As shows have tended to do during my time at Wolf Trap, this one was better than I thought it would be. As with previous shows, I came in with expectations about the soft R&B/Soul style that both the artists last night were going to perform. I figured it would sound like a combination of elevator music and slow Lionel Ritchie. Once again however, Wolf Trap showed me that almost every artist is adaptable. Boney James got his start in the 1980's after graduating from UCLA (yikes). He performed in small clubs for a number of years before he released his first record in 1992. Since then, he has become one of the most well known contemporary jazz musicians in the world and was named the number 3 jazz artist of the decade by Billboard magazine. He has sold over 3 million records worldwide and has toured all over the world. His stage presence is remarkable and kept both me and the rest of the audience into the music. While I thought his music would be slow like Kenny G, a lot of his songs were upbeat and his band was rockin' pretty good. His skill is no doubt unquestionable and he may be the best sax player I've ever seen. Eric Benet is a soul singer who got his start in the late 90's as an R&B singer who combined 70's style should music with more contemporary themes. He has since made a name for himself in the R&B world and has done collaborations with a number of popular artist on his albums including Lil Wayne and Faith Evans. While I'm not a fan of his music per say, I can't deny that he has an incredible voice and it was pleasure to hear him sing in the first place. He seemed very on ease on the stage and engaged the audience well. While neither of these artists performed music I would listen to normally, I ended up liking the show a lot more than I thought I would simply for the talent of the musicians and singers.
On the job side, my last show was unremarkable. Other than there being a lot more chairs to deal with than normal, the relatively light crowd was easy to deal with and everything, including the lawn clearing, was pretty easy. It's funny how it took the whole summer to realize this but I believe now that one of the great parts of this job is seeing everyone else happy. I can't help but smile when people were dancing and singing along to the music and I truly thing that's what this job is all about. As my last show post, I'm so glad that I decided to do this blog because it had become a tangible memory of this incredible summer. Looking forward to going back to Wolf Trap sometime in the near future!
My favorite part of this show was when Boney James performed a cover of "Grazing in the Grass" as his encore. I think his version was better than the original and he really took the song to another level with his intense and energetic playing!
DC
 |
| Eric Benet |
 |
| Boney James |
No comments:
Post a Comment