BB King: Live at Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Wailing horns and a juiced-up rhythm section of an eight-piece ensemble heralded the regal entrance for the man called King.

Fans expecting the mopey drizzle of an oldies serenade were instead treated to a joy-filled celebration of the man’s life at the B.B. King Blues Festival at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Next month King celebrates his 77th birthday.
He talked about the things he can no longer do.

“The band tells me after all these years I earned the right to sit down if I wanna,” he said.
“Well, I wanna.”
King wrapped his big arms around longtime companion “Lucille,” and together they sat,
center stage, where he clowned with the crowd in a way that was both charming and endearing.

While he riffed on the blues, his band stomped, swung and rifled through a repertoire that was born in the deep blues heart of America itself.
King invoked the crowd with the call-and-response jubilance of “Let the Good Times Roll,” “Rock Me Baby (All Night Long)” and a few other naughtily inspired sing-alongs that would made fans of Blink-182 blush in comparison.
The man positively oozed passion.

“I get criticized all the time by people who say I have too much fun for a blues singer. I say, ‘Yeah, I have fun.’ If you don’t wanna have fun,” he said, “then go to sleep.”

As he played, his body shook and shimmied and encouraged the audience to do likewise.
Looking down at his body then out to the crowd he said, “Now some of you ain’t got
as much to shake as I do, but Lucille and I say, ‘hey, that’s all right - just shake what ya got.”‘

There were those distinctive moves - an index finger tapping on his chest and a closed fist pounding into open left hand to keep the beat - simple and subtle moves that many have seen him do for 20, 30, even 40 years. When he played, his head swayed from side to side, with a closed-eye serenity and a smile that looked like he was riding the melodies given to him from some higher place.

He bent strings and rattled his wrist, wrenching vibrations from Lucille’s neck that oozed sonic rainbows and long looping notes that hung in the air until he smacked them down with the palm of his hand like he was snapping cables.

The four-piece horn section included trumpet, big baritone and a pair of saxophones. A keyboard player, bass, drums and Charlie Dennis’ tasteful guitar completed the ensemble.

In King’s “blues” there is life - remorse and sorrow and ecstasy and charisma.
He engaged the audience with “3 O’Clock Blues,” sang “You Are My Sunshine” for the ladies, and “Rock Me Baby” for their male partners. He ripped through “Key to the Highway” and rollicked in a hyper-funked version of “The Thrill is Gone,” whose incendiary mix of moxie and mojo brought it back down sweetly for “Somebody Really Loves You.”
The finale, a clanging robust-filled version of “When the Saints Go Marching In,”
sent everyone marching home.

Earlier in the evening, Kim Wilson’s outrageous harp blowing led the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Wilson, the only remaining original member of the band, has led a variety of T-Bird incarnations since the groups formation in 1974.

Susan Tedeschi also appeared.
Backed by a pair of keyboardists, and a bass and drum rhythm section combo, the 30-something suburban Boston native lived up to her Janis Joplin-meets-Bonnie Raitt raw vocal style hype.

Tedeschi, who first gained recognition with her 1998 debut, “Just Won’t Burn,” performed a lengthy set that combined funky ensemble pieces as well as a preview of some slow hypnotic tunes slated for November release.
Looking like an anomaly in a calf-length floral skirt in these MTV days, she backed up her vocals with some shrill riffs wrung from the rosewood neck of her Kelly green Telecaster.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
The Saratogian. Sept. 1, 2002.