TREE @Tree12Tree

Our set through the eyes of spectator: There are a lot of musical artists who can be relied on to put on a good show. There are a very few who can walk out every time and kill it. I include Bruce Springsteen in the latter group. Prince had it (and then some). These are artists who have their facts learned, who walk out and KNOW that they have what it takes from the moment they take the stage to engage and electrify whoever is out there waiting for them, maybe skeptical, waiting to see what they’ve got. Jon Batiste’s set at last year’s Jazz Fest is still being talked about. Yesterday’s set at the packed to the fences Gentilly stage made it clear that he belongs in the company of the greats. He walked out in a champagne suit with an electric guitar and hit it. Just the way he moves, the smile on his face, instantly radiates to every soul who can hear and see. He’s swinging for the fences. “He’s like Prince, if Prince radiated goodness,” I told Jano. He played guitar, he played piano and sax and Melodica, he danced, he laughed, his flawless band, dancers, singers, tore it up. He got his biggest hit, “Freedom,” out of the way by the second song, the audience singing with him, then he was off to the races, the entire field with him at every step. In the middle of his set, where most acts would be ramping up the thrills he went to the grand piano, the rest of the band silenced, and began to play a moody solo piece by the 19th century Creole classical composer Louis Gottschaulk. Keep in mind that this is happening on the middle field of a racetrack. It’s warm, sticky, the audience is sunburned, tipsy, shoulder-to-shoulder…and mesmerized. You could have heard a pin drop. He moves from that into “Tipitina,” the tricky Professor Longhair number that is one of the standards that wannabe New Orleans piano players break themselves apart on the rocks of. He then moves back to the Gottschaulk and begins to show us that these two are connected. The first is in a minor key, the second a major. He slides back and forth between them. Then he plays them simultaneously. He’s 20 minutes into a solo piano recital and music lesson at a rowdy outdoor festival, and we are all enraptured. It is simply one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. “You don’t even attempt something like this unless you know you’re fucking great,” I said to Diana and Brooks. I realized that I’d had a grin on my face from the moment he came on stage. Bit by bit the band returned to a mini-set of New Orleans classsic R&B, “The Nightime is the Right Time,” with an awesome woman singer. Star turns by every member of his fantastic ensemble- including 90-something year old Charlie Gabriel, then off the stage into the crowd playing Melodica, followed by Ben Jaffee from Preservation Hall and most of the band, audience singing along: “I feel good, I feel free I feel fine just being me I feel good today I feel good today,” and it didn’t feel silly, or phony, because it was true. Jon Batiste had delivered the goods to the Jazz Fest masses, because he had them in his possession, the goods AND the audience, and had healed the separation between us. -Gallivan Burwell

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next

@TroyHawke Could you try this in Switzerland please? 😈

Please watch this It show the absolutely corrupt nature of this Tory administration Beyond disgraceful When the Tories are thrown out, the police will be able to investigate this

😉

Mashable @mashable

7 years ago

Who run the Red Planet? GIRLS. x.com/mashable/statu…

5 8 37 0 0

Halloween Costumes Contain the Equivalent of 83 Million Plastic Bottles eco-age.com/news/halloween…

Good night Twitter 🌙

It would be the sweetest cherry on top of our vacation if this was the real @stephenfry at high st Kent this morning 🥰🥰🥰

Bored? Check out this robot that can do parkour.

@SamHeughan @MyPeakChallenge Can a bloke enter the competition?

Dear @SamHeughan , found ‘before and after’ photos of you. What’s your secret ?? 😂😂😘😘

Our September issue is extra special this year. vogue.cm/W3N62A7

We lost Nina Simone 15 years ago today. She left us, besides some of the greatest music of the past century, this lovely meditation on time: brainpickings.org/2017/02/21/nin…

High tech choc: Nestlé introduce the first chocolate bar using new sugar technology bddy.me/2upgqKV New #Milkybar is world first #StructuredSugar

Want to freak yourself out? I'm gonna show just how much of your information the likes of Facebook and Google store about you without you even realising it

@viagogo how can I enter my bank details for a refund when the user interphase doesn’t recognize my swift code ?? How can we resolve this ?

Very early warning about signed copies of the new novel! whsmith.co.uk/products/a-kee…

Guinness world record being broken right now! @UNSWScience woot!

Get ready! The tiny robots are coming. Watch the full TED Talk here: t.ted.com/B6Vxu70

Are you ready for a future of insect sausages? on.dezeen.com/tA1cHT

Reader comment: "A country that respects robots more than women" on.dezeen.com/5VqYok