Narada Michael Walden Comes to the Throckmorton

Another of my favorite drummers is none other than San Rafael's Narada Michael Walden. From his early days with John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, (replacing the amazing Billy Cobham), to his chart-topping work with Aretha Franklin, Walden has also proven he's a one of a kind producer and songwriter. This Saturday night, Walden and his band journey to Mill Valley's Throckmorton Theater, in a benefit concert for the family of his dear friend, the late, great chef, Anton Perkins. Walden not only brings together some of the top Bay Area studio and concert musicians to perform his hits, he supports and encourages great young raw talent as well. The core of his group has worked together for more than 30 years on projects ranging from the Rain Forest Benefit at Carnegie Hall for Sting and Trudie Styler, to recording hits for Whitney Houston. Their live show is always alive and fresh under the inspired leadership of Walden on drums.

Among a handful of the most innovative, original and influential artists of our time, Narada Michael Walden’s stature as an authentic musical renaissance man is a matter of record - a lot of records, in fact. Artists as diverse as Aretha Franklin and Wynonna Judd; Stevie Wonder and Tom Jones; The Temptations and Jeff Beck - these and literally scores of others have sought out this consummate creative catalyst to fashion some of the biggest hits of their careers. The multi-Grammy winner (with Producer, Album and Song Of The Year awards to his credit) has been at the helm of hit music that spans decades and flows freely from pop, rock, soul, hip-hop and country, to the rarified realms of jazz, fusion, world music and back in again.

Along the way, Walden was an integral part of introducing such superstars as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey to millions of fans worldwide, by creating the breakthrough hits that first brought these divas in to the spotlight. Small wonder Billboard Magazine honored him as one of the Top Ten Producers of all time.

Yet, as impressive a production and songwriting resume as Narada Michael Walden has assembled over the past thirty years and counting, he has earned equal acclaim as a recording and performing artist in his own right. Beginning with his stint as part of the pioneering Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early Seventies, through eleven acclaimed solo albums and numerous appearances at the top of the Pop and R and B charts, Walden has given a whole new meaning to the term "multi-tasking." Along the way he has branched into a wide range of sonic arenas, from groundbreaking soundtrack work on such smash films as The Bodyguard and Stuart Little to the Emmy-winning "One Moment In Time," perhaps best known as the theme to the 1988 Olympic Games.

The list goes on, but the artistry of Narada Michael Walden is about more than charts positions and record sales. There is a powerful spiritual component at the heart of everything this richly gifted artist undertakes, an attuned and intuitive approach with a deep appreciation for music’s transforming power. Simply put, the artistry of Narada Michael Walden gets to the heart of matter, about matters of the heart.

It’s a commitment that reaches into the philanthropic arena as well, where Walden consistently lends his time and talent to causes ranging from the Cancer Society to funding music programs in the nation’s schools. For six straight years he has served as Music Director for the Rain Forest Concert at Carnegie Hall, the high profile conversancy benefit spearheaded by Sting and Trudie Styler that has featured such marquee names as Elton John, Billy Joel, Ravi Shankar, Nina Simone and, of course, Sting himself.

Walden’s prodigious energies have consistently kept him on the cutting edge of today’s, and tomorrow’s, music. Following up on the founding of his Marin County-based Tarpan Studios, he has recently announced the creation of his new custom label, Tarpan Records and recruited a number of promising young songwriters for his thriving publishing and production company. Aside from playing .. tracks for the new Stevie Wonder album, as well as producing the smash all-star tribute to late great genius of soul, Ray Charles and Friends, Walden has also written and recorded soundtrack material for the intriguing documentary, Guitar Man, which explores the world of vintage guitars and is set to premier at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Walden has also recently completed production on the debut album from acclaimed new vocalist, Naomi Streimer, whose debut single, "Cars" features special guest Carlos Santana.

In the midst of this flurry of activity, Walden is simultaneously hard at work on an eagerly awaited new solo album, highlighting a stellar line-up of friends and fellow musicians including Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Ishmael Lo, Chris Botti, Clarence Clemons, Sting and many others. With awesome abilities matched by a truly humble spirit, Narada Michael Walden is not only one of the most sought-after talents of our era: he is also one of the most admired, emulated and authentic. You can hear it in his music.

Walden's band is an experience that culminates in a crescendo of energy and inspiration. This is a band of Supreme Musicians, blending influences of generations and cultures; creates music that encompasses primal drums, classical influences, motown, disco, funk, hip hop and rap and stirs it into a harmony of all eras that is uplifting and exhilarating. It is indeed genderless, timeless, ageless.


A Benefit Concert for the Family of the Late Great Chef Anton Perkins featuring
Narada Michael Walden Band & Special Guests
Saturday, June 28 8:00pm
$100.00 Reserved Seating, Doors 7:00pm
$75.00 General Seating, Doors 7:30pm

The Orange Peels Come to the Make-Out Room

This Friday, one of my favorite pop bands, The Orange Peels, emerge from their Sunnyvale studio to perform at the Make-Out Room, along with the Corner Laughers and the Incredible Vickers Brothers . The Peels, led by the pop-stylings of singer/guitarist Allen Clapp and bassist Jill Pries, return with "special guests", perhaps "the incredible" Bob Vickers, ex-Mummies guitarist Larry Winther, who left to build a new home Oregon, or drummer John Moremen who left to tour with Last Train Home, MX80 and Half Japanese. The founders of the Peels, Clapp and Pries remained, and continued with the duo's latest and perhaps best effort, "Circling The Sun". Reunited with producer/drummer Bryan Hanna, and the Ocean Blue's guitarist Oed Ronne, which helped Clapp and Pries to continue with the same vigor and energy that made the Orange Peels one of the very best pop groups in the Bay Area.

From their Sunnyvale Eichler home, Clapp alongside Pries, produced the band's first two albums, "Square" (Minty Fresh) and "So Far" (SpinART). These truly were the groundwork for their newest effort, and the foundations were indeed well laid. The orchestral soundscapes of "Circling the Sun" are a unique departure from their previous CDs, giving this album an unexpectedly much fuller sound. Taking cues from the terrestrial and the celestial, the band's third album is both more earthy and spacey than its past works. It's the sound of a band that has matured, and as King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp once fondly said of drummer Bill Bruford, "He still retains a loss of innocence without giving way to cynicism." This trait shows in Clapp's songwriting and vocal arrangements, echoing for example in his "lyrical preoccupation with the weather and the cosmos", in Circling the Sun. It's also evident in Pries, whose funky and melodic bass lines helps to propel the Orange Peels. Despite the ups-and-downs of leading a group, Clapp and Pries remain ever the musical optimists.

The addition of Chicago's Oed Ronne of the Ocean Blue, a multi-instrumentalist who joined the band in late 2002 on lead guitar and keyboards, has added to the chemistry. While Winther's guitar work, (like on my beloved "Back in San Francisco" from So Far), will be missed, Ronne doesn't disappoint. His talents were evident when I happened to catch the Orange Peels opening for the Ocean Blue in Baltimore a few years ago, and later as he joined Clapp on his solo tour at the club Iota in Northern Virginia. The band also apparently has "broken free from it's garage", to work with producer Bryan Hanna, who also collaborated on the band's debut CD, and recording in the world-class acoustic spaces of the new Terrarium in Minneapolis.

Although drummer Moremen left the group during the early stages of Circling the Sun, Clapp has benefited from using three different drummers to complete the album, Peter Anderson of the Ocean Blue, who rejoins his band mate Ronne on "So Right," and "Long Cold Summer". Hanna plays on "Something in You" (my personal favorite), and "Circling the Sun". The Orange Peels' original drummer Bob Vickers also returned to play on "California Blue" and the album's closing number, the laid back "How Green the Grass".

The Peels have been working on new recordings, Clapp's latest solo album and even a version of the Beatles' "Hello Goodbye" for one of the Target's TV spots. "The production company said they wanted it to sound like us", the Peels wrote on their web site. "Not an ad-version of us, so we got together at Mystery Lawn studio to hammer out an arrangement. A few hours later, we had recorded drums in the kitchen, guitars and bass in the garage, and the song was taking shape. We were so happy with what emerged -- a coastal, spacey California interpretation of a song we love. It's streaming now on our Myspace page..."

"I think it was a little too much of a West Coast jamboree for the ad in hindsight, but (the Incredible) Bob Vickers had propelled the song with such driving force on the drums, we couldn't resist going with it. Oed Ronne's folky guitar signature, Jill Pries' rumbling bass line and liberally applied Space Echo guitars by Bob and Oed were followed by some Wurlitzer electric piano and vocals by Allen..."

In the end, Target ended up using only Clapp's vocals over a totally different arrangement, a "kind of a baroque-pop show piece with harpsichords, chamber strings and big drums", according to the Peels. Target's loss, but Orange Peels fans can hear both versions on the Peels' website. If you're lucky, you might hear them play it tonight.


The Orange Peels
with The Corner Laughers plus special guests, and the Incredible Vickers Brothers
The Make-Out Room
Friday, June 20th @ 8pm
3225 22nd Street, San Francisco
$7.00

Return to Forever Comes to the Grand at the Regency Center

Previously, I'd written that I'd seen my first concert with jazz pianist Chick Corea some thirty years ago, with his now legendary group, Return to Forever. Considered one of the greatest fusion bands of all time, that incarnation featured the famed bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Lenny White and guitarist Bill Connors. If my mind hadn't already been blown, it surely was after seeing the next RTF line-up following Connor's departure and the debut of a young guitarist named Al DiMeola. For three amazing nights in a row and only a few blocks from my childhood home, I sat in awe of this groundbreaking new music that would ultimately become known as "jazz-fusion". Now, some 25 years later, Return to Forever has reunited and performed for two extraordinary and captivating nights at the Grand on Van Ness and Sutter.

Miles Davis’ electric bands in the late ‘60s, featured on such classic albums as "In a Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew", served as an "incubator" for several pioneering jazz fusion bands, including Tony Williams’ Lifetime, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter’s Weather Report and Chick Corea’s legendary Return to Forever, whose lifespan stretched from 1972 to 1977 with three different versions of the band.

After a touring absence of more than 25 years, the potent jazz-rock flagship quartet edition of Return to Forever returned for a world tour in 2008. This highly anticipated reunion sees the group’s classic lineup—Corea on keyboards, Al Di Meola on guitar, Stanley Clarke on bass and Lenny White on drums—embark on an expansive summer tour with dates in Europe and the United States.

After Corea left Miles’ employ, he helped found the avant-garde acoustic quartet Circle with saxophonist Anthony Braxton, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul. The band worked from 1970-’71, but Corea sought a new, less-esoteric direction where he could express his music to larger audiences—in a band committed to communicating the purity of sound, the challenge of improvising on complex compositions and the exploration of melding the jazz tradition with rock music. The time was ripe for what followed.

Return to Forever launched in 1972 with its self-titled debut featuring a quintet that Corea assembled, comprising Joe Farrell on flute and saxophone, Airto Moreira on drums and percussion, Flora Purim on vocals, and Stanley Clarke on bass—the only RTF member who served in all three editions of the band. With a Brazilian tinge imbued in the fusion, the first album featured such noteworthy tracks as “Sometime Ago,” “Crystal Silence” and “La Fiesta.” Later that year, the same RTF lineup delivered its follow-up, Light As a Feather, renowned as one of the band’s best recordings. Tunes included such Corea classics as “Spain,” “500 Miles High” and “Captain Marvel.”

In 1973, when Airto and Flora left RTF to start their own band and Farrell also took his leave, Corea enlisted a new lineup to explore a harder-edged rock-jazz fusion. The electric guitar was added, and placed front and center along with Corea on electric keyboards. The guitarist for the first of the four quartet albums, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973), was Bill Connors, who soon left the band to pursue his solo career. He was replaced in 1974 by 19-year-old, fresh-from-college, hard-rocking Al Di Meola, who cut his eyeteeth in the band. He was featured on the remaining three quartet albums and proved to be an integral member of the band.

While drummer Steve Gadd was originally pegged to be in RTF, he opted out because he was unwilling to tour, and was replaced by funk-fueled Lenny White, who Corea knew from the Bitches Brew sessions. Clarke remained the bassist, developing during this time his singular electric bass style. This lineup is considered to be the golden RTF group, which recorded three popular crossover albums: 1974’s Where Have I Known You Before (Di Meola’s debut), 1975’s Grammy-winning No Mystery and 1976’s studio finale, Romantic Warrior, which became the best selling of all RTF recordings.

For the third and final version of RTF, Clarke remained, Farrell returned, and drummer Gerry Brown and vocalist Gayle Moran were enlisted. In addition, Corea brought aboard a four-piece brass section. That group recorded the 1977 Music Magic album and toured throughout the year, documented by the album R.T.F. Live. It was the end for RTF in 1977, but the group was resurrected for a quartet concert in 1983 with saxophonist Joe Henderson, known as the "Griffith Park Concert".

Tuesday night's show opened slowly and chronologically with the classic "Hymn Of The 7th Galaxy", then moved to "Vulcan Worlds" from the seminal "Where have I Known You Before?" album. Corea's solo piece, "Senor Mouse" was followed by the "Sorceress" from the "Romantic Warrior" and sequed to my favorite RTF tune of all time, "Song To The Pharoah Kings". Other classic tunes followed; "Dayride", "Shadow of Lo" and "Beyond the Seventh Galaxy".

Stanley Clarke was just as you might imagine; the usual monster on his Alembic and acoustic basses, quoting his signature stuff on the stand-up, and his stereo bass rig was just incredible, virtually taking up the middle of the stage. Perhaps my favorite solo was DiMeola playing on his Ovation acoustic guitar with a Roland MIDI pick-up. Gorgeous. Lenny White's drumming was remarkably crisp, even better than when I saw him with Freddie Hubbard a month ago. Chick Corea was well, Chick Corea; a master second to none.

I will say this; I've seen more "reunion shows" than I care to count; too many of them cashing in on forgotten fame and nostalgia. However, as far as Return to Forever is concerned, I have never seen any band, after a 25 year hiatus, get back together and tear it up like they did. They were simply spectacular. I wasn't sure that I wanted Return to Forever to come back again; like an undefeated champion who comes back for one more fight, however they defied the odds, blew my mind, and left with their legacy, and their legend, intact.

Angelique Kidjo Comes to the Harmony Festival

I first wrote about Angelique Kidjo in May of '04, having first heard her during one of my visits to Montreal's annual Festival d'Afrique. Here musicians from Africa, the Carribean, and the Americas, converge and for one week, every style imaginable, from Techno to Morroco can be heard. Kidjo, a fabulous singer from Benin, has attempted to prove that the world is "much smaller and far more culturally connected than it may appear". Her music has been said to "glorify individual cultures while also underlining their universal similarities". Kidjo returns to the Bay area this Sunday, along with incredible line-ups like Mickey Hart, Parliament Funkadelic, Jefferson Starship, Paula Cole, Sol Horizon, among others at the 30th Harmony Festival, June 6th-8th in Santa Rosa.

With Djin Djin, her new release on Razor & Tie/Starbucks Entertainment, Kidjo comes home. The four-time Grammy-nominated, much-celebrated singer, composer, and performer began in the Beninese port village of Cotonou, where she launched her career at the age of six. The political turmoil in her country led her to relocate to Paris, the capital of world music, and then ultimately to New York City, where she now resides. Her striking voice, stage presence and her fluency in multiple cultures and languages won respect from her peers and expanded her following across national borders. It also earned her access to humanitarians who sensed the passion in the words of her songs, resulting in her long-term dedication to global charity work.

Kidjo has traveled far and mesmerized audiences on countless stages, speaking out on behalf of the children in her capacity as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Now with Djin Djin and the return to her musical roots, Kidjo has truly closed the circle in her life as she brings international artists to the musical world of her native country. As a child, Kidjo was mesmerized by an iconic album cover of Jimi Hendrix, which led her to follow the African roots of music from the United States, Brazil and the Carribean. The results were the Grammy-nominated trilogy of albums, OREMI, BLACK IVORY SOUL and OYAYA. With Djin Djin (pronounced “gin gin”), Angelique Kidjo returns to the soul of Benin – and, for the first time, shares it with a cast of all-star guests, in a marriage of cultures that has significance far beyond music alone. Inspired by the traditions and culture of Kidjo’s native Benin in West Africa, the title of the album refers to the sound of the bell that greets the beginning of a new day for Africa.

The diversity represented by Alicia Keys, Peter Gabriel, Josh Groban, Carlos Santana, Joss Stone, Branford Marsalis, producer Tony Visconti, and the others who contribute to Djin Djin speaks to the lesson of this project: For all the differences in the music of our time, the river of Africa flows through it all. The key was to build Djin Djin on a Beninese foundation. The heartbeat, then, comes from percussionists Crespin Kpitiki and Benoit Avihoue, both members of Benin’s Gangbé Brass Band. Details of their country’s rhythmic heritage, specific in some cases to individual villages, feed the rhythms they lay down throughout the album.

To this mix Kidjo welcomes players whose backgrounds complement the idea of Djin Djin: drummer Poogie Bell, known for his work with Erykah Badu and Chaka Khan; funk keyboard wizard Amp Fiddler, whose credits include Prince and George Clinton; Larry Campbell, whose multi-instrumental work has adorned the music of Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and Paul Simon; Senegalese bass giant Habib Faye, a fixture with Youssou N’Dour; guitarists Lionel Loueke, from jazz legend Herbie Hancock’s band; Romero Lubambo, a Brazilian wonder whose credits include Diana Krall and Dianne Reeves; Joao Mota, from Guinea-Bissau and kora master Mamadou Diabate.

Each player is a virtuoso but, more important, is open to taking creative chances. “It was important to me that all of these great musicians come with me back to my roots,” Kidjo says. “I’ve never compromised those roots because I know my identity, and I’ve learned that in order to give through music, you have to position yourself among other individuals who may be from different cultures and background and then find ways to discover that we’re actually not different at all.”

Kidjo set some of the new material on Djin Djin into the languages of Benin, Nigeria, and Togo. She has written and sung extensively in French and English as well, but for this mission the lyrics came to her from further back in her history. The title track, “Djin Djin,” is a reminder to live each fleeting moment as fully as possible. Her songs embrace the joys and sorrows of life: the magic of birth (“Salala”), the uniqueness of each person even on this crowded planet (“Arouna”), the temptations of violence (“Mama Golo Papa”), the healing and learning potential of music (“Awan N’La”), the lessons offered as youth yields to age (“Sedjedo”) and isolation deepens in modern society (“Emma”).

But Kidjo doesn’t hold back her anger, expressed here toward wealthy classes enslaved by love of money (“Senamou (C’Est L’amour)”). She also looks forward to the day when leaving Africa to seek fortune far from home won't be the only solution for a desperate youth (“AE AE”). On her rendition of Sade’s “Pearls,” she extols women who are strong, yet suppressed and unable to escape the pain of existence. On another cover, a brilliant a cappella arrangement of Ravel’s Bolero entitled “Lonlon”, she illuminates the bridge that stretches from European classical music to the wellspring of northern Africa. And on “Gimme Shelter,” Kidjo transforms the Stones classic into an exuberant pan-national performance that nonetheless translates into a warning.

“This song means a lot to me,” she says. “Look at what’s going on: Fire is burning in our streets. Terrorists, in the name of God, are coming to destroy what we’ve worked for. If you don’t give shelter to the people who most need it, if you don’t treat them as your brothers and sisters, then what hope do we have?” The contributions of stellar guest artists illuminate Kidjo’s concept. By finding a place for their distinctive talents within the marriage of African and Western influences, Djin Djin celebrates the beauty of diversity as well as the unity of cultures that Kidjo achieves through her music.

These giants include Peter Gabriel on “Salala” (“He’s done so much for African music; in fact, there’s something African in his way of singing, moving, and writing his songs”); Alicia Keys on “Djin Djin” (“When she heard the Beninese drums in the studio, she said, ‘Wow, this is hip-hop!’ She understood it perfectly – and she sang so beautifully”); Joss Stone on “Gimme Shelter” (“We’re friends, so when I played her what we were doing in the studio, and she insisted on being a part of it, I was so happy that we could make this happen”); Josh Groban on “Pearls” (“He sings so effortlessly,” Kidjo says, “and yet you know that it isn’t easy to sing at that level of virtuosity”); Ziggy Marley on “Sedjedo” (“He understands so well the connections between the music of Jamaica and the rhythm of Africa – especially the gogbahoun rhythm that comes from my village”), Carlos Santana on “Pearls” (“He’s not only a guitar player: With his guitar he sings, he dances, he swings, he cries – and he has huge respect for Africa”); Branford Marsalis on “Djin Djin” (“He’s my brother! When he plays, you never know what you’re going to hear or where his wonderful ideas will take the music”); and Amadou and Mariam on “Senamou” (“We go so far back as friends; it was a special blessing and a gift to have them on the album.”)

Producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, Morrissey) helps to bring each track on Djin Djin to full sonic bloom. Recorded at Electric Lady Studio in New York, with participants gathered in a studio made intimate by carpets, couches, and home-like accoutrements, these performances testify to the power of music to simultaneously unify and free those who make it and hear it.

“When we had finished our recording, we were all so sad because we had come together as a family, all within just two weeks,” Kidjo recalls. “Music brings us together, but after the music is over, you go back to your home, to your neighborhood, knowing that you can make a difference. You have to be proud of who you are. Whether you were born in America or Africa, you can celebrate life.”

Kidjo’s point is as simple as it is profound: The celebration only begins with Djin Djin and will last as long as you want it to after that.

The 30th Annual Harmony Festival
Santa Rosa, Sonoma County Fairgrounds
June 6th-8th
http://harmonyfestival.com/