Music Notebook: Pat Metheny tribute has his approval; he recently performed with the same San Diego musicians
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Other San Diego concerts of note this week include Rock Hall of Famer John Fogerty at the San Diego County Fair and Femi Kuti and Positive Force at the Belly Up
Sprague Spotlights Metheny
How big a fan is 20-time Grammy Award-winning jazz great Pat Metheny of San Diego’s Peter Sprague and Leonard Patton?
“The (2015) duo album Peter and Leonard made, ‘Dream Walkin’,” is staggering!” Metheny said in a Union-Tribune interview last year. “It’s on a level of musicianship that is in the top .00001 percent of what it is to be a musician.”
The genre-leaping maverick has collaborated with Herbie Hancock, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Ornette Coleman and more. His new band teams him with a new generation of young musicians.
His enthusiasm was further demonstrated in March when Metheny performed with fellow guitar ace Sprague, vocal dynamo Patton and Sprague’s band at a private concert in Newport Beach.
Just how accomplished these San Diego musicians are will be again demonstrated at Friday’s all-ages “Sprague Spotlights Metheny” concert at Dizzy’s.
The symphony debuts its new ‘LISTEN // HERE’ online series on Wednesday, while Sprague’s new concert series resumes on Thursday
It will feature nine Metheny classics, including “Are You Going with Me?” and “Farmer’s Trust,” that have been freshly arranged by Sprague and feature lyrics written by San Diego’s Randy Phillips.
“We also play (Glen Campbell’s) ‘Wichita Lineman’), because that’s one of Pat’s favorite tunes,” said Sprague, a longtime Metheny friend.
The award-winning San Diego singer opened his live music dinner club to the public last July, after doing nearly a year of audience-free livestream concerts in the intimate venue
Patton and the equally talented Rebecca Jade will share vocal duties at Friday’s concert, which celebrates the release of the new two-CD set, “Peter Sprague Plays Pat Metheny.”
The band’s lineup, as in Newport Beach, also features pianist John Opferkuch, bassist Mackenzie Leighton and drummer Duncan Moore.
The versatile singer, who counts Elton John, Sheila E and Dave Koz among her many collaborators, is gearing up for new album with her band, The Cold Fact, and concerts in Europe and Barbados
The genesis of the new album dates back nearly 17 years to when Sprague asked Phillips to write lyrics for Metheny’s “Song for Bilbao.”
“Peter thought it would be fun to perform a set of his own arrangements of Metheny songs with a lyrical story that a singer could add to the mix,” Phillips said.
“That was the beginning of an incredible journey for us as collaborators. The challenge of listening to the beauty and complexity of this music and finding the stories they wanted to tell has been an ongoing joy for me.”
8 p.m. Friday. Dizzy’s at Arias Hall (behind the Musician’s Association building), 1717 Morena Boulevard, Bay Park. $25. dizzysjazz.com
John Fogerty
At 77, John Fogerty is three years younger than Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson, who both turned 80 in the past week.
His songbook is nearly as rich, as befits the man who led Creedence Clearwater Revival in the 1960s and early ‘70s before launching his solo career in 1973.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer discusses his new book, his upcoming debut residency in Sin City, and much more in this candid interview
Fogerty is averaging 18 songs a night on his current tour, including 11 Creedence classics and such solo treats as “Centerfield” and “Old Man Down the Road.” Those two 1985 gems that sound just as fresh now as such Fogerty-penned Creedence hits as “Fortunate Son,” “Down on the Corner” and “Proud Mary.”
For good measure, Fogerty’s six-piece touring band features his sons, Shane and Tyler. The siblings co-lead their own band, Hearty Har, which is opening most of he dates on their famous father’s 2022 summer tour.
“It is with the greatest joy to see my sons, Shane and Tyler, creating great music with their own unique sound that I love,” Fogerty said in a June 16 statement.
“I was in a band with my brother when I started my music career... I am so happy to see my sons sharing the love of music together. What a thrill that is.”
7:30 p.m. Saturday. Toyota Grandstand Stage, San Diego County Fair, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar. $35-$75. sdfair.com
Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, featuring Mádé Kuti, with Elektric Voodoo
The highly influential legacy of Nigeria’s late Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti is extended in the music of The Positive Force.
The brassy band is led by one of his sons, Femi, 60, and grandsons, Mádé, 26. A 2018 graduate of London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance — the same school his famous grandfather studied at in the 1950s — Mádé released his accomplished debut solo album, “For[e]ward,” last year.
Singer and saxophonist Femi Kuti is the oldest son of the late Fela Kuti, the legendary Nigerian artist who created the musical hybrid known as Afrobeat and was the subject of the electrifying Broadway musical “Fela!”
Together, the father-and-son Kuti team creates a propulsive sonic gumbo with songs whose lyrics address the political and economic challenges that face Africa in general and their Nigerian homeland specifically. It’s a winning combination of music and message.
Arrive early to hear Elektric Voodoo, the freewheeling San Diego band led by former Grace Potter & The Nocturnals’ guitarist Scott Tournet. The group’s third album, “Telescope,” was released last year.
8 p.m. Tuesday. Belly Up, 143 South Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. $30 (general admission), $53 (reserved loft seating); must be 21 or older to attend. (858) 481-8140; bellyup.com
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