Live Five

Maroon 5 on 5/5/05... what could be better than that?!
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Cinco de Mayo or no, the hottest spot in San Jose on the fifth was the Pavillion, where the crimson quintet rocked the house. Apparently, last time they were here they played to six people, so to see 24k arms tirelessly waving for them throughout their live version of This Love, in another key, must've been quite gratifying for them. Adam worked the crowd and will be the next Rob Thomas. Where Rob wanders from rock into Latin and pop, the Maroon guys can get pretty spacey... if only they could hook up with a real guitarist.

I realized halfway through he show what is missing from current music and why almost every good guitarist I know, and most cover bands, play the classic masters... Petty, Clapton, Garcia, Hendrix... it's a little thing called the guitar solo. I don't know whether I'm proud or mortified to say this, but, the guitarist in my band is a much better player than anyone in Maroon 5, or most modern bands, period. It's almost like it's a lost art. the younger players usually can't compare to the older ones.

We live in the age of ADD, computers, cell phones, TV & multitasking. No one but Jewel, out there in Alaska, has the time to really focus. Clapton used to sit in that room with his guitar for days on end. I like current music but the singers get very few breaks and, as far as I'm concerned, a song without a guitar solo is like the missionary position... it may do the trick once in a while but....

Anyway, not to diminish the red ones, they deserve their success. As their website (above) is quick to point out, these guys earned their success the right way... by touring their asses off. And let me just add, as someone in recent proximity to Adam Levine's butt, it is quite nice. Their smash hit, Songs About Jane was actually released in 2002 and has risen steadily on the strength of their performing and the quality of the song-writing and vocals. Adam is a huge talent with an incredible work ethic... I really look forward to following his career.

I picked the encore, Beauty Queen, their current hit, but This Love is destined to become a classic with that hard beat and there are several other possible hits still to come out of Jane... my middle name.

Lightning in a Bottle

The brightest and most powerful natural energy contained in an enclosed space where it could be viewed, if only in a limited way. I guess that's a pretty accurate way to describe the one-time-only benefit concert fifty of the greatest blues artists gave at Radio City to celebrate 100 years of the blues.

Some of the highlights, for me, were Macy Gray, Steve Perry and of course blues legends BB King and Buddy Guy. The film was directed by Antoine Fuqua who directed King Arthur. He is seen as a promising if not particularly race conscious Hollywood director, who seems as well respected in NY, where he was given the job by Scorcese.

He did a decent job of informing while entertaining with concert footage and gave a good sense of the blues but not as much info as I would have liked. A commentary track by the too-busy Fuqua would have really helped. Having sung with a blues band, I have some sense of it musically, but I'd love to know more background on the performers and more info on the history of the blues and how it's distinguished from other forms of music. You can certainly hear it in rock and, of course R&B, but how would you define a new blues song? How is the sound of the blues evolving?

I guess the songs typically have a 1-4-5 chord progression and the parameters seem pretty limited as genres go. It's an older form and I guess they do tend to atrophy a bit over time, though there's beauty in that too. Blues is as real and primal as it gets (unless you're Yoko Ono). Country is for the lovelorn whiners. Blues is for the real downtrodden, yet contained therein is the ultimate joy in being able to express it. To me, blues is as happy as it is sad. It's about commiseration and empathy, as well as loneliness. It's about the ultimate reward as much as it's about poverty.

It's interesting that you have to go to the old blues guitarists to really see some black fingers run that neck. You've got Chuck Berry, Hendrix... almost every other black artist was groomed out of Motown, funk, rap or their progeny. There are more blacks proficient on the turntable than the guitar. Look at Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists (RS 931)... relatively few blacks, especially when you consider their presence in music generally, and those are mostly from the pre-rock era.

I love singing the blues because it offers the most avenue for expression... it's deep, it's real. When people bottle stuff up, they get the blues, and sometimes, the only way to get it out... is to sing the blues. So when your lightning is in a bottle, let it out. Bottling up powerful forces of nature can result in some deep and powerful feelings, but it's the release and expression of what has been pent up, expressed, that is the art and the freedom.