Saw Eric Clapton, Wynton Marsalis and Taj Mahal together last night

[DFW]

I was supposed to go down to Washington yesterday, but my sister was offered 4 tix to this special show,
and asked if my daughter (the one left in the USA, who lives in Manhattan) and I wanted to come. I would
have replied with the rhetorical question asking if a bear performs a certain bodily function in the woods,
but as a real 200 pound bear was doing just that on her front lawn recently (she lives WAY out in western NJ),
I didn't.

I've never seen Clapton in this context. The band had 2 trumpets, a trombone, a clarinet, drums, double bass,
an electric keyboard, a grand piano and a 4 string banjo. Most of the music was either Dixieland-based or
straight New Orleans old style jazz--real Preservation Hall stuff. Clapton even did "Layla" as sort of his
unplugged version morphed into a New Orleans funeral dirge. Just wild. The vocal back and forth between Mahal
and Clapton was quite something too. Clapton's guitar was as distinctive as ever, and at some points was
awkward like the square peg into a round hole, but it mostly fit, and mostly brilliantly. The only weird thing
was that we were asked to come in formal wear, of which I have none. I had to go rent a tux, which I hadn't
done since the Gridiron Club show of 1995 (to meet Bill Clinton for the first time, believe me, I was willing
to do the penguin routine for the evening!).



What a wild week! Spent most of Tuesday afternoon with Howard Dean, Wednesday afternoon with Dr. Ruth Westheimer,
last night with my B-I-L, my sister and elder daughter, and Helen Thomas was kind enough to put off our dinner
from tonight (Friday) to Saturday so as to give me time to see the Clapton et al. concert last night in NYC.
The real world begins anew next Monday, but I'm flying kinda high right now!!

[monmouth]

1. I want that black dress. Glad you had a great time, I love Clapton...n/t

[DFW]

3. My daughter works at Lord & Taylor

It helps!

[monmouth]

5. Well she's gorgeous, the dress just enhances that. L&T...sigh..n/t

[DFW]

8. She gets paid slave wages and gets 10 days vacation a year

But she loves living in Manhattan, and is willing to suffer the working conditions until she
can find something better, which in the fashion world is REALLY difficult in this economy.

As for her looks, well luckily for me, she takes after my wife, who looked like this on our
wedding day:



You can see that the majority of her genes came from my better half!

[whistler162]

2. The whole Taj Mahal? Big venue!

;)

[DFW]

4. Curried Blues!

Who could ask for more?

[pootbutta]

13. TAJ yeah!

Taj is one of my all-time musical heros. I adore him, always have!

[bif]

6. What an unusual combo

But hey, if it worked, it worked.

[DFW]

7. That's what I thought when I heard of the program

Clapton and W. Marsalis? What could they even play that they both knew?

But it did work--did it EVER work!

[MiddleFingerMom]

9. I saw Sting play with Branford Marsalis & Youssou N'Dour...

.
.
.
...at an Amnesty Int'l concert at the now-defunct JFK Stadium in Philly (what
a fucking show -- one of the highlights was Sting and Tracy Chapman doing
a duet of "I'll be Watching You" which, in the context of Amnesty Int'l, took on
a whole new meaning.)
.
.
"Dream of the Blue Turtles" is my favorite Sting album (including The Police).
.
.
I saw an interview with Branford, who said he started off playing the clarinet...
but looked around and didn't see clarinet players getting the girls.
.
THAT was reserved for sax players.
.
The rest is history.
.
.
"
.Shadows in the Rain"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2h8ZqMe0TY
.
.
.

[DFW]

10. What a great story about clarinet players not getting the girls!

Of course, I played guitar, bass and keyboards and still never got the girls.

I took up 12 string guitar, but met my wife-to-be soon after, so I never found out if that
would have improved my situation or not. Thank goodness, I no longer had to worry, though.
The only thing I had to do was make sure she never found her glasses, which she always
misplaced. No way a woman like that would have stuck with me if she had gotten a good look
at me from the beginning.

[Dappleganger]

11. Lucky you!

[pootbutta]

12. stop flaunting it!!!

ok you are making me extremely jealous!!!!!!!!!
sounds amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DFW]

14. The first song scared me

Here was Eric Clapton, THE Eric Clapton, and Wynton Marsalis and a 10 piece band, and the first number
they do is Clapton singing "I scream, you scream, everybody wants ice cream..." and I'm thinking WTF?

But they got down, and never looked back.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

15. What an amazing night, my dear DFW!

And what an improbable combo of musicians too!

Lucky, lucky you...

How many people can ask Helen Thomas for a rain check, and get it???

Damn.

I'd be flying high too...

You lucky dog!

And your daughter is gorgeous!

:hi:

[bluesbassman]

16. Wow, what a show.

Very cool way to see those guys, I'm jealous as hell! :)

And you're topping it off with a trip to the guitar auction? You my friend, are on a roll! You want to pick up some lottery tickets for me? :rofl:

[DFW]

17. I can't make the guitar auction, BUT...

The guys are giving me a tour of their guitar warehouse, which, they say, has about ten to twenty time the number of
instruments listed in that one catalog. They will have to drag me out of there kicking, screaming and broke!

I NEVER win raffles or lotteries, so me buying tickets for me, you, or even Karl Rove (who apparently has a knack
for fixing things) would be a waste of money.

I won exactly one lottery in my life and that was meeting my wife at age 22. I'll tell you what, though: that
outshines all the material stuff, although it might not seem so when confronted with a few 50s Strats and some
Rickenbacker 12 strings and basses! LOL.