=?UTF-8?Q?Patti=20Smith=20in=20the=20Parlor,=20Still=20Raw=20and?= =?UTF-8?Q?=20Rock=20=E2=80=99n=E2=80=99=20Roll-=20At=20Lincoln=20Center?=

[Poemsl1]

xxo- Seena

_http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/arts/music/03patt.html?_r=1&ref=music&oref
=
slogin_
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/arts/music/03patt.html?_r=1&ref=music&oref
=slogin)

(go to link above for pic)


March 3, 2008
Music Review | Patti Smith
Patti Smith in the Parlor, Still Raw  and Rock bnb Roll
By _STEPHEN  HOLDEN_
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/stephen_holden/
index.html?inline=nyt-per)

For some musicians the ordinary rules just donbt apply. I would call the
intangible quality that makes ignoring them possible purity of soul. More than
artistic integrity, it has a mystical component and requires the listener to
make a leap of faith.
That quality has always defined _Patti  Smith_
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/patti_smith/ind
ex.html?inline=nyt-per) , the
shamanistic poet, proto-punk-rocker and voice in the wilderness  who closed
_Lincoln  Center_
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/l/lincoln_
center_for_the_performing_arts/index.html?inline=nyt-org) bs
American Songbook series this season at the Allen Room on Saturday  with a
program consisting largely of popular standards.
Performing songs she lovingly associated with her parents, she was
accompanied by a trio that included Luis Resto on piano, Paul Nowinski on bass
and her
son, Jackson Smith, on acoustic guitar.
The quavering, ragged-but-stalwart voice she brought to bStar Dust,b bMy
Funny Valentine,b bAutumn Leaves,b bIbll Be Seeing Youb and others
was a
quieter, lower-register variation of the fervent rock intensity she imparted
to
several of her best-known songs.
But even in a quiet mode, playing the grown-up daughter sitting with hands
folded on her lap in the parlor, her singing suggested the spiritual call to
commitment of a rock bnb roll Joan of Arc. Of how many performers can it
be
said  that being 61 going on 16 doesnbt look at all ridiculous?
The show brought to mind _Willie  Nelson_
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/willie_nelson/i
ndex.html?inline=nyt-per) bs b
Stardustb album, the 30-year-old masterpiece of laconic pop  tribute in
which Mr.
Nelson drove the great American songbook from Austin to El  Paso in a
covered-wagon caravan.
Where Mr. Nelsonbs spare, guitar-oriented versions of standards were
flattened into a plain country-folk vernacular, Ms. Smithbs were downright
raw.  She
didnbt carefully memorize all the lyrics and often interpolated her
approximations of rhymes as she went along. Melodies were spontaneously
adjusted, the
better to get from here to there without uncomfortable  transitions.
Especially at the beginning of the show, she seemed to be feeling  her way.
Then her confidence kicked in. She sang a teenage pop trinket b Kathy
Youngb
s  1960 hit, bA Thousand Starsb b with a primal throb that minutes later
infused  Hank Williamsbs bIbm So Lonesome I Could Cry.b Her dark,
dramatic
version of  bDonbt Smoke in Bedb held its own beside interpretations by
_Peggy
Lee_
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/peggy_lee/index
.html?inline=nyt-per) , Nina Simone and _K.  D. Lang_
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/k_d_lang/index.
html?inline=nyt-per) .
A quiet, brooding bAutumn Leavesb located the grief at the bottom  of the
song.
Her biggest hit, bBecause the Night,b elicited an intimate recollection of
the courtship with her husband, Fred (Sonic) Smith, who died in 1994, in which
 an anxious evening spent waiting for his phone call found its way into the
lyrics. In bPeople Have the Powerb and bDancing Barefootb her
exhortatory
powers  provoked a euphoric communal trance.
As emphatically as popular-music purists would dismiss Ms. Smithbs handling
of standards, for my money academic purism was trumped by her purity of soul,
which after all these years remains untainted.





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