Burt Bacharach at the RFH - Updated with a proper review in the thread

rlw

Last night.   Total music business royalty and it's not hard to see why.

Big orchestra, lots of strings and brass, a grand piano, some keys, electric bass and a drummer.  Three superb backing singers - think Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin and a bloke who covered all the male bases -  and you are in the ballpark - and Joss Stone guesting.   It goes without saying that the sound was perfect.

I can't think of another person who could sit down at the piano and proceed to rattle off 140 minutes of hit songs, every one of which you instantly recognize and remember, which were the soundtrack to your teens and onwards.  Obviously, Macca could to some extent but we're already familiar with his songs sung by him.  To hear the composer play them the way he had intended them to be played -  the orchestration, the phrasing, the key, the whole lot - was just incredible.

There were too many to list here but all the classic Bacharach/David songs and more and, probably, as many were left out as were included.  All of the "backing" singers did numbers and we were all blown away, especially by the lady with the Dionne Warwick voice.

Joss Stone might seem an odd choice but she brought a soulful edge to everything she sang and Bacharach was clearly loving her singing.  Again, great respect to her for filling in for Dusty Springfield and others.

Burt was a bit wobbly and his voice is weak now but, for God's sake, he is 88.  The whole show was built around him and he pulled it off with great skill, professionalism and warmth.

After the final number, he came on to do an encore with the words - Right, we'll do the song and then we're outta here.  Pure showbiz.  He probably says it all the time but to a packed RFH, on it's feet applauding wildly, it was unexpected and raised a smile.

If you get a chance, go see him.  There ain't no guitars but there is a huge amount of pretty much perfect music.

xSkarloey

Nice write up mate. Newspaper reviewers couldn't do any better than that.

And the RFH is a great venue for a show like that.

My tastes are more native/ continental, but I saw a Paolo Conte show there and it was a similar deal: great songs, ace band drilled to an inch of its life but with tons of character, and an old maestro at the centre directing it all.

Oh and Paolo has three ( count em!) guitarists.

rlw

Skarloey said:

Nice write up mate. Newspaper reviewers couldn't do any better than that.

And the RFH is a great venue for a show like that.

My tastes are more native/ continental, but I saw a Paolo Conte show there and it was a similar deal: great songs, ace band drilled to an inch of its life but with tons of character, and an old maestro at the centre directing it all.

Oh and Paolo has three ( count em!) guitarists.

Thanks for your kind comments :-)

fretmeister

Sounds brilliant.

I know a lot of Burt's songs, but it was only recently that I tried playing them with the local educational group I'm in.

The bass parts are pretty simple but they are so well crafted to fit the entire composition. It's a pleasure to play them.

Even just "Raindrops keep falling on my head" is fantastic to play. 

rlw

rlw

http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/burt-bacharach-royal-festival-hall

richh

Sounds great.  I'm sure that will a memory you'll hold onto forever!

At 88 that is just incredible.  Thinking back, I did see Andres Segovia at I think his last ever London performance, and I think he was 93 at the time.

We can only hope ourselves to be rocking away in our 80's and 90's with a bit of luck and bio / nano engineering?