Remembering Robert Johnson

My friend Jenny, whom I know from a job in Boston ages ago, and her husband Kumanan moved to New York in mid-February, and already they're some of my favorite people to hang out with. Kumanan grew up in New Zealand.  As a music afficiando, he is almost unable to contain his excitement about living in New York where great, live music featuring incredibly talented (and sometimes famous) performers occurs every night of the week. (Apparently this was not the case in New Zealand. Apparently there are a lot of sheep there.) It sounds as though he and Jenny have attended almost more concerts in their 3 weeks here than I have! Kumanan and Jenny invited us to go to a tribute to Robert Johnson, a famous blues musician, at the Apollo, and so last night Ed and I joined them for a quick dinner then headed uptown.

I had never heard of Robert Johnson (though it turns out I knew a lot of his music) and simply bought tickets without checking out the agenda. Programs were not provided, and so it was a huge surprise when famous musicians/groups kept coming onto the stage, which they shared with little-known blues musicians from around the country, to play Johnson's music in honor of what would have been his 100th birthday. Among the performers:

The Roots

Elvis Costello

The unsinkable Bettye LaVette

Keb' Mo'

Macy Gray

Living Colour

Taj Mahal

Chuck D.

Sarah Dash

Todd Rungren

Also featured were Otis Taylor and a particularly lively Cuban-style band called the Pedrito Martinez Group who somehow managed to do a cover of a blues track with a piano, bongo drums, and a cowbell. I think The Roots (who knew that tuba players could be hip?) and Elvis Costello were my favorites, though I loved watching Bettye LaVette, someone I'd never even heard of before she took the stage. This pint-sized septuagenarian crooned, gyrated, and boogied her way through three songs and was absolutely fantastic. She told us she hadn't been on the stage at the Apollo since 1964. Living Colour was unexpectedly awesome. If you haven't heard them, know that one reviewer's categorization of their style as "soul meets screamo" is pretty much on point.  Macy Gray sang beautifully but was clearly wasted off her rocker. Ed murmured to me that she looked like she could go over at any second, and I replied that if I had substance abuse problems similar to hers, I would not wear 4-inch stiletto heels. It was something of a relief to watch her walk off the stage intact at the end of each of her numbers.  Many of the performers were backed by a blues band made up of the legendary Keb' Mo' and musicians with  names like Sugar Blue, James Blood Ulmer, and Willie Winks.

Tickets for this thing were pretty pricey, and so Ed and I sat all the way to the left and nearly in the very back of the theater. To my right were about 6 very drunk white people in their 40's and 50's who kept climbing over me to refresh their cocktails. They whistled, hooted, clapped, and danced their way through the show. Such enthusiasm was nice to see, but seemed out of place in a theater with rows of red velvet seats. Ah well, no one spilled on me, and I learned a lot about the fabulously talented Robert Johnson, as well as some other musicians whose work I look forward to exploring further.