Intersections
Learned a new word last night. Went to Bruce Hornsby's show at the Keswick Theater, and the guy behind me, admiring a copy of Intersections, 1985-2005, the performer's 4-CD/1-DVD set, said, "looks like there's a lot of stuff on here that's Podable."
Hornsby put on a free show. Or he was giving away free box sets. The $49 tickets included the collection, which assembles 20 years of piano workouts, performances with Ornette Coleman, Roger Waters, Bonnie Raitt, Pat Metheny, Branford Marsalis, B.B King etc..., Grateful Dead jams and lots of bad '80s hair.
We went because my wife used to see Hornsby and his band play at the Ramada Inn in Williamsburg, Va., around 1978, when he'd tame the crowd with songs of the day, then sneak in a few originals. The song he opened last night with was about that period in his life - "Spider Fingers," and he mugged around as if he was still playing for tips as people were talking over his music.
The liner notes say the song was "inspired by old lounge days trying to play angular, dissonant jazz music, much to the chagrin and hatred of management and usually small audiences (suffering for our art at the Ramada Inn.)"
Anyway, the box set's a day's worth of listening, though I've already marveled at the gorgeous, airy piece that begins it, dipping into Bach's "Goldberg Variations" before drifting into the riff that launched his career, an 8-minute solo version of "The Way It Is." It's Podable.
He played "Big Boss Man" and that ditty from the Lowe's commercial, "Gonna Be Some Changes Made," which he described as his official sell-out, but done so he could work with Gene Hackman.