Miscellaneous - Mizner Park Amphitheatre, Boca Raton, 18/1/2014

  by Carl Bookstein

published: 15 / 1 / 2014

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Carl Bookstein enjoys performances from the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Galactic, Leon Russell, Hot Tuna, Tab Benoit and Stanley Clarke at the Sunshine Music and Blues Festival in Florida

The Sunshine Music and Blues Festival takes place on a pristine blue skies seventy degree sun shining January Florida day. It is held at the scenic outdoor venue Mizner Park Amphitheatre in Boca Raton, Florida. The audience grows as this one day festival progresses. Legendary bassist Stanley Clarke starts out with his trademark stinging bass licks - with great keyboards and drumming behind him. Clarke in blue jeans, white T shirt and colorful kimono jacket, plays jazz with lightning power and passion, with the classic amphitheatre columns in the backdrop. Clarke’s 2:00 in the afternoon set helps to get the festival off just right. 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' builds with powerful momentum into a sound that is transcendent. The classic 'School Days' from the 70's is elevating jazz fusion. Nineteen year old Mike Mitchell displays over the top machine gun drumming, followed by Clarke switching to acoustic stand up bass - stellar sound resounding. Clarke even plays his own drum solo on the upright bass in a first-rate set. On the second stage, Tab Benoit is playing evolved blues guitar and singing a resonant refrain: “It’s all right…” The three piece band is a tight unit, rocking as their lives depend on it with lyrics full of fire and brimstone: “The earth can shake…The skies come down…Shelter me now, underneath your wing.” Next up are Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen on guitar and Jack Casady on bass - Hot Tuna, acoustic, playing a little folk blues, down home and easy. Jorma is singing, telling stories with eclectic old numbers by Reverend Gary Davis and Jimmy Rogers - finger picking good time music with alternating banjo and mandolin accompaniment. Jorma sings soothingly, “Come back baby? Let’s talk it over one more time.” Next is the welcome spiritual and Jefferson Airplane classic 'Good Shepherd': “If you want to get to heaven… over on the other shore…Oh good shepherd, feed my sheep.” With long white hair, beard and cowboy hat, Leon Russell is seated at a white piano, playing Little Richard and singing with true grit, harkening to a sound that evidences his Oklahoma origins. A blistering version of Dylan’s 'A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall' is followed by the Rolling Stones’ 'Wild Horses' which moves into the southern classic 'Georgia'. Russell’s signature song 'Tightrope' is rendered with a fine aged bourbon soaked sounding vocal. A medley of classics including 'Jumping Jack Flash' and 'Kansas City' closes the set. Russell walks off the stage slowly, using a cane, after having just rocked his set with the vibrancy of a young man- quite remarkable. Back to the second stage, with wailing saxophone and trombone is the instrumental prowess and raging funk of Galactic; blue light spotlights cutting through the night. Playing songs from their latest album 'Made Up Mind' and beyond are the headlining festival closers, the Tedeschi Trucks Band. The ten man and one woman band features a three part horn section, tandem drummers and backing vocalists. Killer Bonnie Raitt style lead vocals by Susan Tedeschi are complimented by brilliant slide guitar leads by Derek Trucks. Trucks is a true guitar prodigy, who is currently stepping down from his fifteeen year stint with the Allman Brothers Band Tedeschi’s blues vocal growl and Trucks’ slide guitar serenades highlight a powerful full band performance. Rich riffs on a Hammond B3 organ and Trucks’ guitar epiphanies make for music that flows like the sea. 'Part of Me' from the new album has a potent Tedeschi vocal and is a strong number. A pure blues cover version of 'The Sky is Crying' witnesses Trucks emulating the great Elmore James on slide. The concluding encore includes a sweet saxophone solo, trombone, trumpet, kicking drums and bass with great backing vocals. The full band is in synch, bathed in red and purple light, finishing a truly inspired set and a memorable day’s South Florida festival.

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