Leon Russell
Last night, my friend Megan and I went to Jaxx to see Leon Russell. There was a hard rain falling and only 144 other brave souls came to listen to one of the 1970s great keyboardists. Leon played as a session musician for Ronnie Spector in his heyday as a record producer for the Wall of Sound but really gained popularity as the piano player for Joe Cocker in his Mad Dogs and Englishman tour and for George Harrison in the Concert for Bangladesh. He also played piano for Dave Mason, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. After that, he put out a bunch of solo albums, first under his own name and later under the name of Hank Wilson.
We get to Jaxx and it is pretty quiet. Two opening bands played good cover songs while the crowd drifted in. Just before Leon takes the stage, I had the chance to chat for a minute with his roadie/sound guy who assured me that Leon still had it together and was playing a pretty good show.
Leon takes the stage and looks like an aging 1970s rocker. He starts the show and no one is standing in front of the stage so I walked right down and snapped some pictures. Jacqui and I had seen him at Jaxx a year or two back and he raced through his set. He does the same last night, not acknowledging the crowd or stopping more than two seconds between songs on his 90 minute set.
Flashback thirty years ago to February 13, 1971. My brother Jay took me to see Leon (along with Taj Mahal and Bill Withers) during the last months of the Fillmore East so I could experience that venue before it closed. That night 30 years ago, Leon put on a great show and I remember walking out of the Fillmore singing the words to Stranger in a Strange Land (not sure if Leon wrote that about the Kurt Vonnegut book of the same title but I had just read the book and the music has stayed with me for 30 years now), Delta Lady, Song For You, Hard Rain Gonna Fall, and Beware of Darkness.
Leon played all those songs except for Beware of Darkness and moved through most of his hits except for Masquerade. I did not catch the name of the lead guitarist but he was exceptional. About halfway through the show I moved right up to the stage, about 3 feet from Leon, and watched him play the piano for the rest of the set. I had a really good time listening to Leon, in part remembering that special night at the Fillmore East with Jay 31 years ago…
Megan, just back from working at the Olympics at the ice hockey venue, had never heard of Leon Russell before but had a great time with me, watching both the crowd at Jaxx and Leon Russell. And Kimmie, the bartender at Jaxx