Not Loud Enough

From left: Jack White, The Edge, Jimmy Page

Jackson Free Press

July 29, 2009

You need three main ingredients to make a great rock documentary: great music, lively stories and musical emotiveness from those playing. Viewers should feel the artists’ joy and urgency emanating from the screen. Never should we pick up on the fact that these musicians have played these songs hundreds of times in their careers. It is this element that separates the good but forgettable rock documentaries from the classics.

“It Might Get Loud” has the premise of a potential classic. Three guitar icons from the past four decades, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2) and Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs) sit down together to discuss their instrument and their musical philosophies, all culminating in a jam session. Splice in some autobiographical interviews and concert footage, and it is a can’t-miss proposal.

The film generally works. Great music predictably abounds as the filmmakers dig up both old and recent footage of all three guitarists and their respective bands. The stories of their rises to fame are both illuminating and hilarious. These two elements collide notably with cringe-inducing footage of a young U2 attempting punk rock as Bono flamboyantly jumps around on stage.

The documentary’s problem, though, is its inability to capture the musical excitement in the room—an inexcusable shortcoming considering we have these three icons gathered together for the first time. The longer the film goes on, though, the more we realize that despite playing the same instrument, these guys don’t have as much in common as we may think. Including The Edge is at the heart of this problem.

This is not to take anything away from The Edge as a musician, the instrumental backbone of one of the world’s most popular bands. However, when you put him, a refined guitar player, up against these two blues-trained heavyweights, it’s the Washington Generals vs. the Harlem Globetrotters come jam session time.

Two scenes capture this stylistic disconnect. In the first, Jack White passionately talks about acquiring guitars with broken or bent necks and “battling” them to make them perform his will. He talks about technology and its negative influence on music because it has created cheats and shortcuts for the lazy. The second scene features The Edge gleefully showing off his numerous effects pedals. The scene ends with him turning a bland two or three-note riff into a majestic tapestry of sound with one step on a pedal. You get the sense that Jack White walked out of the theater when he saw that.

The guitarists sitting down to jam over the Zeppelin classic “In My Time of Dying” makes this divide impossible to ignore. While Page and White rip into solos, willing their instruments into submissiveness, The Edge stands over them awkwardly, like a beginning student who accidentally signed up for the advanced class.

“It Might Get Loud” has a salivating premise and plenty of promise. However, the incongruence of its stars’ styles and the resulting awkwardness prove to be obstacles too great to overcome. It leaves you thinking that the inclusion of an Eric Clapton or Joe Perry could have lifted this to the classic film it should have been.

Original Article

Jazzy and Be-Boppin: Jazzfest 2008 Preview

Bettye Lavette

Jackson Free Press

March 26, 2008

With Jazzfest less than a month away, it is time to clear your schedule and figure out which days to attend. Each day has some high points and some equally expendable ones. Here is your guide:

Friday, April 25: I don’t readily admit it, but I have always been a closet fan of Sheryl Crow. I am the guy over age 11 who continues to happily allow “Soak up the Sun” to infect my being. Her and the tag team Alison Krauss and Robert Plant promise to be two highlights of the first day.

Saturday, April 26: This is the best day to skip. The lineup is mediocre, and the audience will be no doubt be one of the most crowded because of Billy Joel’s presence. One of the only reasons I can think of to succumb to such a large crowd is, ironically, to get away from seeing Billy Joel.

Sunday, April 27: This day more than makes up for Saturday. Irma Thomas is a knock-out headliner and will share the day with Al Green, and Elvis Costello with Allen Toussaint. There’s going to be a “Sophie’s Choice” dilemma here, as at least two of these artists will be performing at the same time on different stages. It makes you wish they had thrown at least one of these acts up on a stage against Billy Joel.

Ponderosa Stomp Festival: This annual festival is held April 29 and 30 and features a more interesting lineup than any of the individual Jazzfest days. Slated to perform are Ronnie Spector, Roky Erickson (from the forgotten acid-rock band The 13th Floor Elevators), ? and The Mysterians, Dr. John and a host of other forgotten though equally influential names.

Thursday, May 1: The other relatively weak lineup, this day at least features one of the most overlooked soul singers from Muscle Shoals in Bettye LaVette. Her story deserves an article unto itself, but she released one of 2007’s best albums in “Scene of the Crime.” She promises to be a great show and worth the price of admission herself.

Friday, May 2: The other reason I would stand in a crowd the size of Billy Joel’s is to see Stevie Wonder who, coincidentally, is playing today. This is the one day not to miss (and worth taking a vacation day for) solely because of Stevie. His tours are more expensive than they are rare.

Saturday, May 3: For anyone who has never seen The Roots in concert, this day is worth checking out. They are a band of trained and talented musicians (not just stiffs who picked up guitars and wandered into the studio because they wanted to do something against the mainstream, a la Lauryn Hill). Furthermore, they keep the good-time party aesthetic of old-school hip-hop alive, worrying less about proving their realness than having a good time and projecting that onto the crowd.

Sunday, May 4: Early in the day, a tribute to gospel great Mahalia Jackson featuring Irma Thomas, Marva Wright and Raychell Richard promises to be strong. The festival closes with another loaded lineup, with The Neville Brothers headlining with The Raconteurs and one of New Orleans’ premier brass bands, Rebirth Brass Band.

Every year Jazzfest does a great job at drawing acts from the ’60s through the present along with at least one icon that has stayed relevant throughout that entire span. The festival succeeds once again this year with interesting, supporting and headlining artists along with one of the most iconic in American music in Stevie Wonder.

Original Article