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That Special Something

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What is it in a great musical performance that touches our emotions?

Dunno. Something special. Costumes? Smoke bombs?

That’s the full extent of my personal scholarship on this matter, and one of the reasons I find it very difficult to write about music. Fortunately there are scientists who can’t shrug at a mystery. Some of them have taken a closer look, trying to understand what makes music expressive.

It’s an important question, especially in the age of auto-tune, when so much attention is paid to whatever Lady Gaga is wearing on the latest awards show.

I know people who cringe at the thought of scientific investigations into the fundamentals of art, worried that the process of picking apart a beautiful thing essentially kills it, and that we’ve got more than enough technology being applied to music as it is.

Maybe so, but it’s a great relief to hear, after laboratory-based manipulation of recordings, detailed surveys, exhaustive experiments and thorough brain scans, that the machines have indeed detected something significant.

It’s the human element that makes all the difference.

Variations, limitations and “imperfections” matter greatly, and a machine can’t improve the power of a skilled pianist’s performance. Some of the most interesting research is described in Pam Belluck’s article in the New York Times. The piece is lengthy but well worth the time.

The story includes some great quotes from Paul Simon about the mechanics of a song, which led me to this video made in Zimbabwe more than 20 years ago, when Simon (who will play in Minneapolis on May 2nd) performed “Diamonds On The Soles of Her Shoes” with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. There’s great spirit and choreography from the South African vocal ensemble, and watching it cleansed all that scientific thinking from my mind.

What’s the best performance you’ve seen?

63 thoughts on “That Special Something”

  1. Just one?…I don’t think I can pick just one. Ladysmith Black Mambazo is great fun, but so was James Galway (I was a budding flutist when I saw him with the MN Orchestra, still remember his way of almost dancing while he played). “Cats” in London (before ALW brought the show to Broadway and over-produced the music) was magical – a transformative piece of theater (and got me thinking a lot more about how the set affects the show). David Bowie put on a fabulous show, and and Billy Bragg probably put on one of the more heartfelt shows I’ve seen. Brass Kings, Beau Soleil, Carmen at the MN Opera – all perfect in their humaness an lovely…pick one? Can’t do it.

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      1. The music in its original form was written so that “Cats” could tour easily – so it was written, as I recall, for four keyboard synthesizers. Sparse, light, and to my ear, a sound closer to what I might expect to hear real cats dancing to if they went out to a speakeasy for the night. When it went to Broadway Weber re-wrote a number of the pieces and added more instruments. So it went from being a clean, jazzy sound to Big Broadway Sound – the sort of big, highly produced, opulent sound most people expect from a Broadway musical. Not bad, necessarily, just not to my taste.

        Perhaps a good way to think of it would be to think about something like Appalachian Spring – clean, open harmonies, light, and lovely – what would happen to that if a great composer more prone to bigger orchestral sound (say Beethoven) got his hands on it and re-wrote it. It would probably still be good, but not the same. And if you heard the Copland first and then Beethoven’s re-write you would have a very different experience than if you started with the Beethoven version.

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  2. Two performances that pleased both my ears and heart were played at a small barn east of Barnum…one was Claudia Schmidt, the other was Clearwater Hot Club. The intimacy of the hayloft, warm colors and great music…ah, the memory keeps pleasing.

    On a less lofty note (so to speak) were the performances of friend’s at one of my landmark birthdays…including a silly song or two written just for me. Again, the space helped — a very small church turned theater just up the road.

    Two more…the Brothers Frantzich singing in the old music camp lodge near Barnum. ..the first time I heard Bach played on a pipe organ in Mackey Auditorium at the University of Colorado.

    I think the venue makes a big difference to me, I get distracted by large crowds and halls…worst concerts I’ve been to have been of favorites Gordon Lightfoot and Judy Collins…but we were talking about great performances.

    Thanks, Dale, for another hook to pull up memories on. Good morning albeit the snow coming down.

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    1. same barn hayloft, CiM but Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman – when they did “Green” on a warm, green summer night, i thought i’d died and been transported. magical. but also Peter Mayer in that same loft. i agree – the venue is important and smaller is better.
      i really enjoyed David Byrne at the State Theater long ago and almost every performance we’ve ever been to at the BigTop Chataqua – especially Different Drums of Ireland and Natalie MacMaster (Anna, Natalie outright dances while she fiddles – Cape Breton style – amazing)
      but then one rainy afternoon at our CSA annual meeting and maybe 15 of us sitting around, Sarah Thomsen just brought me to tears.

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      1. I fell in love with Clearwater’s fiddler…was his name Rafael? He was French, died of leukemia (?) soon after.

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    3. Claudia Schmidt is one of my favorites. I remember her lighting up the stage at a show that Dale and Jim Ed put on in St Peter as part of the Morning Show.

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    4. Claudia Schmidt fans note: she is doing two shows tomorrow (Thursday) night at the Gingko Coffeehouse in St. Paul. You can see the calendar here.

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  3. It is hard to pick. It was wonderful to hear Maxim Vengerov with the Chicago Symphony, Danile Barenboim conducting, play the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. He broke a string in the middle of it, and insisted on replacing the string with a spare he had in his pocket rather than just grabbing the concert master’s violin;. I guess i would rather play on a Strad if i had a choice.

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  4. Good morning to all:

    Like Anna, I have a hard time picking a single performance that is my all time favorite. I’ve heard many preformance that I thought were outstanding at the Cedar.
    Dean Mcgraw and the bands with which he preforms, Dave King playing with various people including Dean, and my own son-in-law, Zack Klein playing in the Orange Mighty Trio. I very much like unique pairings of musicans including Nirmala Rajasekar playing a synthesis of traditional Indian music and jazz with Anthony Cox. Another great combination was Cambodian musican, Bun Loeung, playing all kinds of music with Dick Hensold. I guess either the preformance of Nirmala and Anthony or that of Bun and Dick would be at the top of my list.

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  5. I may think of others, but the first time I saw “Riverdance” blew me outa the water. I love to see great dancing. There were two drummers, and those powerful drums and the music, the lighting, plus all that focused precision… wow.

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    1. Barbara, did you that Katie Mcmahon, who was a lead singer in River Dance, now lives in Minnesota and puts on shows here. I am especially aware of Katie’s preformances because by son-in-law, Zack, plays in the band that backs her. She often has some good dancers included in her programs.

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  6. Rise and Shine Baboons:

    Ditto to, “Just one?”

    Meanwhile, in college I saw a pianist from a small town in Iowa, Lindy Klarenbeek, give an unbelievably powerful solo performance alone on a stage with no production at all. She spent her career teaching music, then died of cancer several years ago. She was also my accompanist for Mozart’s Clarinet in A. Several years ago I attended the Eden Prairie Colors Marching Band contest and watched the marching band from Pipestone, MN blow the stadium away.

    The Cleveland Symphony, Three Dog Night, John Denver’s first series of concerts that were not overproduced, and many more.

    Then there were those great Morning Shows at the State Fair. Gotta love it.

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    1. I saw John Denver at UWRF in the early 70’s. It was the first concert I’d ever been to. He was more of a folksinger than a big pop sensation at that point, and it was a good show.

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  7. Morning–

    Thanks for the writing today Dale.
    I have seen so many good shows. Everything from a ‘hawker’ in the Grandstand at the State Fair (This guy was GOOD! I don’t remember what he was selling but he had the audience hooked and when I left I said ‘Now there was a show!’ It’s not necessarily about the set or lights or costumes. It’s about finding that connection.)
    I don’t think anyone can match Trans Siberian Orchestra for sheer ‘spectacle’ of a production. (Maybe U2).
    Sometimes everything comes together just right; a great cast that cares and likes each other, good direction, a fun setting including set and lighting and costumes and the show just sparkles.
    Sometimes it’s a solo performer or musical group that connects and makes for a great show.

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  8. Tough question, Dale. So many possibilities to consider. Plus, what is the definition of ‘best’? Most technically proficient and musically ‘perfect’? Most exciting? Most emotionally powerful? Or the not-so-technically-great show where for some reason, when you left the performance hall, you just had this indescribable feeling of joy, amazement, contentedness and warm personal connection to the performers?

    Performances that come to mind for one or more of those reasons are Bette Midler at an outdoor amphitheater in suburban Chicago (mermaids in wheel chairs doing choreography–fuggedaboudit!); Simon and Garfunkel at the Excel Center several years ago–the Ex has surprisingly great acoustics for a hockey arena, and S&G sang ALL their tunes, including some I hadn’t heard in 20 years, but found myself singing along with them perfectly (along with everyone else in the audience!); Maurice Andre at Orchestra Hall back in the late 70s, perfection personified; Maynard Ferguson and his band at the classic Prom Center back in the 70s–for the closer, ‘Hey Jude’, he put his trumpeters out amongst the crowd and by the time they were done, EVERYONE in the audience was STANDING on their CHAIRS, singing along as the trumpets wailed for what seemed like ten minutes straight; Heck, for that matter, EVERY concert at the Prom in the 70s was fantastic–all the great big bands played there–Ellington, Basie, Kenton, Rich, Herman, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, etc.

    I’ll stop now because I need to get back to work, but I’m sure I’ll think of a dozen more the rest of the morning.

    Chris

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  9. Mine is a little complicated, although I (too) have several others I could bring out. My teenaged idol was a loud, brash plumber named Buzz Leland. Buzz shot trap and skeet at the little Izaak Walton club where I worked and shot in my teen years. Buzz was a natural athlete and big puppy who had FUN every night we shot. He routinely had high scores, but mostly he was there to joke around and keep everyone else in light spirits.

    Then one winter weekend Buzz almost killed himself. He worked on his plumbing truck, and because it was so cold, he had the motor running. A neighbor somehow figured out that he was in trouble and dragged Buzz’s body out into fresh air. Buzz was as much dead as alive after that carbon monoxide poisoning.

    He was never the same as a shotgun shot. That year Buzz would hit maybe 14 or 17 clay targets in a round. Before the accident, he routinely hit 24 or 25 birds a round. We who liked him were sad, but at least he was alive.

    That summer, the Iowa State Skeet Championship was held in Ames. I walked around with the Ames squad to watch them. Buzz did his best to encourage the other shooters. It wasn’t until they had shot 100 targets that anyone noticed that Buzz had a score of 99. That put him in a shootoff with one other shooter, a guy from Des Moines who shot with the precision of a robot. The guys from Ames were astonished that Buzz, after nearly dying months ago, was a co-leader of the tournament.

    The shootoff that followed will forever be a precious memory for me. The guy from Des Moines just crushed all his birds. Buzz barely chipped many of his, and yet he kept shooting. And when they had shot another 75 birds, Buzz beat him by one target.

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    1. I dashed the above off quickly in AM before rushing to an appointment, and I missed that we were being asked about a musical performance. Back when the Scholar Coffeehouse was my second home, I went to catch a Leo Kottke performance on a hot summer day. A violent thunderstorm blew up, and one of the lightning strikes blitzed out the electrical power in that area of Minneapolis.

      But we got the performance. Leo sat cross-legged on the raised stage next to a railroad lantern. All the audience members sat in a tight circle around him, getting close since there would be no microphone or amplifier to make the sound easy to hear. It was the most intimate and pleasing performance I’ve had the pleasure of hearing.

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  10. I have quite a few… been lucky enough to see Wicked in London… what a great voice she had.

    But right off the top of my head, I have to say I’ve never sobbed at a performance like I did when Peter Ostrousko sang “You Are My Sunshine” at the last Morning Show!

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  11. While in high school in Marshmallowtown (just kidding), Iowa, someone managed a production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” to be performed in the Methodist Church sanctuary. An ecumenical endeavor, the cast and chorus were people from any church in town, and it was, to my teenage eyes, stunning, and a tear jerker. I saw it again when the SPCO did a production with the James Sewell Dance Co. in Ted Mann Concert Hall, another outstanding performance.

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  12. A Minnesota band that I didn’t mention above that I really like is Boiled in Lead. When they played at the Fitzgerald a few years ago they included in the program a great cuban singer who lives in Minnesota, Gloria Rivera. I very much liked Gloria Rivera’s singing. Gloria preforms regularly with a great band, Salsa Del Soul.

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  13. We also heard John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers with John Mcvie on bass in Minneaplolis in the early 1980’s. The music was great, but the concert was most memorable for me since I had my first (and last) actual panic attack in the theatre. I still have no idea why that happened.

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    1. I do not attend concerts because the sensual input (noise, lights, congestion, smells) overwhelm my system, sort of like a panic attack, I suppose, with raw pain from my FM. I had to leave church last Sunday from the Palms, as per usual. I have not been to an Easter service for many years because of the Lilies (but do not tell my grand daughter Lily).
      But small outdoor concerts used to work for me, maybe still would. In 1984 Charlie Mcquire did a performance at the Two Harbors band shell as part of the centennial of the first shipment of ore in MN. About 1400 people standing, sitting, lying in a a park on a perfect summer evening. And Charlie, as he doe,s built the perfect relationship with the crowd.
      The every-Thursday-evening-city-band-performance at that band shell are fun for the community feel, but seldom for the high quality of the music. Just for seeing your 60-year-old neighbor up there still playing the coronet along side college and high school kids.

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  14. I think I may have a new favorite performance, Dale. Watching the video you posted of Ladysmith Black Mambazo just gave me goosebumps (a highly-scientific, undocumented emotional reaction). I get emotional “bumps” from music all the time. It makes me laugh, cry and even dance in my own clunky Scandinavian way.

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    1. “Mike Pengra” and “clunky” don’t belong in the same sentence.
      Everything I’ve ever seen you do was graceful. Truly.

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  15. In addition to the shows I’ve seen since I moved to the Cities, I put in 10 years at the DECC (formerly the Duluth Arena-Auditorium or D-double-A, as we used to call it) from 1983-1993. I’ve seen too many good shows for ‘just one.’

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  16. Thanks for leaving the words “best” and “performance” wide open, Dale-impossible to choose just one out of all the possibilities.

    The two that are most memorable for me are both from the Washington days.

    The Washington Opera held a gala to mark Placido Domingo’s inauguration as artistic director-lots of fabulous music, but for me, the highlight was an 8 hands, 2 piano Flight of the Valkyrie’s played by Domingo, Leonard Slatkin and the Labeque Sisters. They had practised together maybe twice prior to performing. Might not have been the “best” musically, but it was great theatre.

    The other was the live performance by Eileen Atkins as Virginia Woolf in “A Room of One’s Own”. I was working at the theatre she was performing at, so could go several times to a SRO sold-out show. It was good when she did it on Masterpiece Theatre, but live-absolutely rivetting.

    Perks of the career, got to see all of this for nothing.

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  17. I can’t narrow it down to just one, either. Sorry.

    The St. Olaf Choir and mass chorus at the Christmas Festival in 1977. Michael Hedges at Orchestra Hall in 1984 and 1985. He was thrilling, amazing, magical. Loreena McKennitt, also at Orchestra Hall in 1993. Greg Brown at Oak Center General Store in 1987 or ’88, before he got “big.” Claudia Schmidt doing “Make it Across the Road” also at Oak Center, also in the late ’80s. Tom Paxton at the Shattuck Newhall Auditorium in Faribault, April 1993. Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman at the Bothy Folk Club in Mankato twice and at Rock Bend Folk Festival once. Sloan Wainwright, also at the Bothy Folk Club in Mankato, several years ago. Sloan is not well-known but she is an amazing singer/songwriter. I don’t think she has done anything recently. John Hartford at Rock Bend Folk Festival in the mid to late ’90s – I can’t remember which year. The New Primitives at Rock Bend about three years ago. I got to watch them from behind and about 10 feet away. Wow. Honeyboy Edwards at Rock Bend. Eliza Gilkyson at Rock Bend. The World’s Most Dangerous Polka Band at Rock Bend. Pete Bloedel’s comedy/juggling act at Rock Bend – seriously, you will laugh until you cry and the kids look like they will lay their little lives at his feet!

    I could go on but I don’t think I should. Great topic, Dale!

    (Note: Dean Magraw will be playing at the Bothy Folk Club in Mankato on May 6. The Bothy Folk Club events are at the Mankato Eagles Club, in the large auditorium, south door, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 for members and $15 for non-members.)

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      1. I was in St. Peter on Monday April 11, just before the new Coop opened. I’ll be back there on Monday, April 25, and I plan to check it out. I’ve heard it’s really fabulous!

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    2. John Hartford…after adoring him from first seeing him on the Smothers Brothers show in the 60s, I finally got to see him live shortly before he died.

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      1. John Hartford loved performing in the Chautauqua tent up near Bayfield, WI. I caught one of his performances. At one point, John came off the stage to go bopping up and down the aisles, playing while making great eye contact with the audience.

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    3. Krista, I was at the Rock Bend Folk Restival the yeart that John Hartford was there. I made the mistake of only associating John Hartford with the Glen Campbell TV show and though he was sort of a pop preformer. I left before he preformed. I had a conflict and couldn’t get to Rock Bend last year, but hope to attend this year.

      It is good to know that Dean McGraw will be in Mankato. I might make plans to attend that show. I tend to go the Cities to hear music, but Mankato is actually a little closer than the cities for me.

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    4. I’ve been lucky enough to be at a bar in Stillwater for The New Primatives – what a group to dance to!

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  18. Me too with one is not enough, and most of mine are not original. We saw Natalie McMaster years ago when she was just a kid, at a free outdoor concert I think at Coon Rapids Regional Park, I’m pretty sure we knew about it from mention on TLGMS. Wow! She blew me away!

    Leon Redbone, Lyle Lovett and His Large Band and Keb ‘Mo are “don’t miss ’em if you can help it” events. Cirque du Soliel shows always amaze and mesmorize me. A fairly recent discovery was Pink Martini. Saw them at the Fitz a couple of years ago and had tickets for a show with the Minnesota Orchestra for a week or so ago but the lead singer was sick and the show was rescheduled for the end of July. I get to anticipate it all over again. The more I write, the more I think of. You get the idea. Wouldn’t this snow be pretty in early December?

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  19. Oh yeah, saw Trombone Shorty at the zoo last summer. What an amazing show! We’ve been introduced to a lot of new-to-us acts at zoo concerts, sometimes the opener for who we bought the ticket to see. Wish they hadn’t tried to squeeze in so many seats per row, bumped the prices so high, and added a $50 surcharge for the “boxes” but it’s still fun now and then.

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  21. Wow
    Dylan at the Olympics 96 number 1
    Dylan at Fargo baseball field or mn state fair or orpheum
    The Guthrie hosted miles Davis arlp Guthrie james Taylor john Denver john prine and steve goodman jethro Tull Joe cocker at th paul cathedral doing Bach cello concertos
    Yak mahal richie havens and frank Zappa at the depot lion king at broadway the rolling stones the Vienna boys choir Itzak pearlman chantacli
    Double wow

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    1. I saw Steve Goodman at the Guthrie too. I remember that when he sang “You Never Even Call Me By My Name” he asked to borrow a cowboy hat from someone in the audience. The guy gave him the hat, and then offered his boots too. Say, was that you?

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  22. One performance that really stands out is Storyhill at the Fitz two years ago, singing Steady On. The recording that MPR made of it is wonderful, but can’t quite do justice to the experience in the theater that night. Goosebumps just thinking about it.

    Martin Sexton at Sundin Hall a few years ago was an amazing show. The microphone was on the fritz, so he just shrugged and set it aside and sang without amplification. It’s a small hall with good acoustics and it worked perfectly.

    Another memorable show was Bruce Springsteen at the Civic Center Theater in St. Paul around 1975 or ’76. I read an interview in which he said something to the effect of “Every night I want to be able to walk off the stage and say I gave everything I had tonight…and then I gave a little more.” His reputation for incredible live performances is well deserved.

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  23. A late addition: Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie (backed by Arlo’s son) at the MN State Fair, maybe late 80s. Pete would play a song, then Arlo – and while one played, the other would sit back (Pete stretched out on the rug they had on stage). They played a few together – it was amazing. They got everyone singing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” – can still sort of hear it echoing through the grandstand. Great stuff. (And then afterward, walking around the mostly-closed fairgrounds with my friends listening to the “night sounds” of the fair – including the looped recording from one of the sideshow trucks that declared, “…and if it’s not for real, we’ll give you the truck.” Though I don’t remember what was supposedly “for real.”)

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  24. I remembered another one. Dale had Joel Rafael and his daughter Jamaica on the LGMS one morning when I was on my way to St. Paul for work. I was blown away by what I was hearing. (Did you ever feel like crawling right through your radio and giving Dale a big hug???) Anyway, I had that music in my head all day at work; I drove home to Faribault, grabbed a friend and drove back to the Cedar that night. I’m SO GLAD I did that! It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. Thanks again, Dale!

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  25. Fabulous reading today, you all! What a fabulous group… I now have a big ole list of music to keep an ear out for!

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  26. Louden wainwright iii duke Ellington count Basie chick corea it was yo yo ma doing Bach at the cathedral doc and Merle Watson Lyle Lovett randy Newman Bobby mcfarrin peter ostruschko a solo cellist with Schubert club last year stephan grapelli dr john Leon russel bb king blood sweat and tears Michael johnson George Winston
    What nice memories

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  28. Garth Brooks. Seriously. He did an amazing show back in the 90’s. He ended the concert with a solo guitar rendition of Piano Man that was gorgeous.

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  29. So many good concerts. In the last month I had the good fortune to have seen two knock-em-dead shows. One was That1Guy (http://www.that1guy.com) in Omaha. So full of energy, magic and showmanship! The other was Randy Newman in Edmonds, WA.

    Still two shows left me with a very warm feeling. The first was Greg Brown some years back at Cafe Carpe in WI where he channeled Johnny Cash. The second was Martin Hayes playing in my kitchen as my 5 day old listened (with others about) some 19 years ago.

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