I'd highly recommend seeing Joe Bataan. I saw him for the first time at SOB's in March
and he and his band were as amazing, certainly sounding as good as his best records.
I've seen so many shows by people whose music from the 60's and 70's I like and respect
a lot only to be completely disappointed. - Some notable examples: seeing Bernard
Purdie at SOB's do only a 20 minute show, and worse, he had a dry vocalist who thought
he was Aretha Franklin singing the whole time.
Or, seeing Melvin Sparks at the new Cotton Club only to have him do a few blues
standards and then having Mrs Al Sharpton (who looked like a balding Rupaul) take the
stage as vocalist doing Christmas songs and "Wind Beneath My Wings" type songs for an
hour. I'm not making this up... It was a year ago in early December... We were sitting
next to a table with Al Sharpton playing host to a group of black Republican mayors and
local politicians from Long Island... Bobby Humphrey was there too but didn't perform...
Not enjoyable, but certainly memorable.
Anyway, Joe Bataan's band was very tight and did a good mix of older stuff
and a few new songs. He seemed to indicate that it was his first live show
in a while and he seemed happy to be back performing again. And I'd
guess seeing him in Jersey City would be even better than at SOB's.
John Schauer
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