Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 12:38 pm Post subject: Tonight's the first night
Larry and Robben at the Blue Note for 4 nights starting tonight. I was planning to go all 4 nights, but I have a friend from LA visting this week so I cancelled my reservation for one night so I can hang with him for a while. I'll be there tonight though, for both shows. I'll report later.
Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:34 pm Post subject: first night
I saw the first two shows last night. I've only had 3 hours of sleep so far, so this going to be brief. Robben is never a disappointment, so I'm not going to ramble on about how hot he is playing. In fact, they both looked a bit tired last night, but in spite of that, they put on a great show. There are just a few unexpected things that I'll mention now, then I'm going back to bed.
First of all, they did Talk to Your Daughter, which was a huge hit with the crowd. Robben even grinned a bit when the people went crazy at the beginning. So that was a nice treat.
They also did some new tunes that they wrote apparently just for these shows. And Robben sang one tune from his nephew's CD. His nephew's name is Gabriel Ford, and the name of the CD is "Gabe Ford". You can get it on the Blue Rock'It website. By the way, Blue Rock'It also announced a new Ford Blue Band live tribute CD, "The Butterfield/Bloomfield Concert".
In addition to the '57 Les Paul, which of course sounded great, Robben also played a new Sakashta guitar, which looks like a really fancy Les Paul. I have no information on the guitar, but I'll try to talk to the guitar tech to see if he knows anything about it. In the meantime, I'll email Taku Sakashta and see if he can tell me about it.
Finally, although in the past I have complained about Larry's live performances (and CD's), last night gave me a whole new respect for the man (in spite of the cigarette smoking on stage). He was entertaining, gracious and played his butt off all night. It was good to see him with some fire in his playing for a change.
The last time I gave an honest opinion on something here, a newbie flammed me for being a male chauvinist, so I should probably keep my mouth shut. But I will say that, probably because they had played a couple other clubs in Japan first, and then a jazz festival the day before, the band looked pretty tired last night, and it kind of showed in their playing. Hopefully they'll get some rest now that they're settled in one club for a few more days. But I imagine the interviews and whatnot will keep them pretty busy.
The Blue Note in Tokyo is not a good place to meet and talk to a band. They pretty much fill the club up, march in the band for the show, march them back out after the show, then clear out the club and do it all over again. So you can't hang around and talk to the guys after the show. That means there is very little chance of my being able to talk with Robben this time. I'm quite disappointed by that, but I guess that's the way it goes. At least I get to hear the shows.
I'm going back tonight, taking tomorrow night off (I have a friend visiting from LA so I'll be hanging with him one night), then back again on Thursday, when rumor has it they'll be recording for a DVD. Let's hope that happens.
Joined: 29 Jan 2004 Posts: 1504 Location: Methuen, MA
Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:51 pm Post subject:
Thanks, Bill, for the late-night review. And, I say, speak freely and don't let anyone's, especially a newbie's, flames get to you. I honestly don't remember you ever being accused of being a male chauvinist, just an old codger...
Thanks, Bill, for the late-night review. And, I say, speak freely and don't let anyone's, especially a newbie's, flames get to you. I honestly don't remember you ever being accused of being a male chauvinist, just an old codger...
Looking forward to more...
I must plead guilty to being an old codger. Getting older by the day it seems. My brief stint as a male chauvinist was thanks to a new female member who apparently joined for the sole purpose of berating me for my comment that Hilary didn't have the swing or jazz feel of Tom Brechtlein or Vinnie.
Well, after two more hours of sleep, my cat woke me up, so here I am again, bleary eyed and still sleepy. However, I did get a reply from Taku Sakashta regarding Robben's guitar. It is called the NouPaul (meaning art nouveau Les Paul). There are currently only 3 in existence, two prototypes and Robben's guitar. It's basically modeled after the Les Paul, but much more fancy. The pickups in it now are Antiquities (I kind of thought they might be), but it appears that may change at some point. You can see a picture of one similar to Robben's here:
Speaking of pickups, I "commented" before about the Jim Rolph pickups that Robben was having put in his b3 guitar, and said that I found the Rolph pickups to be rather hard and brittle sounding. Well as it turns out, the Rolph's tend to be wound rather hot, which can make them sound that way, and a little birdie told me that Robben asked Jim Rolph to make him some pickups that are not so hot, more along the lines of a PAF, so that should make a considerable difference. At this point though, I don't know if that has been done yet, or if Robben is playing the b3 yet.
My friend just turned me on to Robben's music! I'm hooked!
Bill, you are so lucky to see Robben at the Blue Note.
Besides Robben and Larry who else is in the band?
Cool info, Bill! Interesting looking LP knockoff, I've never heard of the manufacturer.
The guitar is made by Taku Sakashta. Sakashta-san made two other guitars for Robben around the time of the Jing Chi CD, called the Indian. I have one of those guitars myself, made from the same piece of mahogany as Robben's two guitars. The Sakashta guitars are all handmade, they take a long time to make, and they are very expensive. You can get more information here:
As a point of interest, I spoke with Robben last night and he showed me the new guitar. It has all the finish removed from the back of the neck, something I have always wanted to do, and Robben said he likes it so much he wants to do it to all his guitars. However, as I have always heard that removing the finish from a mahogany neck can enable it to absorb moisture and warp, I have asked Sakashta-san if he did something to the neck to protect it from moisture, while still retaining the feel of bare wood. I'll report back if I get an answer.
My friend just turned me on to Robben's music! I'm hooked!
Bill, you are so lucky to see Robben at the Blue Note.
Besides Robben and Larry who else is in the band?
Jeff Babcock on keys, Toss Panos on drums and Travis Carlton on bass. I'm not sure about the spelling of Jeff's name.
[quote="PierreL"]I read somewhere that the first show was airplayed on Japanese FM radio. Any info on that ?[/quote]
I think you are talking about the "Tokyo Jazz Festival 2006" that took place on the 3rd. "L.Carlton with Robben Ford" did a short set that day, and the whole thing was broadcasted on FM radio. Larry mentioned that they'd be playing at BlueNote Tokyo for the next four nights, and that all four would be recorded, but he might have meant "one of the four nights"...
Bill, thanks for the report! And those "Sakashta" guitars look great. Interesting how he decided to spell his name that way, instead of "Sakashita" with an "i" in it, which would be the correct way of spelling it.
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