Robben Ford Discussion

BlueRunner

All I can say is … WOW.

I made the pleasant 90-minute drive down I-80 and across to Marin County on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to hear Robben and Anne at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, as they brought Robben's current "duo-plus" show to Northern California.

The Throckmorton was built in the early 1920s as a silent movie house, was run by the Oddfellows for years, and lately impeccably restored by a local non-profit. It has a full calendar of cultural events, local theatre, classes, and art shows. I had a reserved seat, at a little table back a bit from the stage, where I could enjoy Champaign and a cheese and fruit plate during Anne's set. Pretty swanky.

Anne's performance was wonderful. The highlight for me was Landesman & Wolf's "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most." Written in 1952, I'm most familiar with Frank Sinatra's and Linda Ronstadt's versions. Anne gave them both a run for the money. And it hadn't previously occurred to me that Ira Gershwin, who outlived his brother George for 46 years, didn't just sit around and mope for the rest of his life, but collaborated with a whole ton of people, including Kurt Weill and Jerome Kern.

Anne started her set off with her "new drummer," Robben, sitting in the shadows on Gary Novak's drumset using brushes on the cymbals to put a little spice in her first number, and she gave him ample credit afterwards ("… let's hear it for my percussionist Robben Ford … he's just starting out in the business …").

As for Robben, Russell Ferrante and Gary Novak, what can one say? The music was awesome, and the interplay between Russell and Gary and they grinned across the stage at each other throwing musical calls and responses back and forth was fun to watch. They seemed to be having the time of their lives.

Russell Frerrante is the king of the piano. There's no other way to describe it. Between numbers, Robben commented, "This is the kind of guy that if you have him in your band, and you don't show up ... no one notices."

Standouts for the evening were "Don't Lose Your Faith In Me," from the "Supernatural" album, done with the classical guitar, and the closing number, Mongo Santamaria's "Afro-Blue," which Robben probably first heard done by John Coltrane (who recorded it on his "Afro Blue Impressions" album with his classic quartet, i.e., McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones, in 1963).

As for gear, I don't know who built the classical guitar Robben used for about a third of the numbers (including "Don't Lose Your Faith In Me"). His other axe was his Gibson ES-345, except instead of having Gibson's Bigsby tailpiece, Robben's has a side-pull vibrato of the type used on the SG in the 1960s. Does anyone know the story of this guitar? It sounded great, particularly for the jazz numbers, through what I think was one of Robben's Deluxe Reverbs from home.

The evening had a wonderful intimacy to it, with Robben talking about the various numbers in the set, including one in Spanish ("I don't speak Spanish, so I'll apologize ahead of time to those of you in the audience who do ..." And of course, he then went on to sing wonderfully.)

Got to say "hi" to Anne afterward. She was in love with the Throckmorton. Maybe she and Robben will come back soon.

All in all, a fabulous evening.
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- BlueRunner

frank0936 · Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 6:37 am Post subject: The concert

I'd love to hear Anne sing live. I've only heard the stuff that's on the web and she was great on that. And to have Robben on the same bill would be a wonderful treat. Thanks for the review!
Frank

roadwarriorfortheblues · Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:49 am Post subject:

Thanks for great review BlueRunner. I was hoping someone from this forum would see one of the shows and report back to us. Can you say anything more about Robben's set list? What were some of the other songs played? Were the acoustic numbers played with the same attack and style as Robben plays on an electric guitar? Did he use the chord voicings that are found in his instructional DVDs and chord books? Did he simply the arrangements? Did he use a pick? I wish I could see one of these intimate shows, with Robben playing acoustic.
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Travelling by train of thought

BlueRunner · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:39 am Post subject:

RWFTB: I wish I could tell you more about the set, but a lot of the tunes were either unfamiliar to me, or if they were, unfortunately I didn't write down a set list. Some of this stuff was pretty new to Robben fans, e.g., a long arrangement of a Thelonius Monk piece. Robben talked about the song he sung in Spanish, apparently something he discovered that was recorded many years ago, and just struck his fancy. Another one was an Antonio Carlos Jobim piece that I wasn't familiar with, for which Robben explained that there were lyrics, but that out of deference to the audience, the three of them weren't going to sing. (He mentioned that for some reason he'd always called Jobim "Carlos Antonio Jobim," then looked at Ferrante and asked, "what do you call him?" "Pete," Ferrante shot back, not missing a beat.) Robben's technique on the 345 was a bit of everything he does, using in pick, palming the pick to finger-pick and use his thumb Wes Montgomery-style, chording, etc. On the classical guitar it was similar, but with more chording.
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- BlueRunner

PierreL · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 1:23 pm Post subject:

Must have been a wonderful evening of music. I'm officially jealous Smile

Thanks a lot for the review.

roadwarriorfortheblues · Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 7:18 am Post subject:

ropiyas · Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:03 pm Post subject:

Oh, man!!!! Robben singing in Spanish AND playing some Jobim's tunes!!! Oh, what a treat, what a night!!! Thanks for the review by the way Blue Runner.
I wonder if that 345 is the same one pictured on the Vintage Guitars piece. Hm.