On a drizzly overcast evening in Manhattan, the jazz cognoscenti and fans of guitarist Eric Clapton descended onto the elegant Rose Theater, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, for an evening of uplifting "hot" jazz featuring the iconic blues and rock guitarist.
The evening's opening act was a solo performance by blues legend Taj Mahal. Dressed in a black suit with a wide rimmed black hat, Mahal warmed up the audience with his unique patois of rootsy music. Starting off with a song that had Hawaiian influences aptly titled "Hula Blues," moving through a version of the Mississippi John Hurt's classic "Stagger Lee" and onto his own "Spooky Blues," Mahal's voice ranged from sweet and melodic to gruff and gravelly at times reminiscent of the late R.L. Burnside. He is a master of the guitar/vocal blues format for which he is justly famous.
For Eric Clapton, who recently celebrated his 66th birthday, it turned out to be a validating concert of sorts. The guitar "god," as he is known by some of his more ardent followers, is clearly a paragon of the rock and blues genre. It could be argued that he, together with fellow Brit Jeff Beck and the inimitable Jimi Hendrix, form a triumvirate that inextricably influenced scores of would be guitarists for generations.
Although Clapton has played with veteran jazz musicians in the past, most notably a 1997 tour with David Sanborn, Marcus Miller, Joe Sample and Steve Gadd, that music was primarily tailored to fit his blues oriented style and did little to bridge the gap between genres.
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