Box offices are humming, seats are filling again and once-dimmed marquees blaze with big names.
After the limited “break” from claustrophobic Covid caution in the summer of 2021, 2022 has mostly been better for live music and musicians.
For jazz fans, in particular, the contrast was telling.
SPAC’s scaled-down (one stage) Freihofer’s 2021 Saratoga Jazz Festival played to small crowds separated in spray-paint circled pods on the lawn and separated seating inside. (Sorry, no, it’s not “Jazz Fest” – the only one of those is in New Orleans. But I digress.)
This year’s edition brought a full schedule and full-size crowds. Also, the Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival and Lake George Jazz Weekend were full fun ahead; and A Place for Jazz (in a new place) filled its calendar.
Our scene’s top world-music season at Music Haven was one of its best; and Nippertown sponsored its own two-stage showcase of top area acts there for the first time.
More Covid-cautious than most, I hit mainly outdoor shows all year, masking up for only a few indoor shows that rose to the top of my risk-reward calculations.
These were the 10 best of the 38 I saw in 2022, in calendar order. Apologies here for not making it to MANY other cool shows, and venues, this year.
Jan. 30: Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives – The Egg, Hart Theatre. If you’re only hitting one country show all year, as I did, why not go see the most traditional virtuoso all-killers band out of Nashville? This crew blew away the winter gloom to compelling effect.
June 4: NRBQ – Hangar on the Hudson. I know, I know; my favorite band, and they really delivered. They own that magic musical secret of making sounds so fun that you feel young when you hear them. To the theory that our musical tastes are permanently formed by the sounds we loved at 14, let me add that these guys take you there, every time.
June 25 and 26 – Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival at SPAC. Familiar favorites included Booker T. In a Stax soul revue, Brazilian singer-piano powerhouse Eliane Elias, super singer Kurt Elling in a new band with Charlie Hunter, Mardi Gras party onstage Cha Wa and most venerable of all Wynton Marsalis leading his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. It also featured dazzling discoveries of New Orleans funk giants Galactic with new singer Angelica Jelly Joseph, Matt Wilson’s cryptic Honey & Salt, and Amina Figarova’s strings-augmented Sextet. Some of these were maybe new to me but known to you; and I hope you agree this one had it all, as usual – or, as before…
July 3: Tedeschi Trucks Band and Los Lobos – SPAC. The most powerful and versatile big rock band on the road today, paired with the deepest and most authentic Latin-inspired rock band. Soulful, swinging, joyous – you couldn’t ask for more.
July 23: NipperFest – Music Haven. A well-curated showcase for top area bands, presented on a perfect day in the perfect place, this inspired, uplifted and rocked on the main stage, soothed and sang on the small one in the Tom Isabella picnic pavilion. Special tip of the hat to The Figgs, but everybody, EVERYBODY brought their A-game.
Aug. 4: DakhaBrakha – Music Haven. These tall-hatted visitors made the most emotionally powerful music I heard all year: Ukrainians celebrating/mourning their war-battered people. No music so poignantly touched the heart with sound and feeling.
Aug. 31: Richard Thompson – Caffe Lena. The gruff-voiced guitar dazzler, my favorite troubadour, lit up the smallest venue I’ve seen him play. (The biggest? OK – the Gentilly Stage at Jazz Fest in New Orleans in 2008.)
Oct. 21: Bobby Watson – A Place for Jazz. Watson wrapped his post-be-bop alto-sax power in a groovin’ high, brilliantly swinging band.
Nov. 3: Darlingside – Universal Preservation Hall. The Massachusetts chamber-folk charmers played their last show in their longstanding quartet configuration as simple sentiment pierced through their sophisticated reserve.
Nov. 12: Dende Macedo – Proctors GE Theater. This took a while to gel but climaxed – that’s the right word – with everybody in the place onstage surrounding these Brazilian dance-jazz-funk jammers.
Honorable mentions: Willie Nile on Feb. 18 at WAMC’s The Linda, the area’s jazz community’s anniversary celebration of Tim Coakley’s Jazz Show on Nov. 11 in the same room; Keith Pray’s Big Soul Ensemble on July 26 in the Cock ’N’ Bull’s new outdoor venue, Chris Pasin’s Ornettiquette on Aug. 11 at Jazz on Jay and the Steep Canyon Rangers on Aug. 14 at Music Haven.
EXTRA-SUPER-REALLY-DAMN-SPECIAL HOKEY AWARDS
DOUBLE HEADERS
NRBQ opened for Bonnie Raitt at Albany’s Palace Theater on April 15, then played their own full show on June 4 at the Hangar on the Hudson in Troy. More NRBQ is always better than less.
I caught Darlingside’s last quartet show on Nov. 3 at Universal Preservation Hall, then their first as a five-piece at the Parlor Room in Northampton 12 days later. Both were revelatory.
Ledisi sang brilliantly at the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival in late June, then returned to SPAC on Aug. 3 with her delicious full-length Nina Simone tribute.
Samara Joy was a surprise hit at Albany’s Riverfront Jazz Festival on Sept. 10, then returns hereabouts in a Christmas-themed show at Universal Preservation Hall tomorrow night. She’s special.
It’s my list so I can bend it to note that I hit the Art D’Echo Trio at Jazz on Jay at noon on Aug. 4, THEN DakhaBrakha that same night at Music Haven.
FABULOUS RHINESTONES OPENING ACT Named for the straight-ahead rock band, led by the recently-deceased Kal David, that stole a SPAC show from the James Gang – OK, OK; it was after Joe Walsh left.
Kingfish Ingram with Buddy Buy and Kenny Wayne Shepherd at Symphony Hall in Springfield
SILLY AND SHARP Honoring the artists who best-mixed humor and hot licks.
Sammy Miller and the Congregation at Music Haven on July 24. The playing was brilliant, the jokes were almost nonstop.
ONE MAN BAND AWARD (well, until his singer-wife joined him onstage) Richard Thompson Aug, 31 at Caffe Lena.
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