Longineu Parsons Channels Louis Armstrong

Palm Beach Pops Brings New Orleans to Boca Raton

By Skip Sheffield


Jazz great Louis “Satchemo” Armstrong departed this Earth on July 6, 1971, just a month short of his 70th birthday. His spirit will live forever in American music. That living spirit is embodied by countless musicians who have paid tribute to Armstrong’s music, trumpet playing, songwriting and humanist philosophy.
One of the leading proponents of Armstrong’s New Orleans musical heritage is Longineu Parsons.
Paying tribute to Louis Armstrong is not the only thing Parsons does. For the past 19 years he has been Associate Professor of Trumpet at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. He is loved and respected by his students. It just so happens he is best-known for his uncanny recreation of the character Louis Armstrong- though Longineu bears no physical resemblance to the shorter, more rotund trumpeter.
“It wasn’t like I tried to `do’ Louis,” Parsons explained recently by telephone. “But for some reason his spirit comes channeling. I thought wow, I can do this.”
Yes he can, as Parsons joyously proved again in concerts at Kravis Center, FAU Kaye Auditorium, and Eissey Campus Theatre with Bob Lappin and the Palm Beach Pops, with additional guest soloist Lillias White.
The Palm Beach Pops were all warmed up and smoking-hot opening night in Boca Raton. Part of the fun of this 20-year-old cultural treasure is that conductor Bob Lappin has grown exponentially as an all-around entertainer. Lappin has always been an excellent pianist, but as host he has loosened up with his patter; singing, joking and in general making the audience his personal friend. The “Salute to Louis Armstrong Wonderful World” show was the most fun I’ve ever had at a Palm Beach Pops concert. Longineu Parsons, who first performed with the Palm Beach Pops in 1993, will no doubt be back.
Bob Lappin and his highly-polished gang of pros will be back next time with a George and Ira Gershwin tribute, featuring once again the amazing vocalist Lillias White. They will be at Kravis Center Feb. 29 and March 1; FAU March 2, 5 and 6 and Eissey March 3. Call 561-832-7677 or go to www.palmbeachpos.org.

Jeff Beck Rules

Photo by Tom Craig


Jeff Beck Rules Kingdom of Guitar

By Skip Sheffield

Ladies and gentlemen: Jeff Beck rules the Kingdom of Guitar.
This is no idle boast. I am one of the fortunate few who saw Jimi Hendrix live in concert with original sidemen Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding in 1968. Five of us traveled from Boca Raton to Tampa and back again the same night; a 400-mile round-trip, and totally worth it.
I was at the wheel of my friend Marty Caron’s 1967 for the trip back because everyone else was so tired. I was wired from the experience of seeing the most incandescent musician and stage performer I had ever seen in my life. As Jimi would have said, I was Experienced.
I thought of Jimi when Jeff Beck took to the stage for the SunFest finale on Sunday, May 1 in downtown West Palm Beach. Technically, Beck is the equal or possibly even better than Hendrix as a player able to coax the sounds of the universe out of a simple Fender Stratocaster. What made Hendrix one of a kind was his stage presence. “Electric” doesn’t begin to explain the incredible charisma Hendrix had.
Jeff Beck is not electric in that sense. He is a modest, humble, 66-year-old man of few words. He lets his guitar say it all. It is not just his speed or dexterity; it is the astonishing rage of Beck’s tonal landscape. I don’t know what kind of gadgets and gimcracks Beck might have had between his white Stratocaster and giant Marshall tube-type amplifier, but it really doesn’t matter. Beck does not sing and he barely speaks, yet he holds the audience transfixed through his endless riffs, no two of which are alike.
The first saw Beck live several years ago at Mizner Park Amphitheater. He played as a power trio, with a guy on bass and another on drums. This time it was a quintet, and what a quintet! Beck recruited Prince bassist Rhonda Smith for the bottom end. Ms. Smith can pluck, thumb and slap was well as any bassist of any sex, and furthermore the gal can sing. So can drummer Narada Michael Walden. If that weren’t enough, Beck also recruited former Sing sideman Jason Rebello, one of the finest British jazz pianists playing today, on key boards.
As much as I enjoyed Gregg Allman on Friday night, for me nothing could top the Jeff Beck experience.
At one point Beck said, “Bless You.”
Yes Jeff, I felt blessed. I hope you come back to Florida again sometime soon; perhaps for your “Rock & Roll Party to Honor Les Paul,” which recently came out on DVD.
For more on the sights and sounds of SunFest, go www.Sunfest.com.

Ringo Starr at Seminole Hard Rock

Here is a piece I wrote for the Boca Raton Tribune. I haven't seen it online yet.
The photos are by Tom Craig.

By Skip Sheffield

Peace and Love.
That was the recurring theme for Ringo Starr’s July 15 visit with his 11th All-Starr Band to the Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood.
In a pre-concert presentation, Starr presented a check for $197,500 to the Yele Haiti relief effort, administered through Hard Rock Charity partner WhyHunger.
“I grew up with the Tribe here when the Seminoles were underprivileged,” said Hollywood Tribe council member Max Osceola. “We got our first new shoes, clothes and education from a group of Ladies called Friends of the Seminoles. Today we are blessed. It is time to give back. The circle is complete.”
And so the upbeat, feel-good mood was set for former Beatle Ringo’s All-Starr Band concert, which featured Ringo singing, playing drums and bantering with his fans and sharing the stage and spotlighting a group of stellar musicians.
The standout players were guitarist Rick Derringer and multi-instrumentalist Edgar Winter. Informality and warmth are the hallmarks of Ringo Starr’s shows. He picks some of the best players available, and allows each his moment to shine.
Ohio-born Derringer is best known for his No. 1 1965 hit “Hang On Sloopy,” but he has moved far beyond that as solo artist and one of the best guitarists in America today.
Derringer first worked with Texas-born Edgar Winter and his older brother Johnny in the early 1970s, when the Edgar Winter Group had a string of hits.
Winter’s showpiece is the instrumental Frankenstein, which he plays on a synthesizer strapped around his next (the first to do so, he says) with additional solos on saxophone and trap drums.
Keyboardist Gary Wright was the only Brit other than Starr in an all-American lineup. He shone on his best-known “Dream Weaver.”
Wally Palmer is best known as singing front man of The Romantics of Detroit, Michigan. Of course he played his hits “Talking in Your Sleep” and “What I Like About You.”
Richard Page is better known as Mr. Mister, which had mid-1980s hits with “Broken Wings” and “Kyrie.”
Finally there is Gregg Bissonette, who has been Starr’s regular drummer since 2003. All the boys in the band harmonize vocally, and exceptionally well.
Ever modest of his musical talent, Ringo Starr admits he “Gets By With a Little Help From His Friends.” His fans can only hope there with be a 12th All-Starr Band. At age 70, like fellow surviving Beatle Paul McCartney, Ringo shows no sign of slowing down.
At the end of the tour Starr gave the trap drum he had been playing for display at the Hard Rock’s permanent collection. He also presented his limited edition artwork, which he has been creating on computer since 2005. His latest CD, “Why Love,” was released in January of 2010.
“What ever you choose, choose love,” go the lyrics from one of the songs he wrote for that album. “Peace and Love” was the slogan on hundreds of white plastic wristbands he threw to his fans. Who can possibly argue with that?

Paul McCartney in Miami

Paul McCartney is a phenomenon.

On Saturday, April 3 at Miami’s Sun Life Stadium, he held 60,000 people in the palm of his hand.
I’m still floating on Monday, April 5. It was a concert I will remember the rest of my life, witnessed from Row 1, seat 7, close enough to see every expression on every one of the musicians; close enough to feel the heat when the fireworks go off in “Live and Let Die.”
McCartney still has the same boyish charm at age 67 as he did when he was “the cute Beatle” back in the 1960s. Better yet, he has the energy and enthusiasm of a man half his age or younger.
McCartney is one musical legend who embraces his celebrity and his fans.
The fans pay back in kind with a good-vibe love-fest that begins before the first chord is ever struck.
In Miami that was “Venus and Mars” from the Wings collection, followed by “Jet” and “Band on the Run.”
McCartney doles out some 20 Beatles favorites joyfully, segueing into “All My Loving,” sung beautifully by a backup band that is as good as any live stage band I have ever heard.
For the record they are longtime keyboardist Paul “Wix” Wickens (who plays one mean guitar on “Helter Skelter” too) and beatific drummer Abe Laboriel, whom I recognize from Paul’s last appearance at BankAtlantic Center.
Looking like a smiling Buddha, Laboriel is so into the music he seems to be in upper levels of ecstasy. Oh, and he has an angelic high tenor voice too.
Both guitarists; brunette Rusty Anderson and blond Brian Ray, sing exquisite harmonies while dashing off immediately recognizable riffs it takes normal mortals years to master- if ever.
The show is a gearhead’s delight, as all players trade off instruments on just about every song. This show was much more rock ‘n roll and guitar-heavy than previous ones I’ve seen. In addition to McCartney’s old reliable Hofner bass, he played a cavalcade of left-handed guitars, from the same Epiphone Casino he played with the Beatles to a paisley-colored Gibson Les Paul.
McCartney plays piano too, of course, playing tribute to his beloved late wife Linda with “My Love,” dedicated to the lovers in the audience.
One of the most touching segments was a tribute to his fallen comrade John Lennon, with McCartney’s haunting ballad (If You Were) “Here Today.”
Later in the show McCartney took to the stage solo with a ukulele given to him by the late George Harrison, and played “Something” as his band mates picked up their instruments and joined in a rising chorus.
McCartney is generous in his anecdotal details about The Beatles, Wings and his solo career- as if he was everyone’s favorite buddy.
How can you not love this man, and not admire his musical contributions to the world? McCartney performed almost 40 songs in nearly three hours, scarcely breaking a sweat. He may yet to prove to be the oldest rock and rolling prophet the world has ever seen.

Long live Paul McCartney!