Have you ever been to a taping of the Jimmy Fallon show? If you have, you will note how the Roots vamp during commercial time. Now expand that to two and a quarters and you have an idea of what the Music for Prince Benefit (to raise money for kids to learn music) was like. Whenever public schools cut funds, it is music lessons that go first and so Michael Dorf of City Winery’s has been producing annual “The Music Of” series, where major musicians perform songs from the catalog of even bigger stars, like last years Rolling Stones (I reviewed it here) and earlier concerts for Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchel and more. Thursday nights show raised $100,000 so good for them but man was it crappy. Except for D’Angelo and Dluxe, it stank.
I’ll buy most hypes but the Roots as our greatest funk band? I’m gonna pass on that. . To put it bluntly, the Roots can’t lick Graham Central Stations boots and even if they could they would have sucked because how can you perform a funk set with constant interruptions? Where’s the groove? So start from there and continue with the Waterboys pedestrian “Purple Rain” and consider fiddler Steve Wickham’s solo the highlight of the first 45 minutes.
Her Whitney Houston impression? Awesome. Other than that I never found Maya Randolph very funny and what is she? A human incubator/ Pregnant with her fourth child, Maya and Gretchen Lieberium, aka Princess, performed a terrible “I Wonder You” and later “Darling Nikki –hey, if I wanted to hear Maya fake an orgasm I’d have married her. And while as a rule of thumb I don’t attack children let me just wonder aloud why on earth they thought the children of New York Youth choir should be singing “Raspberry Berry”? Much worse was Sandra Bernhadt’s unspeakable and screetchy “Little Red Corvette”, along with Bilal’s rotten “Sister”, the evenings lowest moments. No wait… maybe Chris Rock.. there were so many. Sandra performed a dicky spoken word opening dedicated the song to Prince’s exed and Bilal? I never get to here stuff off Dirty Mind. Really, did the ass have to screw around with it.
fdLuxe are the former The Family and Prince wrote “Nothing compares 2 U” for Susannah Melvoin and man man did you deserve it Thursday. We were patiently waiting for something to cheer about (check that: I was, the audience cheered for everything but then again, they are like Prince’s Doctor: fools) and it was fdlxue earthquaking “High Fashion”. Susannah looked great and shimmied and shaked and it reminded us that you know, that Prince guy could move it.
And then nothing till D’Angelo brought the house down. Wait, not quite. Bhi Bhiman’s acoustic “ When Doves Cry” narrowed the song to one great lick and Kat Edmonson’s “The Beautiful Ones” blew me away, I’ve never much noticed the singer before but this was a sincerely beautiful version with just piano. Meanwhile, apparently Elvis Costello has not actually forgiven Prince as his dreadful obscure (I’ve never heard it before ) Purple Rain outtake “Moonbeam Level” proved. Chris Rock isn’t as funny speaking “If I was Your Boyfriend” as he was a coupla years ago with Kweezy. Yeah, and children and blind folks? We try not to go after them.
And then D’Angelo showed the entire stage what it means to be the greatest soul man in town. He took over Carnegie Hall “It’s Gonna Be A beautiful Night” that made me think, hey, maybe questlove really can make a band move on its drums. D’Angelo… he is really the man. It was amazing. We went from amateur night at the Apollo, to a full bloodied funk night out that for the first time all night would have pleased the Purple One.
There is nobody D’Angelo’s equal in modern pop. Nobody. He can sing, move,m he can take an audience and instantaneously make them ravenous dance crazy monster. And then everybody came out for “1999” –a great song but a little, how you say, dated.
So, yeah, it had its moments but all these tribute things stink. No momentum, only as good as any given artist, all very cover bands on steroids, just a massive ego stroking snooze. So don’t believe what you are going to read elsewhere. It was a bore and a mess. A mass of egotistical monsters come together to honor the most egotistical monster of them all. Party over, whoops, out of time.
Grade: C-
Setlist:
1. Purple Rain – The Waterboys – B-
2. Ten – The Roots – C
3. I Wonder U – Princess – C-
4. Raspberry Beret – Booker T, Kids choir, Diane Birch – D+
5. Nothing Compares 2 U – Nina Perrson – C+
6. High Fashion/Mutiny – fdeluxe – A-
7. Little Red Corvette – Sandra Bernhard – D
8. Mountains – Devotchka – C-
9.When Doves Cry – Bhi Bhiman – A-
10. The Beautify Ones – Kat Edmonson – B+
11.The Cross – Blind Boys Of Alabama – D+
12. Pop Life – Citizen Cope and Alice Smith – C+
13. Annie Christian – Talib Kweli – C-
14. Sister – Bilal – D
15. Kiss – Bettye Lavette – B
16. If I Was Your Girlfriend – Chris Rock – D
17. Darling Nikki – Princess – D-
18. It’s Gonna Be A Beautiful Night – D’Angelo – A
19. 1999 – Group ensemble – B