Stanley Jordan, probably one of the most underrated guitarists around, performed his tribute to Jimi Hendrix last night at the Sacred Heart Community Theater in Fairfield, Connecticut. I first saw Jordan years ago in the late 1980s at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. There he performed a one-man show with his multiple guitars, wowing the audience with his masterful guitar skills.
Last night’s show was a trio that included his long-time drummer Kenwood Dennard. On bass was Wes Wirth. Jordan was in his traditional form, playing multiple guitars and displaying the same virtuosity he had back in the 1980s.
Dennard is a skilled drummer whose piercing style, speed, and energetic playing has echoes of Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa. But wait! There’s more! Dennard also, when required, took a turn on the keyboard while at the same time playing drums without missing a beat. He also did vocals on a few of the songs.
Wirth on bass was decent. He accompanied Jordan’s lead guitars with and the one solo he had was well done. But, overall, it was Jordan and Dennard that had the spotlight last night.
Jordan played a full repertoire of Hendrix’s oeuvre. My knowledge of Hendrix’s work is limited to what I heard on classic radio stations growing up in the 1980s. Well-known songs like “Voodoo Child” and the “The Wind Cries Mary” were in the program, along with many that I had never heard before. Long-time fans of Hendrix will, of course, recall many of them. “All Along the Watchtower” was saved for the band’s encore.
The trio could have opted to go the cover band route and try to reproduce the songs note for note in the same exact way Hendrix played them in the 1960s. But instead, Jordan and Dennard interpreted them through their jazz and blues backgrounds. “Voodoo Child” in Hendrix’s hands was a straight-ahead rock song. Jordan, however, turned it into melodic blues piece played in his signature style.
The attire the band wore on stage was pure kitsch. Jordan was decked out with a full afro and Woodstock hippie garb. Dennard was wearing a tie-dyed shirt and cap. Only Wirth was dressed in a way that was not distracting or kitschy. This wardrobe clashed with the unique sound the trio brought to the songs. Was I supposed to be hearing a cover version, or an interpretation?
It was a shame that the audience was not larger, and that one of the people producing the show had to come out and ask if the audience wanted an encore. (Yes! We did not get to hear Hendrix’s signature song “All Along the Watchtower” yet.) It may have been that the audience was expecting to hear a cover band version of Hendrix but instead got Jordan’s well-executed interpretations instead. I entered the theater expecting to hear the same virtuosity Jordan and Dennard demonstrated with their version of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” on Jordan’s 1991 album Stolen Moments. I was not disappointed.
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