-movements interval, the conductor gave an early indication that he had a special treat in store for us, when turning to face the audience, he leaned playfully for a moment against the podium with an expression of mock exasperation, looking more like a patient parent than an interrupted artist. There were more glances into the audience during the performance, even while his baton waved at the orchestra, and then a big wink just before a loud honking of the contrabassoon. A moment later, bass baritone Nathan Berg intoned Beethoven’s introduction to Schiller’s ode:

O friends, not these tones;
Rather, let us tune our voices
In more pleasant and more joyful song.

What followed was 17 minutes of the most exhilirating and powerful melding of voice and orchestra imaginable. Each of the soloist sang beautifully, (Christine Brewer, Jill Grove, Stanfod Olson, and Berg), but the most beautiful sound was that made by the 120 voices of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.

Beethoven’s Ninth is a great sonic gift, bequeathed to mankind by a deaf man, the creation of which represents his refusal to yield to gloom. Instead of despairing, he returned to a passion from his youth, Schiller’s ecstatic folk song, and in defiance of the conventions of his art, made this new thing, a symphony wherein the voice is the crucial instrument, extolling sentiments that translate well to all people of good will. Hearty thanks to Maestro Norrington and all the musicians under his direction today, and all the others throughout the memorable Tanglewood 2002 season.

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Modern Jazz Quartet tribute and Blues celebration

August 31, 2003 performances reviewed by Dave Conlin Read

Donal Fox performing at 2003 Tanglewood Jazz FestivalThe Sunday portion of the 2003 Tanglewood Jazz Festival had enough variety, both in quality and quantity, to make up a nice little festival by itself. It began at 1 p.m. in the Tanglewood Theatre, the very funky, rusty venue where the B.S.O. stages opera, with a program dubbed, “Remembering the Modern Jazz Quartet: Donal Fox, Inventions in Blue”. The Modern Jazz Quartet was formed in 1952, just a few hundred yards down the road from Tanglewood at the Music Inn, whose beloved co-founder, Stephanie Barber, passed away five days ago. Donal Fox will present the “Piazzolla to Bach Project” at the 2010 Tanglewood Jazz Festival.

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The Modern Jazz Quartet was originally formed as the Milt Jackson Quartet and consisted of Jackson on vibraphone, John Lewis on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums. Lewis would emerge as the leader of the MJQ and also become the dean of the Lenox School of Jazz, the first academy for jazz studies, which operated only from 1957 – 60, but whose pioneering work is carried on now on campuses all around the world.

Pianist and composer Fox was accompanied by Stefon Harris on vibes, Yoron Israel on drums, and John Lockwood on bass for an elegant, energized, and engaging 90 minutes comprised of the works of just three men; himself, John Lewis, and, as Fox called him, “the original blues man, J. S. Bach.”

Now the programmer doffed his mortarboard in favor of a porkpie hat, as next on the schedule was an afternoon of “Celebrating the Year of the Blues!” in Ozawa Hall.

Jay McShann and Lousiana Red at 2003 Tanglewood Jazz FestivalLeading off the five-act marathon was Lousiana Red, the 67 year old true blues original from Alabama who has lived in Germany since 1981, and been touring in the U.S. since his first “comeback tour” in 1997. Winner of the 1983 W. C. Handy Award as Traditional Male Artist of the Year, his CD “A Different Shade of Red – The Woodstock Sessions” was recorded last year at the Woodstock studio of drummer Levon Helm and features both Helm, on drums and harp, and his Band-mate Garth Hudson, on organ and sax.

He kicked off his brief but rollicking set with “Red’s Dream,” wherein he’s beckoned by President Kennedy to help out during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Red’s response is, “Mr. Kennedy, you run the country, I’ll run the Senate,” and proceeds with the list of great blusemen he would replace the rascals with!

Next up was rising R&B singer Nicole Nelson with her band, winners of the 17th annual Battle of the Boston Blues Bands in 2001 by the widest margin ever. Her infectious set delighted the audience; she’s got the whole package and seems destined for a long successful career.

Jay McShann and Duke Robillard performing at 2003 Tanglewood Jazz FestivalFollowing her were a pair whose careers add up to more than a century: Duke Robillard, who’s been on top since launching Roomful of Blues in 1967, and Jay McShann (January 12, 1916 – December 7, 2006), who turned pro in 1931 and whose Kansas City-based orchestra in 1941 introduced Charlie Parker to the world.

It didn’t take long for the audience to see why Robillard has gotten 3 of the last 4 W. C. Handy Guitarist of the Year Awards; he’s master of all the tools in the axeman’s bag, sings good, and has put together a hellacious band, to boot. After about twenty minutes, Robillard was joined on stage by the legendary McShann, who played and sang the blues with an ardor and skill unbelievable for an 87 year old man.

Regrettably, we had to leave before Kendrick Oliver and the New Life Jazz Orchestra came on around 6, in order to take care of some errands before returning for the Festival’s finale at 8.

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2010 Tanglewood Jazz Festival

At BerkshireLinks.com, you can find comprehensive information, including photos, video, and artist links for all concerts on the 2010 Tanglewood Jazz Festival schedule. Meanwhile, we continue re-posting reviews from previous Tanglewood Jazz Festivals right here.

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George Benson at Tanglewood Jazz Festival

September 2, 2001 preformance; article by Dave Conlin Read

Current Tanglewood schedule and ticket info.

The audience responded enthusiastically to the set performed by Nicholas Payton and the Louis Armstrong Centennial Celebration Band leading off the triple-bill that closed the 2001 Tanglewood Jazz Festival. Though plagued by problems with the sound system, the band, featuring a seven-piece horn section, delivered a number of impressive solos on such Armstrong favorites as Potato Head Blues, Saint James Infirmary, and Hello Dolly.

This is not a tribute band in the sense of imitating Armstrong in performance; they are about copying the spirit of Satchmo and making new music from that, which is a lofty and laudable goal, but may be a disappointment for someone looking for an Armstrong fix.

After one of the longest introductions in Shed history, the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band delivered a captivating set that combined Cuban, African, and Caribbean rhythms, soulful harmonies and sparkling improvisation. Among the many highlights was Sal Cracchiolo’s trumpet solo on the Thelonious Monk composition In walked Bud.

The Grammy award-winning Sanchez, who got his start with vibraphonist Cal Tjader in 1975, has said that “Our main goal is always to keep Latin jazz alive, growing and moving, while being authentic to the music that we love…And, as I always say in clinics, this music is not just for Latino people. It was born in the United States and it is American music. It is for everybody!’ (visit ponchosanchez.com)

And thanks to the exhortations of bongo master Jose “Papo” Rodriguez, everybody in the nearly-full Shed showed they “got it” by rising from their seats toward the end of the set and filling the aisles in a most improbable display of dancing.

George Benson 2001 Tanglewood Jazz FestivalCapping off the festival was the dual-threat George Benson, who hit the mark with both his steamy lyrics and his searing guitar licks. He gave an inspired and generous performance that stretched way past 11; he paid tribute to the locale, “Wo Tanglewood, I finally made it!!”; and he got the audience to engage him in a scat duel. He also took on a loudmouth in the audience, telling him: “Get your own show – now let me finish this crazy shit here.”

Benson’s performance proved that commercial popularity and artistic integrity are not mutually exclusive terms; although he has been head-lining at big shows around the globe for more than two decades, he played and sang tonight like he had something to prove. (visit georgebenson.com)

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