The Rob and Anne Hummel Anniversary celebration (26 years!) ramped up several notches last night. A portion of the night before (which was our actual Anniversary day) was spent sipping Jamba Juices in the church parking lot before we assumed our duties as ushers. I don't know about Rob, but it left me feeling a little underwhelmed.
While reading the LA Times the next morning, I saw yet another announcement for the Carole King/James Taylor concert. I had tried many times to get tickets but it was a very mysterious process and no easy explanations were available. There were rumors about the concert, then confirmation of concert and rumors about tickets. Anyway, on the morning of the concert I thought, what if they were waiting until the day of, in order to foil scalpers? Aha! It wasn't easy to navigate, but I gave them my credit card number and we were set. Standing Room Only - but that's ok.
The last time we had gone to a James Taylor concert, it was at the Universal Amphitheater and we spent the whole evening listening to some guy in the audience yell, "Fire and Rain!" every time there was a slight break in the music, and sometimes when there wasn't. That really ruined the large venue thing for me.
This was the 50th Anniversary of the Troubadour which is pretty incredible in and of itself. (A little less than twice the Rob & Anne Hummel anniversary...) The Troubadour was the place where the careers were launched of JT and CK, along with Eagles, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, etc. I had only been there twice - once to see Gordon Lightfoot and once to see Judy Collins.
Our tickets were for the 10 pm show. We arrived at 8:40 and were immediately surprised by our friends, Theo and Cindy Gluck, who were almost at the front of the line. (If they weren't our friends before, they sure were now that we saw their line placement!) We joined them and stared at all the people in line who looked just like us. These were our people. Then the early show let out and everyone (more people who looked like us) streamed by with huge grins on their faces. They would say, "You're in for a wonderful time." "You have a real treat ahead of you." "That was unbelievable!" "I've never experienced anything like that." One woman came back and whispered into Cindy's ear, "Stand near the piano." We decided to stand near the piano.
It was the perfect bit of advice. We ended up being strategically centered between where Carol would be on piano and James on guitar. No more than five feet from either one. Five feet!
A friend of Theo and Cindy's came over to talk. Turns out that it was Larry Goldings, who is James Taylor's accompianist on his latest cd, "One Man Band." (You would think that would make it a two man band, but Taylor says that it's Larry who's the one man band.) He is a well-known jazz musician and has been accompanying James for several years. Larry and his wife went to sit in the VIP section, which was in the balcony and much further back so we felt happy that we were so close.
We could see the twinkle in their eyes. We could see every expression on their face. And there was a lot of expression going on. They clearly loved being/playing together, and the crowd definitely caught the significance of what we were witnessing.
Both of them played the songs that got them their start in the music business. For Carole, it was "Will you still love me tomorrow?" and for James it was "Something in the Way She Moves." Carole's song was first made a hit by the Shirelles in 1961, when she was only 19. James took his song to Peter Asher (who was there Thursday night) who took it to Paul McCartney and George Harrison who both loved it and convince Asher to produce it.
I think the best part was hearing the two singing together. Each doing the harmony for the other. And improvising off of each other. Sometimes they would close their eyes and listen to the other. I'm not sure if it gets any more beautiful than that.
James said that the first time he heard "You've Got a Friend" was listening to Carole from the balcony at the Troubadour. He said that Carole offered him the song to record before she recorded it. Then he smiled and said, "Little did I know I'd be singing that song every week... for the rest of my life!"
Also in attendance was Joni Mitchell (though we didn't see her), Mickey Dolenz, Al Pacino, Jimmy Kimmel, and John C. McGinley (Perry from Scrubs) - it was an eclectic group. After seeing what must have looked like 16 year old yearning in my eyes, Rob tried desperately to take a photo of me with Mickey. But, alas, it didn't turn out, so we had to settle for a photo with me in the foreground and blurry Mickey (you can see his hat) in the background. Let's just say that for a brief moment that evening, Mickey had his arm around my shoulder. My mom was SO wrong about the Monkees when she said they'd never last...
1 comment:
What a great concert... and reason to celebrate! Congrats! I saw James Taylor at Universal a well... but seeing him at the Troubadour would be an AMAZING treat. With Carol King no less!
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