Prince's live issue in the lacal paper, The Maui News.

Thursday, December 18, 2003 — Time: 9:29:27 PM EST


MAUI BEAT: Prince is at the door

By JON WOODHOUSE, Contributing Writer


Prince on Maui!

Yes, the superstar purple rocker will play his first concert on Friday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. A previously announced show was canceled due to illness. Over the last few years this legendary entertainer has sometimes been seen jamming at Maui clubs, but this is the first time we get to experience the real thing.
In late October, Prince toured Australia. selling out a Melbourne show in 20 minutes. His record label, NPG, described the Australian shows as "one long dance party with no gimmicks, no pre-recorded music and no prisoners taken."

One of the most influential figures in modern rock history and a legendary live performer, the Australian appearances featured Prince performing his hits live, supposedly for the last time.

The 45-year-old star has announced he will retire his classic hits after his latest world tour. "We're constantly creating new things and we want to express ourselves in the 'Everlasting Now,' as opposed to the restrictive nature of set-lists," Prince told the Melbourne Herald Sun.

Fans, he noted, "have seen the older material with several different crews. And since the music has matured now, it's time to move the material out of the house to make room for the new kids."

Over the course of two decades, Prince reigned as one of pop music's most prolific and successful artists, releasing 27 albums with some 32 hours of music, twice the output of Madonna and Michael Jackson combined.

Constantly experimenting, seamlessly merging pop, funk, folk and rock, Prince stands supreme as the only contemporary artist able to blend so many diverse styles so cohesively.

Born Prince Roger Nelson in 1958, Prince impressed many in his teen years with his rare ability to play a number of instruments. Growing up, he says, artists like Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown and Larry Graham inspired him.

Signed to Warner Bros. in 1978, Prince received full artistic control of his music, an exceedingly rare arrangement for a fledgling entertainer.

Permitted to write, arrange and produce his own works, he played all the instruments on his debut album, "For You."

Initially finding success as an R&B artist, it wasn't until his explicitly sexual album, "Dirty Mind," that he began appealing to the mass market. His stunning double album, "1999," soared into the charts featuring the funk rocker "Little Corvette," and the exuberant title track.

Worldwide success followed with 1984's "Purple Rain" soundtrack, which topped the U.S. charts for half a year and sold more than 10 million copies.

With "Purple Rain," Prince moved into territory only attained by Elvis and the Beatles. At the age of 26, he simultaneously had a single ("When Doves Cry"), an album and a movie in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard and box-office charts (plus an Oscar in the wings for Best Score).

From then on, Prince pursued his own artistic vision defying conventions and continually exploring new territory. On "Around the World In A Day" he delved into pop psychedelia, while his brilliant "Sign O' The Times" featured Prince as a one-man band on a double album's worth of powerful material.

Such was his draw that in 1992 his record label reportedly re-signed him to a $100 million deal. But Prince began to tire of the restrictions on his creativity. First came the name change to an unpronounceable glyph, and then he began performing at concerts with "Slave" drawn on his face.

The artist felt he should be able to release records as soon as he created them, not at the restricted output of one every year or two. He also didn't own the rights to his master tapes.

"I did not, and still do not, own my Art," Prince announced on his Web site. "For most of all of my adult life, I have labored under one construct. I compose music, write lyrics and produce songs for myself and others. My creativity is my life; it is what guides my everyday, my sleepless nights. My songs are my children. I feel them. I watch them grow and I nurture them to maturity. I deliver them to my record company, and suddenly, they are no longer mine. The process is painful. I have been long ready for a new program."

Finally released from his contract, he signed a new deal to distribute his albums on his own NPG label. This new arrangement allowed him extraordinary freedom - unrestricted output, ownership of his master tapes and the liberty to market and price his albums.

His next album, "Emancipation," signaled a rebirth, restoring his stature as one of contemporary music's most innovative artists. A triple-disc set running exactly three hours, it marked the longest album of all new, original material ever released by a popular artist. Freely roaming through musical genres and moods, Prince addressed a wide range of themes while emphasizing spiritual redemption and the joy of loving partnership.

The L.A. Times praised "the sublime force that is generated as a brilliant musician engages in his craft with a renewed sense of empowerment and joy," while USA Today concluded, "The three-CD set is astounding in both stylistic breadth and disciplined focus."

Ever the master of his own destiny, he then engineered a scheme to sell "Crystal Ball," a three-CD collection of previously unreleased material recorded throughout the '80s and '90s.

"It only costs $2 to press a CD, and then people will go to the store and pay $13," he told USA Today. "Our only additional cost is the shipping. And then most of my money goes into helping other artists."

Most recently, he has released one of his funkiest, jazziest works, "Rainbow Children"; his first live album, the critically acclaimed "One Night Alone"; and the latest "N.E.W.S.," an all instrumental work featuring four songs, all exactly 14 minutes in length.

A creative fount, Prince is known to dedicate around 12 hours a day to his music. "People call me a workaholic, but I've always considered that a compliment," he said in Guitar World. "John Coltrane played the saxophone 12 hours a day. That's not a maniac, that's a dedicated musician whose spirit drives his body to work so hard. I think that's something to aspire to."

Stacked in his vaults are reportedly hundreds of hours of recordings, including an album with jazz legend Miles Davis that has yet to be released.

Asked by MTV what we'd find there he responded: "Some amazing jazz work. You'd find the best, most heady tracks that The Revolution recorded; the ones that we thought were too far gone back in the '80s. You'd find the really erotic Prince. You'd find the future."

Having produced a body of work that remains unmatched by almost any other pop artist, this legend knows some folks have a hard time keeping up with his changes. "If they can't follow, they weren't meant to," he said in a Maui News interview six years ago. "My real support comes from the daring cliff-divers in life."

As to the greatest gift he feels his music offers, he stated simply, "love."

A convert to the Jehovah's Witness brand of Christianity, it remains to be seen how his religious affiliation will impact his songs, which often reflect both spiritual and sensual themes.

Proselytizing for his faith, Prince has shown up on some folks' doorstep, Bible in hand. That was what happened in October to a Minnesota woman named Rochelle, depicted in a Minneapolis Star Tribune story:

"Door bell rings. My husband runs upstairs and says, 'Prince is at the door!' I said, 'No way.' " The diminutive pop star introduced himself as Prince Nelson, his real name, and, she said, launched into the standard "Jesus-loves-you" routine. Unfortunately for him, Rochelle and her husband are Jewish and this was the night of Yom Kippur."

One of the most exciting, magnetic live entertainers of our time, Prince's shows are legendary. "Prince remains one of the greatest pop performers alive, sexy and menacing without any of the awkward self-regard that often afflicts so-called legends," proclaimed The New York Times. "The exuberant performance was a reminder of Prince's phenomenal showmanship," raved the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

And a Phoenix New Times review noted, "The three-hour performance by Prince and his band was so powerful that the concert already has joined the coveted ranks of one of the greats."

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