Alan Leeds on One Nite Alone with Prince.

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Thread started 03/05/02 1:32am

suomynona

Alan Leeds on One Nite Alone with Prince.

As found at http://www.okayplayer.com...31227.html

This is an email from Alan Leeds to ?uestlove of The Roots. ?uestlove posted it on his site at http://www.okayplayer.com/

Enjoy smile

prince, live in chicago, by alan leeds
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If you are a Prince fan from the days before he was a slave or a symbol, RUN, don’t walk (fly if you have to), to one of the venues on his immediate itinerary. For those of us who have become increasingly convinced that time and mis-direction had hopelessly robbed Prince of his potential to grow older with us, the new RAINBOW CHILDREN tour on display this weekend in Chicago (2nd and 3rd shows of the brief tour), were not just a re-birth but a complete revelation.
Sure there’s more proselytizing than most of us would like, and sure, a few of his references to the scriptures, sexism and race could be confusing out of context, but it was hardly invasive. Whatever your feelings, don’t get stuck on it and miss out on the real point of the show. REAL music is back – and SO IS PRINCE!
For the purple one, that means a sophisticated stage set that subtly incorporates three video screens, brilliantly classy lights (reportedly designed by Prince himself and Roy Bennett who did the landmark 1980s Prince tours), a grown-ups wardrobe (he actually wore a suite and tie most of the show), and, most importantly, a rompin’, stompin’ band that can hang with the best of past Prince units.
Always as tight as a stripper’s thong, the greatest Prince bands usually include at least one great soloist to share the spotlight, but recent Prince shows sometimes jammed aimlessly into oblivion when less interesting players soloed too long and too often (read: the popular but hardly profound saxist Najee putting people to sleep on the last Prince tour). HOWEVER, the new band neatly showcases both the legendary Maceo Parker and awesome Brazilian keyboardist Renato Neto. Experienced and with stories of their own to tell, both Parker and Neto are granted plenty of solo space and Prince is the richer for it. No longer a “featured guest soloist”, Parker’s signature funk fits perfectly in the context of the RAINBOW CHILDREN material and the fresh arrangements of older, often obscure Prince material. To the eyes and ears, Parker has been neatly integrated into the band as an involved and ever-creative force. Simply put, he looks like he belongs up there. Even ex-Pfunk trombonist Greg Boyer rocked the house on his two or three solo opportunities.
The band, a sextet, is really what this tour is about. Prince is the unequivocal leader, just as he’s the one who sells the tickets (and expensive tickets too, ranging from $65 to $125), but he is not merely a singer/player standing in front but also clearly one of the band – something to be viewed NOT as a downgrade of his involvement, rather an upgrade for the more than worthy musicians alongside him. The jazz-inspired arrangements deserve much of the credit, highlighting levels of interplay only hinted at in previous Prince incarnations. Shelving his trademark choreography and often distracting garb, he was telling us to expect an “adult” Prince show for adult fans. But it doesn’t end there.

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Sensitive to fans who might have come expecting the usual Prince circus and greatest hits medley, the show’s pacing and his conversational rapport with the audience went a long way towards convincing the crowd that there’s more reasons to jump up and party than gaping at a star dry humping a stage floor or revealing his cakes in a peek-a-boo jumpsuit. We used to think Prince was afraid to rely on music alone to rev up a crowd – that he felt it necessary to hedge his bet by surrounding his craft with overdone carnival-like affectations. If so, this time he boldly decided to take the plunge and depend on the music.
There will always be that fan who lived through PURPLE RAIN and refuses to read today’s calendar (a handful of boos circulated the theatre prior to the encore), but Prince seems prepared for that and twice shrewdly defused the handful of skeptics. After a long, exciting, fusion jam, Prince confronted a woman in one of the front rows. “Oh, so you just wanna hear ‘Kiss’ huh? Bored?”.
Turning his head towards the audience as if to include them in his plight, Prince continued, “Let’s see…hmmm…I know what’ll get someone like you up on your feet. In fact, is that your husband? Boyfriend? Well, bring him up here…I mean it…you two get up here. Because you’re gonna WANNA dance to this one.”
With that he counted off “Mellow”, a bluesy mid-tempo jam from RAINBOW CHILDREN and sure enough, the couple spent most of the song dancing on stage to the joy of the rest of the audience.
Later in the show, after a ballad he again chastised the crowd for sitting down. “Don’t worry, this next one will get even the ushers off their butts”.
He need not have apologized. What followed was as funky a version of “Sing A Simple Song” as any Sly & The Family Stone did back-in-the-day. And, sure enough, about a dozen uniformed theatre ushers made their way on stage to free-style. It was obviously pre-planned but his point was made. He was gonna do the music he wanted to do and on his terms – but that fact alone was hardly intended to tune out the audience. Like a master chef, he wasn’t gonna serve the food the audience may have ordered but he thrived in knowing they were gonna like the food anyway.
Prince reportedly intends the current tour as a forum to “explain” his RAINBOW CHILDREN album. As the new material unfolded, what became clear was that if it weren’t for the annoying distorted “emcee” voice between tracks and the sometimes confusing lyrics, the wonderful music on the album wouldn’t need explaining at all!
The show began with a creatively funky drum pattern from behind the curtain while a spotlight turned on the audience revealed Maceo Parker working his way down the center aisle from the back of the theatre. The rising curtain was perfectly timed for Parker to climb on stage just as the feverish groove turned into the new albums’ title song. Under-rated bassist Rhonda Smith laid a tension-filled, dramatic foundation as the building groove introduced Renato Neto who proceded to rock the house with a chop-laden solo that left even the better-educated Prince fans clamoring to know who he was. Prince finally emerged from stage right and reciprocated a buoyant welcome with a fiery guitar solo. The opening seamlessly shifted into “Muse 2 The Pharoah”, also from the new CD. The trilogy peaked with an unknown (to these ears) jazzy riff called

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“Xenophobia” – in all, a lengthy, brilliantly constructed and paced jam reminiscent of the better fusion bands like Return To Forever and Weather Report.
If Scott and, particularly, flashy drummer John Blackwell lack the jazz vocabulary of a Weather Report, they make up for it in taste and funk power. They may not have played traditional jazz licks but what they played swung in its own way. And, if Blackwell is the “weak link” in this band, it’s only by degrees. In fact it’s difficult to imagine too many drummers with the versatility to flow as well from fusion to funk to straight up rock - like their sparkling version of “When You Were Mine”. In this band genres disappear and the various styles of Prince’s music jelled as a whole – no easy task and one previous Prince bands have struggled with.
The show evolved into a savvy potpourri of RAINBOW CHILDREN, clever covers such as Prince’s moving take on Joni Mitchell’s “A Case Of You” and choice, seldom-performed nuggets from his archive. Highlights were in abundance – “Mellow”, “Strange Relationship”, Maceo’s revival of The J.B.’s classic “Pass The Peas”, LOVESEXY’s gorgeous “Anna Stesia” and a show-stopping ballad, “I Love You But I Don’t Trust You”. As if to reclaim it from Alicia Keys hugely successful album, “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore” climaxed by leading his standard, unaccompanied “piano medley” into a full blown band arrangement. At the end one wanted to hear him say, “Who’s house is this?” And, believe me, HE owns the KEYS to the this house!
One particularly fun segment of the show fell under the umbrella of a Prince dissertation on the sorry state of radio. HIS radio station, if there were one, he explained would play songs like “Strange Relationship”, “Sing A Simple Song”, The Delfonics stunning “La La Means I Love You” and Erykah Badu’s “Didn’t You Know” – the latter being the night’s only clinker. A well-intentioned attempt to focus attention on Badu’s under-appreciated 2001 album, never-the-less “Didn’t You Know” (a charming song) failed to catch fire and added nothing to her original version.
All-in-all, the show struck me as a rehearsed, focused and polished version of one of Prince’s fabled “after-shows”. Unlike some of his meandering late-night sessions, no jam went on too long and none of the many solos were filler. The musical palette was powerfully dense when appropriate but breathed intelligently at other times. Though spending much of the night behind keyboards, Prince’s guitar – particularly his jarring rhythm playing – was as vital and funky as ever. And his solos as smartly conceived and dynamically executed as ever.
Whatever else he may have done, or not done since the days of cutting edge spectacles like PURPLE RAIN, SIGN O THE TIMES and LOVESEXY, this is one tour that Prince has carefully thought out with attention to every detail. It shows, and both the tour and he are better for it.
As theatre the show is professional and totally on point. Despite the deceptively informal aura, nothing that transpired on stage lacked purpose - all the while maintaining the spirit of spontaneity. George Clinton once joked that Prince “even rehearses his spontaneity”. What’s important is that he doesn’t OVER-rehearse it. The nearly three hour set list was strategically devised and cohesive – the theatrics classy and tasteful.

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Prince last toured with a career retrospective show. At the time it seemed that he, of the auto-pilot hits medleys, quasi-dated arrangements, frustratingly derivative new material and a production that was less than inspiring, was destined for Las Vegas. Perish the thought. This “grown up” Prince obviously has more stories to tell and more rivers to cross before anyone dare relegate him to the has-been dumping ground. Like Muhammad Ali’s triumph over George Foreman to dramatically recapture his championship, Prince’s return to the musical forefront is both a surprise and a cause for celebration.
Nearly twenty years after his ground-breaking tours, there is STILL no one else like him. No one whose musical and performing gifts cover as much ground. There’s never been anything wrong with his singularly exciting brand of showmanship and surely even his most outlandish efforts in those areas deserve as many props as his songs. BUT it’s no less than thrilling that he finally respects his musical gifts enough to allow them to stand on their own merit.
With “real music” already making a comeback in the hands of those influenced by Prince, he has once again raised the bar. For a fan it was breath-taking to witness. And for those who never Prince fans, it’s an opportunity to finally understand what all the commotion has long been about. The tour is no less than a rare opportunity to see a genius at his best. The King is back!

Are you excited yet?
m @ http://www.freemyheart.com/

Handclapsfinga snapz	CalhounSq said: "... "his cakes" - too funny! And I JUST hit rewind on one of those parts of the Nude Tour - tasty cakes, indeed... :::smacking noises::: passin u a bib...don't get any on ya, grrl.
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FreeRipop	Whoehaa when is this man comming to Europe???
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gooeythehamste r	Indeed the best I have read about the show. Makes me even more curious. Insightful and honest. Kewl. Can't wait. Paris and Amsterdam are waiting for this. Gooey Goes POINK!
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TonyC	"a grown-up's wardrobe"? What's wrong with wearing the cool outfits he usually sports...those aren't "childish" in my book. Should he dress like an old man for some reason? Anyway, a great review overall and it makes me more excited about seeing the show soon.
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