Concert Review: "A Postcard from California" Al Jardine of the Beach Boys at the Dakota Jazz Club

Al Jardine on stage at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, February 13, 2019. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

My signed copy of Al Jardine's 2010 album A Postcard from California. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Tonight I saw a great concert: Al Jardine, one of the founding members of the Beach Boys, performed at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. Jardine’s show is titled “A Postcard from California,” after his 2010 solo album, and in it he sings songs and shares stories from his remarkable career. The Beach Boys have been one of my favorite groups since I was a little kid. One of my favorite childhood memories is seeing the Beach Boys at the Minnesota State Fair sometime in the late 1980’s-early 1990’s. I still love their music, and it touches an emotional chord in me. 

Jardine started the show by playing standup bass and singing the Beach Boys’ very first song, “Surfin’”. I didn’t realize that he was the group’s first bassist, and it was only when he left the group for about a year, from 1962-3, that Brian Wilson started playing the bass. Jardine was backed by his son Matt Jardine on percussion and vocals, and Jeff Alan Ross on keyboards and guitar. Matt handled the falsetto vocals, and did a tremendous job, especially on “God Only Knows” and “Surf’s Up.” I’ve seen Jeff Alan Ross before, as he has also played a similar role in Peter Asher’s live retrospective shows. It was pretty amazing that three guys were able to do such an excellent job recreating the Beach Boys’ sound live. 

The whole concert was just so joyful—it’s very clear that Al Jardine is having a great time singing these songs. His voice sounds great, and he did a great job singing a lot of songs that he didn’t originally have the lead vocal on. Jardine’s most famous lead vocal with the Beach Boys is “Help Me, Rhonda,” which was the last song of the evening. Jardine sang several of the group’s most famous songs, like “Surfer Girl,” “Don’t Worry, Baby,” “California Girls,” and “Good Vibrations.” He also shared the story of how he brought the folk song “Sloop John B” to Brian Wilson’s attention, and how the song was re-arranged to fit the Beach Boys’ style. Jardine brought out a rarity as well, in the form of the song “Vegetables,” one version of which featured Paul McCartney eating carrots. The excellent harmony that the Jardines and Ross brought to the song made it an unusual highlight of the concert. 

“A Postcard from California” has a loose, easygoing feel, it’s like “The Beach Boys: Unplugged.” Hearing these iconic songs in such an intimate venue, and in more stripped down arrangements, just reinforced my belief that the beauty and the power of these songs remains undimmed, even more than fifty years after they were first written. 

After the show, Al came out to sign autographs and chat with fans. He seems like a really nice guy, warm and outgoing and quite funny. For me, it was really awesome to meet a Beach Boy. If you’re a fan of the Beach Boys, check out Al’s show if you get the chance, it’s very special.

Frank Robinson 1935-2019

Frank Robinson, about to crush some homers for the Baltimore Orioles.

One of the very best players in baseball history passed away yesterday. The great Frank Robinson was 83 years old. Throughout his long playing career, Robinson amassed numerous awards: Rookie of the Year, NL MVP, AL MVP, Triple Crown winner, 2-time World Series champion, first ballot Hall of Famer. Robinson also became baseball’s first African American manager, leading the Cleveland Indians in 1975. Robinson hung up his spikes after the 1976 season, but he remained in baseball his entire life, later managing the Giants, Orioles, and the Expos/Nationals. 

Robinson brought an intense competitive spirit to the diamond. Sportswriter Jim Murray memorably wrote that “Robinson always went into second like a guy jumping through a skylight with a drawn Luger.” (Needless to say, if he were still playing, Robinson would have some issues with the Utley Rule.) I’ve always felt that Frank Robinson was an underrated player. I know that sounds ridiculous—how can someone hit 586 home runs and be underrated? I think Robinson was somewhat overshadowed by Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. It’s really unfair to compare anyone to Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, and while Robinson falls short in the WAR comparison, at 107.3, compared to Aaron’s 143 and Mays’ 156.4, his slash line is very similar. (All stats according to Baseball-Reference.com)

Robinson: .294/.389/.537 OPS .926 OPS+ 154

Aaron: .305/.374/.555 OPS .928 OPS+ 155

Mays: .302/.384/.557 OPS .941 OPS+ 156

The lowest OPS+ that Robinson ever put up was 104, in his final season, 1976, in which he played just 36 games. His next lowest OPS+ was 118, in 1958. Robinson had one of the greatest single-seasons ever in 1966. In December of 1965, Robinson was traded from the Cincinnati Reds to the Baltimore Orioles for Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun, and Dick Simpson. (Side note: Milt Pappas was actually a pretty good pitcher. He won 209 games and came within a strike of pitching a perfect game in 1972.) All Robinson had done for the previous decade was obliterate National League pitching, so why were the Reds dealing him? Well, in the words of General Manager Bill Dewitt, Robinson was “an old 30.” These words no doubt added fuel to Robinson’s already substantial competitive fire. In his first year with the Orioles, Robinson won the Triple Crown, leading the American League in home runs, RBI, and batting average. Not content to merely dominate the league in three prime statistical categories, Robinson also led the league in runs scored, on base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+, total bases, and sacrifice flies. Robinson won the AL MVP, making him the first and only player to date to win the award in both leagues. The Orioles won the American League pennant that year, and faced the heavily favored Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. The Dodgers had a formidable 1-2 pitching punch with Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. However, the Orioles swept the Dodgers in four games. The score of Game 4? 1-0. How did the Orioles score that one run? On a Frank Robinson solo homer off of Don Drysdale. For his timely hitting, Robinson was awarded the World Series MVP. 

I met Frank Robinson once, at a baseball card show in 2013. He was very nice, easy to talk to, but a little intimidating all the same. He made eye contact with me a couple of times as I was standing in line—one guy was having trouble getting his cell phone to take a picture and Frank gave me an exasperated look like “You see what I have to deal with?” I also corrected the guy in front of me when he was talking about Frank’s 573 home runs. As Frank was signing the guy’s photo he looked at it and said, “Look at those guns, wow!” When I met Frank I told him he was one of my favorite players and I wish I could have seen him play. He said “You were born too late! You should have been born 20-30 years earlier. But if you’d been born then, you’d be old now like me.” I told him, “You’re not old,” and he gave me a funny look. I guess what I meant to say was “You’re only as old as you feel,” or something like that. So that was my interaction with the great Frank Robinson. I’m just happy I never had to pitch to him.

Album Review: The Miles Davis Quintet Freedom Jazz Dance: The Bootleg Series Vol. 5 (2016)

Freedom Jazz Dance: The Bootleg Series Vol. 5, by the Miles Davis Quintet, 2016.

Miles Davis with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter.

Miles Davis died in 1991, and since then numerous box sets of previously unreleased material have been issued. Columbia’s excellent Bootleg Series, which began in 2011, has added greatly in presenting us with a fuller picture of Davis’ recording career. Freedom Jazz Dance: The Bootleg Series Vol. 5, released in 2016, is the first of the series to focus on Davis’ studio recordings. 

Freedom Jazz Dance presents the listener with the full session tapes from the two days in October of 1966 that produced the seminal album Miles Smiles. Davis’ group in 1966, now called the “Second Classic Quintet,” is considered one of the greatest in jazz history. It featured Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. Hancock, Carter, and Williams had joined Davis in 1963, with Shorter joining the ensemble towards the end of 1964. Davis had suffered from a number of health issues in the mid 1960’s, and in 1965 he underwent a hip replacement. The Quintet had only recorded one studio album together, 1965’s excellent E.S.P., before the sessions for Miles Smiles. 

The box set opens with the longest track, the 23-minute long session reel for Eddie Harris’ song “Freedom Jazz Dance.” You get to hear the band working out the introduction to the song, and trying to figure out how to approach the song. As the liner notes warn, you’ll want to listen to this on headphones, and with the transcriptions of the studio chatter close at hand, so you can follow along. Since this was a song that the members of the group hadn’t performed live before, they were learning it in the studio, and so you get to hear them figure out the song. Throughout the 23 minutes the group attempts numerous times to get the introduction the way they want it, but they don’t perform a complete take—the first complete take was the master issued on Miles Smiles. Depending on how big a fan you are of the Second Classic Quintet, this will either be a fascinating and revelatory listen, or it will be mind-numbingly boring. Of course, if you’re not a huge fan of the Second Classic Quintet, you’re probably not going to be buying Freedom Jazz Dance in the first place. 

Of perhaps greater interest is an alternate take of the great ballad “Circle,” which is a treat to hear. While I appreciate having these session reels available, as it sheds interesting light on the creative process, how many times am I really going to listen to the studio chatter and breakdowns as the group perfects the intro? The answer: probably not more than once or twice. 

After the Miles Smiles sessions, Freedom Jazz Dance then gives us some other session reels and alternate takes from other albums the quintet made. We get a nice alternate take of “Masqualero,” from the album Sorcerer, and a very interesting session reel for “Nefertiti,” in which Davis and the group figure out the idea behind the song—that Davis and Shorter will play a theme the entire way through the song, and the rhythm section will take solos. The third disc features the session reel for “Fall,” released on the Nefertiti album, and “Water Babies,” recorded in 1967, but unreleased until the 1976 album of the same name, a random collection of late 1960’s material that sat in the vaults until Miles’ retirement from music, which lasted from 1975-1980. There’s also a rhythm section rehearsal for “Country Son,” a track from Miles in the Sky, and “Blues in F (My Ding)” an informal tape recorded in Davis’ apartment that features him playing piano and chatting with Wayne Shorter.

As I wrote above, Freedom Jazz Dance is definitely for the hard-core Miles Davis fan. If you’re coming to the music his Second Classic Quintet created for the first time, you’ll want to start with the studio albums themselves, which are all amazing, or perhaps the superb 1967 live recordings featured in 2011’s Bootleg Series Vol. 1. If you’re a serious fan of Davis’ music, you’ll find Freedom Jazz Dance very interesting.

Theater Review: She Loves Me at Artistry Theater

Gracie Anderson, Benjamin Dutcher, Ryan London Levin, and Sarah DeYong in She Loves Me at Artistry Theater, 2019.

She Loves Me, the 1963 musical with a book by Joe Masterhoff, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, is one of my favorite musicals. Despite the title and the date of its composition, it doesn’t have anything to do with the Beatles. The story of She Loves Me is based on Parfumerie, a 1937 play by Hungarian playwright Miklos Lazlo. Lazlo’s play was turned into the 1940 movie The Shop Around the Corner, starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. The Shop Around the Corner was then turned into the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime, starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson. (The film also marked the acting debut of three-year-old Liza Minnelli.) The story of Parfumerie was adapted once again for a movie with 1998’s You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. 

Now that we’ve gotten the convoluted backstory out of the way, what is She Loves Me about? Set in Budapest in the 1930’s, it’s the story of Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash, two co-workers at Maraczek’s Parfumerie who dislike each other. However, they are actually pen pals who are slowly falling in love through their letters but who have yet to meet face to face. 

She Loves Me is the rare Broadway musical that is about work. Maraczek’s Parfumerie is the glue that holds the various characters together. Every character gets their own song at some point in the show, and the songs they get to sing are pretty fantastic. One of my favorites is the humorous “Sounds While Selling,” which weaves three clerks’ conversations with customers together to form a nonsensical exchange. 

The production of She Loves Me currently playing at Artistry Theater in Bloomington is directed by Benjamin McGovern and features an excellent cast. Sarah DeYong captures Amalia’s sparkle and charm, and she sings “Where’s My Shoe?” and “Vanilla Ice Cream,” very well indeed. Ryan London Levin brings a relatable humor to Georg, and hits a home run with the title song. Gracie Anderson does a great job with Ilona’s songs “I Resolve” and “A Trip to the Library.” Benjamin Dutcher supplies an abundance of oily charm as Steven Kodaly, and makes the most of his seductive “Ilona,” and his great kiss-off song “Grand Knowing You.” The always excellent T. Mychael Rambo brings charm and dignity to the role of Zoltan Maraczek. (Mr. Maraczek’s first name is never said aloud in the play, which is really just a waste of the name Zoltan.) Rambo is always a delight to watch, and he has brightened numerous Twin Cities stages with his presence. 

If you’re looking for a sweet, smart, funny musical with songs you’ll be humming the next day, go see She Loves Me at Artistry Theater.