An Evening with Earl Klugh

Last Saturday, I had the privilege of watching Grammy Award winning artist and legendary jazz guitarist, Earl Klugh, up close at Yoshi's in Oakland. As expected, it was sold out and the place was packed. I was with a friend and fellow SJS dad, Louie A (our kids are classmates at St. Joseph).

Anticipating that we will be enjoying the evening at its fullest, we decided to take public transportation. We made sure that we timed our trip well. Fortunately, both BART and the free green shuttle bus were all on time. After walking a couple of blocks, we were at Yoshi's. We weren't planning on dining at the restaurant. Instead, we opted for either the lounge or bar. Louie immediately dashed to the bar, as both places were filling up quickly, as I headed to the box office counter (a.k.a. will call booth) to get our tickets.

As a Yoshi's house rule, if you wanted to get good seats, you have to dine at their establishment at least an hour before show time. Otherwise, you'll find yourself standing in line outside, waiting for the doors to open, and scrambling to find ANY decent seat available. As a diner, you have an opportunity to tell your server where you want to sit, if available. And that's what we did.

After a couple of ice cold beers and some Japanese treats, we proceeded to the jazz club to take our reserve seats. Perched on the upper portion of the club, we had a panoramic view of the entire hall. Together with us at the table were Mr. and Mrs. Woods (she was celebrating her birthday that evening).

8:00pm. It was show time.

Earl Klugh performed some of his popular tunes, including some of his very early compositions. His back up band included David Lee Spradley on keyboards, Al Turner on bass, Ron Otis on drums, and special guest Nelson Rangell on saxophone and flute. For those not familiar with Earl Klugh, he rose to popularity in the late 1970s, through the 1980s and early 1990s, as one of finest acoustic jazz guitarist. He has recorded over 30 albums and has collaborated with alot of musical greats of our times.

I was excited that I would get a chance to see Earl Klugh live and had hoped to hear the music that made him popular back in the days. Unfortunately, as the evening progressed, I felt some disappointment. I expected to see Earl Klugh as the star of the show. But it appeared like he was the back up musician because I felt that he was upstaged by the equally talented Nelson Rangell, himself a jazz recording artist.

The musical arrangements on some of the pieces allowed for both the saxophone player and keyboard player to do solos (lengthy ones at times), which had gotten loud applauses, and occasional standing ovations from the audience, more than the star of the show himself. When Earl's signature song "Living Inside Your Love" was played, I knew HE was going to be the main attraction. WRONG !!! The arrangement allowed for Rangell to do a solo, to the delight of the crowd. But not me. My dissatisfaction continued.

Then, Earl performed a Nelson Rangell hit, "Sonora." I thought it was all him till Rangell chimed in. Instead of playing the saxophone, he whistled the tune. What is going on?????? I felt even worse. I could not imagine hearing "Sonora" played any other way than with a saxophone. If you're not familiar with this song, search for it in You Tube and you'll know what I mean.

The performance continued with other Earl Klugh classics (whose titles escaped me), but the solos went on as well. There was even one number where in keyboardist David Lee Spradley went on, and on, and on, and on. He was good. No doubt about it. But he wasn't what I came to Yoshi's for !!!! I wanted to hear the soft sound of a (nylon string) classical acoustic guitar and witness the finger dexterity of one of the greatest jazz musicians of our time, and not some ivory-tapping session player making a fool of himself while making faces during his solo runs.

Despite all my gripes, it was a fun night. And for $38, it wasn't all that bad. As the curtain closed, Mr. Earl Klugh deserved the applauses and standing ovation from an appreciative crowd.

Author's Note:  Yoshi's Jazz Club and Japanese Restaurant is located at 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland, CA 94607 and 1330 Fillmore Street, San Francsco, CA 94115.