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Concert Review: Three Dog Night at the Genesee Theatre

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“Lots of bands play deep album cuts on tour,” said Three Dog Night founding member Danny Hutton wryly. “We’re going to play deep album hits.” The seventeen-song, ninety minute set was well received by the sold out crowd of 2400 at the restored 1920’s era movie palace in Waukegan, Illinois.

Our music guru Eric Berman often refers to the Grateful Dead as “the world’s best cover band, but that moniker really belongs to Three Dog Night, who formed in 1967 with the vocal trio of Hutton, Cory Wells, and Chuck Negron. The band charted twenty-one consecutive Top Forty Hits between 1969 and 1975. Three Dog Night achieved their greatest success by taking other songwriters’ compositions and crafting them with a three part harmony. The streak began with Harry Nilsson’s “One,” and included gems from Laura Niro (Eli’s Coming), Paul Williams (Just An Old Fashioned Love Song), Hoyt Axton (Joy To The World, Never Been To Spain), Randy Newman (Mama Told Me Not To Come) and others.

Wells passed away in 2015, and Negron left the group in 1976. Guitarist Michael Allsup is the only remaining original member. Paul Kingery plays bass and sings vocals, along with vocalist David Morgan, who delivered a funny monologue on the pitfalls of getting old and included the best line of the night, “The back of my drivers license lists the organs that I need!” Paul Bautista was behind the drum kit, and Howard Laravea took over the keyboard for another original member Jimmy Greenspoon, who died of cancer in 2015.

Three Dog Night in concert. Photo by SRN

Hutton served as master of ceremonies, regaling the audience with stage banter and a few stories, such as how they recorded their first album in three days, the fact that the band had three months to compose their sophomore effort.

The most poignant moment in the show occurred during the encore when the band played “Prayer of the Children,” an a cappella song from a forthcoming album.

Set list: Genesee Theatre, Waukegan, IL October 4, 2019

The Family of Man
Never Been to Spain
Shambala
Out in the Country
Easy to Be Hard
Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)
One
Let Me Serenade You
An Old Fashioned Love Song
Liar
Sure as I’m Sittin’ Here
Mama Told Me Not to Come
Celebratete

Encore:
Eli’s Coming
Prayer of the Children
Joy to the World

Song Of The Day – “Mamani” by Letta

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lettambuluVoices like Laura Nyro’s only come around once in a lifetime…or so I thought…

So, while listening to a compilation of David Axelrod’s 1960s productions, my ears perked up when I heard the sound of Letta Mbulu’s voice. At once, I knew I needed to hear more and learn more about whom this afro-pop princess is, and discover as much of her music as possible.

But first, I’ll digress…David Axelrod is a composer and producer, best known for working with Lou Rawls and Cannonball Adderly in the 1960s while employed by Capitol Records. Letta Mbulu was introduced to him by Cannonball Adderly, who had seen her perform at The Village Gate in New York City, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Hailing from Soweto, Mbulu was forced out of her country in 1965 due the Apartheid and came to the United States. In her native country, she gained notoriety by performing in the popular musical, King Kong, for several years. Settling in New York City, she was welcomed by fellow King Kong cast members Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masakela, who began to help her get established in her new country.

After touring with Cannonball Adderly, Axelrod signed her to Capitol Records, where she recorded her first album “Letta Mbulu Sings” in 1967. While the album didn’t get much traction in this country, she was afforded an opportunity to record a follow up, the afro-pop classic Free Soul in 1968, where today’s Song Of The Day is from. It was around this time the decision was made for her to drop her last name on records, in the hopes she might be able to gain more airplay.

Following her stint with Capitol, Mbulu recorded several records for the Chisa label in the early 1970s. After Chisa folded, she followed Cannonball Adderly to the Fantasy label where she released the album Naturally in 1973. From there, Hugh Masakela brought her to the attention of Herb Alpert, who signed her to his A&M label where she released several albums, including a high profile appearance on Quincy Jones’ soundtrack to Roots.

She returned back to Africa in 1991 after 26 years with her husband, Caiphus Semenya, where she continues to record and performs today. Mbulu is also the singer who provided the Swahili chant on Michael Jackson’s single, “Liberian Girl.”

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Eli’s Comin’” by Maynard Ferguson

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He was considered one of the top “screech” trumpeters in Jazz, a style that was typified by a proclivity to spend an unfathomable amount of time playing in the upper registers of his instrument. But Maynard Ferguson was much more than just a screech trumpeter, he was also an educator and perhaps the most popular big band leader of the 1970s. While touring the concert halls of the world, he also took time out to perform hundreds of shows in high school and college auditoriums where he made it his mission to educate kids about Jazz. As a result, many young players got their start in Ferguson’s bands. Ferguson got his start playing in the big bands of Jimmy Dorsey and Charlie Barnett before joining Stan Kenton’s band in 1950. Although he wasn’t their lead trumpet player, he was afforded numerous solos because he could create excitement by playing in the highest registers of his instrument. After his work with Kenton, he took a job with Paramount pictures where he recorded over 40 film soundtracks including “The Ten Commandments.” In the early 1960s, Ferguson and his wife joined Timothy Leary and his Harvard friends and lived on an estate in Millbrook, NY where he experimented with numerous psychedelics including LSD. After a few years living in England, he came back to the states to set up his own big band. He released many albums during the ‘60s and ‘70s as a band leader, where he focused on performing big brass versions of the hits of the day. Here’s his 1970 Pop-Jazz version of the Laura Nyro classic, “Eli’s Comin’,” that was later made famous by Three Dog Night. It is from his first in a long string of “M.F. Horn” albums that had a profound influence on such rock acts as Blood Sweat & Tears, Chicago and Chase. Ferguson went on to lead his big band and perform in concert with hundreds ofartists until his death in 2006.

Song of the Day by Eric Berman – “Eli’s Comin’” by Maynard Ferguson

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45-adapter-logo2MaynardFerguson

Song of the Day by Eric Berman – “Eli’s Comin’” by Maynard Ferguson

He was considered one of the top “screech” trumpeters in Jazz, a style that was typified by a proclivity to spend an unfathomable amount of time playing in the upper registers of his instrument. But Maynard Ferguson was much more than just a screech trumpeter; he was also an educator and perhaps the most popular big band leader of the 1970s.

While touring the concert halls of the world, he also took time out to perform hundreds of shows in high school and college auditoriums where he made it his mission to educate kids about Jazz. As a result, many young players got their start in Ferguson’s bands.

Ferguson got his start playing in the big bands of Jimmy Dorsey and Charlie Barnett before joining Stan Kenton’s band in 1950. Although he wasn’t their lead trumpet player, he was afforded numerous solos because he could create excitement by playing in the highest registers of his instrument. After his work with Kenton, he took a job with Paramount pictures where he recorded over 40 film soundtracks including The Ten Commandments.

In the early 1960s, Ferguson and his wife joined Timothy Leary and his Harvard friends and lived on an estate in Millbrook, NY where they all experimented with numerous psychedelics. After a few years living in England, he came back to the states to set up his own big band.

He released many albums during the ‘60s and ‘70s as a band leader, where he focused on performing big brass versions of the hits of the day. Here’s his 1970 Pop-Jazz version of the Laura Nyro classic, “Eli’s Comin’,” which was brought to the charts by Three Dog Night. It is from his first in a long string of M.F. Horn albums that had a profound influence on such rock acts as Blood Sweat & Tears, Chicago and Chase.

Ferguson went on to lead his big band and perform in concert with hundreds of artists until his death in 2006.

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Save The Country” by Laura Nyro

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Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Save The Country” by Laura Nyro – Laura Nyro was one of the greatest songwriters of the 1960s responsible for many hits recorded by others. Even though she will finally get her due this year by being inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame, she is still relatively unknown to most people until you survey some of the songs she’s written: “Stone Soul Picnic” and “Wedding Bell Blues” by the 5th Dimension, “Eli’s Comin'” by Three Dog Night, “And When I Die” by Blood Sweat & Tears, “Stoney End” by Barbara Streisand are just some of her gold standard compositions. There is precious little footage of Nyro performing her own songs since she suffered from bouts of stage fright particularly during the 1960s. I was fortunate enough to see her once in 1976 at the Garden State Art’s Center in New Jersey and once in the early 1990s at The Bottom Line in New York City where in both instances she was in fine voice. Nyro’s own versions of her songs are still, in my mind, the definitive versions.