Writelife

I have a fabulous new playlist. I suppose you have to like this kind of music but if you do I think you will likely find it wonderful as well. It’s a little quiet and a little jazzy (or a lot, depending on your viewpoint).

Instead of spending forever cherry picking songs I decided to simply make a list from music I had bought in the last few months. I threw them all in, entire albums, a sprinkling of individual songs. I thought I would likely prune afterward but, as I listen, there is no need for pruning. It all works together beautifully. I love this playlist.

It’s also lengthy – 122 songs that run for about 7.7 hours. Here it is:

• Madeleine Peyroux – The Blue Room (Album)
• Sharon Robinson – Everybody Knows (Album)
• Nina Simone – I Put a Spell On You (Album)
• Nina Simone – Take Me to the Water (Song)
• Nina Simone – Suzanne (Song)
• Corrine Bailey Rae – The Sea (Album)
• Cassandra Wilson – Silver Pony (Album)
• Ray Charles – Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Volumes 1 & 2 (Album)
• Emilie-Claire Barlow – The Beat Goes On (Album)
• Leonard Cohen – Dear Heather (Album)
• Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas (Album)

I finally got to see Leonard Cohen live (after all these years) at Harbour Station in Saint John, New Brunswick and my first thought was, “This is a show.”

Let me explain what I mean because of course, any concert is a show of some kind. What I mean, and the reason for the “Old School” reference in my title, is that this show was not what we often see today.

There were no dancers. There were no Cirque du Soleil acrobatics on wires. No fire shot up from the floor of the stage and no dry ice swirled about.

The show was the music. It was a music show. It was Leonard and his band spread across a stage with no elaborate set. As far as lighting went, some gels were used for mood and there was a spotlight but it was largely simple. There was a singular lack of adornment. It was all about the music and the musicians making it.

The success of a show like that rises or falls on how well those musicians do their jobs, especially when you consider that the show lasts a minimum of three hours.

Well, it was superlative.

If I had any complaint about the show it was not with Leonard Cohen and the band but with the audience. For me, they were a little too reverent. If I could speak to them I would say, it is not “Sit Me to the End of Love,” it is “Dance me to the End of Love.” It is not “Take This Seat and Sit in It,” it is “Take This Waltz”. (The waltz is a dance.)

It was only later in the show that people finally began to loosen up. As wonderful as Leonard’s words are, he loves music too and his music is wonderfully suited for rhythmic movement and I wish people would have realized that and moved and danced to the beautiful music being made.

Some highlights

There were many highlights in the show but for me there were three. (I’d list off many more but this bit of writing would be endless if I did that.) In no particular order …

Sharon Robinson singing “Alexandra Leaving.” Since first hearing this song on “Ten New Songs,” it has been a personal favourite and I have to be honest, when I learned she would sing it and not Leonard I was a bit disappointed. Then I heard her.

I don’t know how many synonyms for good and great a person can crank out before they all become meaningless, so let me put it this way … A woman sitting beside me, whom I had never met and still have never met, wept through the whole song.

Then there was Javier Mas. Since this concert, all you have to say to me is “Javier Mas” and I know what you mean – so good it is almost painful because you become filled with jealousy that anyone can play like that … and you can’t. He plays the bandurria and it is eye-popping. And … wow! Does he ever help the Cohen song “Lover, Lover, Lover” kick ass!

Finally, of course, there is Leonard Cohen. There are many things to love about Mr. Cohen, written and recorded, and the focus is usually on his words. There are few who can match him when it comes to that. But seeing him live, what I enjoyed most about him was the music he makes and the clear love he has for music.

He struck me as a happy man, a joyful man making a joyful noise, and I think it is the music that makes him so happy.

Maybe that was the surprise the concert held for me. The words were there – I knew them all. Like others, I’ve read and heard them so many times they are woven into whatever fabric it is that makes me.

But the music … It draws from folk and blues and jazz and then something of Spain and the gypsy sound of Romany passes through and always, always guys like Hank Williams and George Jones are putting their two cents in. Over the years, Leonard Cohen has mastered words and meaning but he has also distilled a musical sound that is distinctly his own and it is beautiful — more so because it works with his lyrics so perfectly.

Did I like the concert? Duh … yeah!

Leonard Cohen

Videos

• Lover, Lover, Lover — Tel Avi, September 2009, featuring Javier Maz on bandurria
• Alexandra Leaving — Co-writer Sharon Robinson sings, Amsterdam – August 2012