Tom Petty performs with the Heartbreakers at Germain Arena in Estero. (Andrew Nathanson / gatorproduction.com)

ESTERO — A scant two days after playing to over 50,000 at New Orleans Jazzfest, Florida’s golden child Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers took a the trip to Estero and cooked up a first-rate show for his birth state. Mixing hits, blues, acoustic, and even some headbanging as he described it, the show had the feel of a hometown barbecue at the Florida Everblades’ Germain Arena, a few hours from the band’s Gainesville hometown.

The show was a polished gem in a medium arena of about 8,000, packed to the rafters full of screaming fans. It was big enough to provide the proper adulation for a star and band on stratospheric par with a Dylan and Springsteen, and small enough for a cozy ambiance. Mr. Petty might not be the pure poet like Dylan but his songs create visceral images as well as anyone out there.

Whereas many from the New York / New Jersey area will argue otherwise, Petty and the Heartbreakers’ shows are stronger than Springsteen’s and with superior talent — with the exception of the former Palm Beach resident Clarence “Big Man” Clemons (may he rest in peace). The Heartbreakers spread their wings wider for their frontman, who both culls the talent and delves deeper into their capability.

Photos: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in Estero | Visit Andrew Nathanson’s website

Opening with “Listen to Her Heart,” Petty immediately gave the fans what they expected, quality art in an enduring song. Quickly he hit “I Won’t Back Down” and “Here Comes My Girl” off the breakout LP Damn the Torpedoes. Then they went into the Traveling Wilburys’ plum “Handle With Care”, done expertly. Originally recorded with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan, the band did a fine job of honoring the original lineup. Petty covered Harrison’s vocals sweetly and with all due respect, the same respect Heartbreaker Scott Thurston paid to the memory and superior vocal talents of Orbison, no small feat.
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Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero, better known as Rodrigo y Gabriela, can certainly hold their own as a duo. Being an instrumental acoustic flamenco rock phenomenon with dueling acoustic guitars, they have enticed audiences for many years with their contemporary style of genre-busting sound.

But on Tuesday night at The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater, they expanded their sound as well as their audience, collaborating with the Latin jazz and percussion ensemble named C.U.B.A. (The Collective Universal Band Association). Together they played reinvented tracks that originally appear on the duo’s third and fourth albums.

Before combining with C.U.B.A. for their latest album, “Area 52,” which is an exploration of Cuban music recorded in Havana, Rod and Gab’s music could only be described as a genuine but unique play on Salsa – they fuse their original sound with elements of heavy metal – blowing the edges off of Latin classical guitar work.

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While on stage, the duo played several unique pieces from early on in their career mixed with some original music inspired by the group’s musical influences – two of which mentioned last night were Carlos Santana and Al Di Meola.
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Randy Bachman and Fred Turner perform at Hard Rock Live. (Andrew Nathanson / gatorproduction.com)

Declaring, “This is the Hard Rock and we’re giving you hard rock,” Randy Bachman made it clear Bachman-Turner were delivering the musical goods. In addition to the expected straightforward 4/4-time rock and roll the crowd came to hear, they also served up jam-band style fare, psychedelic, and even some jazz infused flavors at Hard Rock Live, the venue at Hollywood’s Hard Rock Casino.

Opening with “Roll On Down The Highway,” Randy Bachman on a flame top Les Paul guitar and Fred Turner on a tough man’s 6-string bass let the crowd know they were there to give them what they wanted. The central figures of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the hit machine of the 1970’s who don’t currently use the BTO moniker, skipped the barcolounger in favor of giving a “Lesson on where heavy metal came from,” as one gentleman up front said.

To prove it they rolled through “Rock is My Life” and “Not Fragile,” as compared to Yes’ “Fragile” of the era. Showing they are more than a one-trick pony, in “Looking Out For #1” they included an extended guitar jam which would garner respect from the Dead/Phish crowd, some jazzy chording, and quality Wah peddle that is favored by many a guitarist since the mid-1960’s.

Photos: Bachman Turner at the Hard Rock | Visit Andrew Nathanson’s website

It was clear Mr. Bachman’s voice is still good to go and his chops were clean and crisp. He moved comfortably between slow bends on a note or a few at a time to runs all over the neck with appropriate timing at the high registers of his axe. He made it sing and scream. His compatriot in arms, Mr. Turner was quick, precise, and forceful on his midnight-blue beast bass while vigorously belting out the refrain from “Four Wheel Drive.”
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NEW ORLEANS — Musicians including Herbie Hancock are kicking off performances in New Orleans to celebrate International Jazz Day.

The concert began Monday morning with ritual drumming and a string of jazz performances. Other artists performing included pianist Ellis Marsalis, trumpeters Terence Blanchard and Kermit Ruffins, and singer Stephanie Jordan.

They performed as the sun rose on Congo Square, an area near the French Quarter neighborhood where slaves once gathered on Sundays to play music. Hundreds crowded the stage, some dancing and waving white handkerchiefs to the music.

International Jazz Day was launched in Paris on Friday and made its way to the United States. The concert is one of two to be held in the U.S. on Monday. The other is in the evening in New York.

Elvis Costello and the Imposters perform next to the Spectacular Spinning Songbook wheel. (Andrew Nathanson / gatorproduction.com)

It’s a casino: Spin to win! The main course: Elvis in the house.

Recreating the Spectacular Spinning Songbook, Elvis Costello and the Imposters broke out the big wheel along with an on-stage Society Lounge, contemporary Go-Go cage, a fair-like sledgehammer and bell, and a red “Requests” light at center stage.

Mixing it up with equal parts singer-songwriter, punk, Vaudeville, and showman, Costello and his Imposters counterparts whipped up entertainment for all to not only enjoy, but also participate. Opening with “Pump It Up,” he let the audience know they were in for a ride this night at Hard Rock Live at Hollywood’s Seminole Hard Rock Casino.

Photos: Elvis Costello and the Imposters | Visit Andrew Nathanson’s website

Early on a couple came on stage and gave the wheel a whirl and up came “Chelsea” as in “I Don’t Want to Go to Chelsea.” The giant wheel, a recreation from the plans of the original 1986 wheel, since donated to the Hartlepool Museum of Showbusiness Machinery according to Costello’s website, insures a unique show every night. Later spins by others garnered playing of “Peace, Love, and Understanding” and “The Joker.” Eat your heart out Pat Sajak.
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(Video above of Haley Reinhart singing her new single “Free” shot by show attendee Ken Ostroff via YouTube.)

Haley Reinhart at the Norton Museum of Art's Art After Dark. (J. Gwendolynne Berry / Palm Beach Post)

Haley Reinhart’s time on the stage at the Norton After Dark/WRMF Listener’s Lounge on Thursday was certainly different than the performances she gave on “American Idol,” where she finished third in 2011. Instead of the FOX show’s elaborate stage productions, it was just the effervescent singer and two musicians. No JLo. No Seacrest. No voting.

Just a smile, a voice and a winning, buoyant personality and presence. All Haley.

Photos: Haley Reinhart at the Norton Museum of Art | Photos: Earth Day fashion show at the Norton

She confirmed, for me, why she was my favorite singer last year, besides the fact that I admittedly liked the funky, jazzy, rocky things she does. She just seems so real, in her unaugmented talent – you can’t fake those pipes, y’all – in her joy in singing and in the connection she has with her audiences. She performed three songs from her upcoming album “Listen Up,” including the heartbreakingly simple “Free,” now playing on WRMF and around the globe. Everything about the song sets her apart from the teen market that “Idol” pushes – it’s a song about letting go, about wanting to maintain your dignity and memories and then be free of a relationship that’s killing both of you. This is an adult song. This is not a song for an insubstantial little girl. And Hayley sold that regret and pain and grownup-hood.
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As we speak, I’m watching this year’s “American Idol” featuring some amazing singers. But only a few of them inspire me every week with their originality, inventiveness and unstoppable artistry. By the time last year’s field was narrowed to three, there was only one, for my money, that had all that.

And as that singer, Haley Reinhart, prepares to come to the fabulous Norton After Dark series as part of WRMF’s Listener Lounge tonight, she wants you to know things worked out just the way she wanted.

“I kept setting goals for myself. Each step of the way was baby steps,” says Reinhart, whose single “Free” set the “Idol” stage alight a few weeks back, and whose album “Listen Up!” is released May 22. “Getting to third was what I wanted in the first place. I had no real regrets. I wanted to get to the Top Ten, so I could go on (the “American Idol”) tour, and that seemed like the right place for me.”

Right now, the place Haley finds herself is on a promotional tour for “Listen Up!” mostly radio stations shows, before setting out on a larger jaunt.

“It’s been so surreal, but that’s pretty typical for me now. I went straight from the show to the (“Idol”) tour, to moving to L.A. and writing the whole album, but it’s wonderful,” she says.  

Reinhart says that she didn’t have “one specific goal for the album. I wanted to make people feel good when they heard it. A lot of it is mid-tempo – everything has a groove to it. As far as the lyrics and melody, I wanted to take people on a journey, either to escape or somewhere they’ll relate to, whichever they’d like to do.”

]The ideas for thse lyrics can come at any time, so she says she makes sure to always have her phone with her “for voice memos. When we got into the songwriting process, if just came pouring out. It was very easy to write, with my co-writers and producers. It was really good getting feedback for each new song.”

Haley’s promotional shows like the one tonight at the Norton are fairly short – “I don’t want to give too much away” – she teases, “but I can’t wait to start playing some of these others ones. There are so many I really enjoy doing.”

Guitarist Roy Rogers and keyboardist Ray Manzarek bring their band to Wanee on Thursday and the Bamboo Room on Friday. (Photo by Bob Hakins)

Back when he was in the seminal rock band the Doors, Ray Manzarek worked with a man whose words were provided by Jim Morrison, whose words ended up being published as poetry.

So when he began working on a new project with blues guitarist Roy Rogers, Manzarek had just the lyrics he wanted.

“We both bring the songs, and I’d bring in the words,” Manzarek said in a telephone interview. “I would bring the words of excellent poets. I had a poem by Michael McClure, a Beat poet and friend of Jack Kerouac. We had great lyrics from Warren Zevon, who we worked with just before he passed on.”

Manzarek and Rogers put the songs together and ended up with the album Translucent Blues, a very dark trip through a bluesy set of songs. The duo and their group will be performing the album and a few choice covers at two upcoming dates in Florida – at the Wanee Music Festival 2012 in Live Oak on Thursday and at the Bamboo Room on Friday.

Concert information: Wanee Music Festival | Manzarek-Rogers Band at the Bamboo Room

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David Lee Roth (right) leads Van Halen at BankAtlantic Center with Wolfgang Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen. (Andrew Nathanson / GatorProduction.com)

Eddie Van Halen is one of those musicians you have to see play live at least once.

The guitar god changed the way the instrument is played in radical ways from the moment Van Halen’s first LP dropped in 1978, but it’s one thing to marvel at the sheer amount of notes and noises he can coax from his guitar listening to the albums or watching the videos on YouTube, it’s another to watch him do it in person.

And so, late in the group’s show at BankAtlantic Center on Tuesday, Eddie Van Halen sat down in the middle of the stage and tapped his way through an absolutely breathtaking solo that only he could do.

And it was, of course, obvious that this was the reason you spend your money to see Van Halen.

Photos: Van Halen at the BankAtlantic Center

Mind you, lead singer David Lee Roth was doing everything he could to give the crowd their money’s worth too. Roth mugged. He twirled a mike stand. He shimmied. He high-kicked – maybe not as much as he did back in 1984, but still enough to warrant a slow-motion replay on the giant black-and-white video wall behind the band.
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Pink Martini performs at the Kravis Center on Saturday. (Howie Grapek / GPO)

It might be easy at first to see a group like Pink Martini only for the quirk — they sing songs based on Heinz ads from the 1960s and obscure Japanese B-movies, their members are a multi-cultural, multi-racial group that includes a long-haired trumpet player and a couple of guys you might’ve sworn taught your freshman-year English class.

But to dismiss them as a lounge-version They Might Be Giants would be to grossly underestimate this group, which is not only made up on some incredibly talented musicians, but almost impossibly versatile ones as well.

Led by pianist/arranger/songwriter Thomas Lauderdale — whose pre-song introductions showed a raconteur’s wit — Pink Martini weaved its way through styles, genres and stories on Saturday at the Kravis Center’s Dreyfoos Hall with the deftness of an Olympic slalom skier. Most of the Portland-based ensemble’s selections were sublimely based in Latin backbeats — bossa nova, samba, etc. — though they were ready to branch out into pop, jazz or any other genre they could think of.

At the center of it was the estimable voice of singer China Forbes, of whom one audience member noted, “She could easily be an opera star.” While her nine male bandmates arrived on stage in suits of varying shades of grey, Forbes immediately popped in a designer Lanvin gown, which she explained was made for her by designer Alber Elbaz while she and the band were visiting Paris.

Photos: Pink Martini at the Kravis Center

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