I went to hear Alex Ligertwood sing "Winning."
I felt like I was on vacation. You take the 405 deep into the Valley, and then you go left onto the 118, so far that you end up in a different county. But pretty soon the landscape looks different, like in those westerns the boomers used to watch on television. I'm thinking I haven't been this far out on the 118 since we were making movies in the eighties. And I haven't been this far from home since the pandemic. Oh, I've left town, gone to Colorado, Utah, but as far as getting in my car and driving... No. Then again, you can't go anywhere in Los Angeles anyway, because of the traffic. When I checked the map app the day before it said 46 minutes. For this show? But then I realized I oftentimes spend that much time in the car going to a show downtown. And by Saturday afternoon, it said only 35 minutes, and then 33, and I made it there faster than that, because on that stretch of road it's hard to go less than 75, usually you're at 80, I had to remember how to use the cruise control, it'd been years since I'd employed it.
Moorpark. For some reason I didn't think it was quite this far. I mean you can't live in Moorpark and work in L.A. But that does not mean people don't do it. People do a lot of irrational things in Los Angeles, in the name of property ownership, in the name of peace and quiet.
So there's a college out there. Right off the freeway, easy to find. And there were signs to park, but almost no cars in the lot. And I had no idea where the venue was. Turned out it was a field way atop campus, and when I realized this I went back and got my car so I could park in the closer area I had a pass for.
Before that, I'd gone to the porta-potty. I was surprised that at a college campus we didn't have access to the real thing, but I was even more surprised that these porta-potties were brand new, I think I was the first person to piss in the one I was in!
And when I went to wash my hands... They had that pump dispenser for water, you know, where you step down and you get a modicum of H20, but after a splash I decided to just use the hand sanitizer instead, it requires no drying. But, while I was walking back to get my car, the sanitizer never evaporated. That's when I realized it was soap. We've come a long way, baby, back to 2019, before the pandemic.
So what we had here was...
I'm not exactly sure.
They had food trucks, but only a couple, not a cornucopia. And alcohol, and then a natural bowl facing a portable stage. That was another reason I went back to my car, the weather app told me the temperature would drop into the fifties, and I needed to be prepared, I needed another layer. And even though I was baking under the sun, when it fell below the horizon it got chillier and chillier and thank god I had two layers and a hat.
Ferrone had told me to come. He talked about playing with an orchestra, how the members were so skilled. So what we ultimately had was an orchestra fronted by Jason Scheff, a long time Chicago lead vocalist, and his friends. As for the event...
There was no way they were making money here. It had to be sponsored by the symphony or the college, or both. And it was ill-conceived to boot. There were three layers of tickets, up close and personal with a seat at $150 (came with parking), $75 to sit on the grass in the walled garden, and $50 to sit behind the fence, not that far away, but not that close either.
And it was clear to me, this gig needed to be free. Then it would have been full. There are other ways to monetize a gig like this other than with too expensive tickets.
But what exactly was this gig? Some guy came out and talked about Summerfest, but then he talked about next year, it seemed it was two days, this weekend, and that was it. Not an auspicious debut financially, but you've got to start before you can get anywhere.
So I'm sitting there listening to Jason Scheff sing Chicago songs. And it reminded me of seeing Arnel Pineda front Journey, in that the audience now owned these songs, not the band. It was kind of ersatz at first, then Jason's voice sounded just like Peter Cetera's, but still...
Then they played "Saturday in the Park."
This is where the orchestra shined. The sound was full, like the record. In a way you might not even hear if the real Chicago was on stage, then again the real Chicago hasn't been on stage for eons, and it's a different Chicago than the one that included Terry Kath anyway.
But now I was grooving, and so was everybody else. Even the eleven or twelve year old kid down front. Does everybody his age know these songs, the words by heart, or was he related to Scheff or somebody else?
And then Bill Champlin came out to sing his part on "Hard Habit to Break."
Bill Champlin was in the Sons of Champlin, which never broke through, barely made a dent. However I knew one song that I loved, from the "Fillmore: Last Days" album, "Poppa Can Play."
Spotify: tinyurl.com/5n6rkm45
YouTube: tinyurl.com/3vz2jk3r
That's from a triple album set, the soundtrack to the movie, the closing of the Fillmore West. The most memorable cut is Santana's version of Joe Zawinul's "In a Silent Way," that was the title track of the Miles Davis LP. Carlos is still here, but Joe and Miles are not, and I'm not sure many people even remember this composition, not that it was famous fifty years ago, but it made an impact, this was at the beginning of the fusion sound.
Spotify: tinyurl.com/8vuzucy8
YouTube: tinyurl.com/3bc9d7jh
And I'm thinking about Champlin's career. How this denizen of San Francisco ended up in L.A. and ultimately a member of Chicago. Ultimately a journeyman, his contemporaries might have been household names, but it didn't happen for him, and now he's in his seventies... There are a bunch of these guys, they've dedicated their entire lives to the music, Bill even dropped out of school, was it worth it? Well, ultimately you have no choice, there are no do-overs.
So at first Bill's mic is mixed too low, but then they bring it up and you can hear the characteristics of his vocals. And he's not oversinging, he's not hogging the spotlight, it was a master at work.
And then came Alex Ligertwood.
This guy's about 5'3" on a good day. And he looks like he hasn't had a meal since 2020. He's old and grizzled and even though he fronted Santana for more than a decade, what has he been living on? I mean this guy looked nearly dead. But he stepped up to the mic and...
He was playing to the last row, as if it was Live Aid or something, clapping, imploring, and then...
"One day I was on the ground
When I needed a hand
Then it couldn't be found
I was so far down that I couldn't get up
You know and one day I was one of life's losers
Even my friends were my accusers
And in my head I lost before I begun"
It was jaw-dropping. The guy might have looked decrepit, but he hadn't lost a step, his vocal was exactly like the 1981 record, Santana's first hit single since the early, Greg Rolie days.
"I'm winning
I'M WINNING!"
He had us singing the words, pointing the mic at us, sans his vocal,
And damn if people didn't know it. I certainly did, I bought that album just to hear that song.
And then came "Black Magic Woman"..
And I'm thinking how this is ersatz. Not the real Santana. And then I remind myself that really it's a Peter Green Fleetwood Mac song, and as I'm listening...it's better than the version on "Abraxas," Alex sang it for all those years, he's adding something to it.
Yes, it was a crack band. Not only Ferrone, but this guy Errol Cooney, Janet Jackson's guitarist, and keyboardist Brandon Coleman, who plays with Alicia Keys.
Not that the show was dynamic. It was loose. It looked exactly like what it was, Jason Scheff and his friends.
And one of his friends is Steve Porcaro, so Steve comes out and they play "Human Nature," which Porcaro co-wrote for Michael Jackson.
And then...
They were going to play a Toto song. Honestly, I thought it would be "Rosanna." But it turned out to be the modern classic, "Africa."
Now this is strange, "Africa" is the new "Don't Stop Believin'." Everybody knows it, it's got a billion and a half streams on Spotify.
And the place goes nuts. Everybody comes down close, is dancing, hands in the air. That's the power of "Africa," astounding.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't say that Bill and Alex's background vocals pushed the rendition over the top.
And speaking of Bill...
He comes out to do the number one Chicago song that he sang, "Look Away," written by Diane Warren.
And now that he owns the mic for the whole song...
Wow, you can hear the character in his voice.
And unlike before, this dignified, well-coiffed guy in a sports jacket is playing a Fender. Cool. But then he starts to WAIL! I mean truly WAIL! And I'm sitting there thinking how guitar heroes are a thing of the past. And I'm thinking about where Champlin sits in the hierarchy and then I'm reminded, everybody's got their own style, their own sound, and it's not about comparison, but satiation, of both the player and audience.
And then there were a number of Chicago songs sung by Scheff that were an anticlimax, really, they needed to stop with Bill's performance, and it's over.
So what exactly did I experience?
Vail has a daily newspaper, the "Vail Daily." And you'd be stunned how many events are taking place every day, never mind every week. A surprising amount of name talent, but also a lot of locals.
And this has made me aware of other markets, there's much more entertainment in each place than there used to be.
And I'm thinking about the big shows. By my east coast perspective, Moorpark is Los Angeles. But if you grew up in Los Angeles, it might as well be San Francisco, it's one step beyond. But right down the pike is the epicenter of live entertainment. Yes, there's New York, London and L.A. And in truth, just like the label power is now concentrated in L.A., so is the promoter power, both Live Nation and AEG are here.
So you can see household names on a regular basis.
Then again, if you're paying attention, Steve Ferrone is a household name, as is Porcaro and... If you're a fan, you know all these cats, these are not the secondary players of Vail.
So what's going through their heads?
As Ferrone told me, he loves to play, that's what he digs most in life, with some other cats, whether it be on stage or in the studio, connecting, egging each other on.
And that's what was happening here in this backwater. Unbeknownst to seemingly everybody.
This was not about starpower, but music. These guys had dedicated their entire life to music, and they were still on the road, keepin' on.
Which is where I went, back to the 118.
And I listened to the news on Russia, I didn't want to ruin the mood by listening to music.
And I'm thinking how dark it is.
And I'm thinking what a great big country it is, and all you've got to do is get in your car and drive.
I drove last night. Made me happy.
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