I said it was all about Junior Brown, and that’s precisely
how things rolled out for day two of the Jazz Fest. Weather-wise it was the
kind of conditions that weathermen take credit for. And inside, it threatened
to get hot since the buzz was buzzin’ for Nashville’s
super-afroed lady at the keys, Kandace Springs.
As Springs dug into some Coltrane and a little Peterson,
along with some of her own designs, she was charming to the max. And she possesses
quite a range, which got sultrier the closer she dove into alto territory. But
all of this and I just couldn’t connect with her.
Springs was sincere and authentic, but her material was too
all over the place; there just wasn’t a root or thread through the set. She
showed the packed Harro East Ballroom (which had
simply amazing sound pumping out of the mains, by the way) what she likes — I
would rather see and hear more of who she is next time.
Kandace Springs will
perform again on Sunday, June 26, at Anthology (336 East Avenue). 7:45 p.m. and
9:45 p.m. $30 or a Club Pass will get you in.
Erykah Badu took a
wrong turn at Albuquerque and was late by a couple hours, and I sure
as hell wasn’t going to miss Junior Brown at Anthology. So I forwent Badu
and got down with Brown.
After meeting the man backstage and pressing the flesh, I
settled in to an amazing show full of deceptively simple rhythm and time
signature shifts by Brown and his able band. I don’t know which half I like
hearing from more: the guitar or the steel guitar. Both are part of his double-necked
Guit-Steel — the instrument equivalent to conjoined
twins.
Brown switched off between the two liberally, with some string
bending hi-jinx, and played with the low string tuner peg so it would plunge
multiple octaves that almost came close to his beautiful baritone. Speaking of
his voice: the ghost of Ernest Tubb lives there.
It’ll be Charles Ruggerio, The Majestics, and John
Abercrombie tomorrow night, along with lots of people watching.
This article appears in Jun 22-28, 2016.
