Even though i went to Buddy Guy tribute concert and the award ceremony on the same day as the Chinatown summer fair, i am writing about it almost 5 days after my previous posts, mostly because of uncoordinated service by COMCAST and work (i do work contrary to the popular belief). Well let me give a hint of the incompetence of Comcast people: i had to get a technician on Monday this week because of the re-occurrence of the same Internet problems which has been plaguing me for the last month and a half. This guy changes all the connectors (the previous technician replaced the modem) and promises that everything will be alright now. On Tuesday i have no connection again, and this time both the cable and Internet are gone. So, they send an urgent call technician on Wednesday morning, he says that somebody disconnected my line from the outside box terminal, so he connects it back and promises nothing else is wrong. On Wednesday afternoon itself my third floor neighbor(i live on the first floor) comes with another COMCAST technician who wants to check the lines which goes through my closet. He finds that the technician who was here on Monday disconnected the 3rd floor service while changing all the splitters and connectors. He casually tells me that he will have to connect the 3rd floor back on while my previous technician comes back and connects my connection as he is only responsible for the 3rd floor guys connection not mine!! when asked he said my technician will be here in a day or two.Can you believe this BS... do they know that they are a part of customer service not customer agony!. i have kept my cool through out this whole issue, but got fiercely angry on this new development. Eventually on my threatening to disconnect the 3rd floors connection as soon as he leaves if he doesn't fix mine as well, to make it his responsibility he put us both on a shared 3rd floor line and said that the technician will be here by Friday. hm mm Friday my a** ....now i have to call them again to send somebody to put me back on my own line as i have paid for a faster Internet and its kinda slow on a shared one.
So on Sunday afternoon after coming back from the Chinatown summer fair, i decided to take nap to rejuvenate myself before heading out the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park to see the Buddy Guy Tribute Concert and award ceremony. I have been an ardent fan of his since i started listening to Blues and got addicted specially to Chicago Blues. In my view if anybody living comes close the likes of Muddy Waters,Howling Wolf,Willie Dixon then is Buddy Guy. I am ashamed to say that i have never been to "Buddy Guys Legend" Club, but to rectify that i have put it on top priority in my list of "Things to do in Chicago in Fall".Buddy Guys aggressive guitar playing was considered noise by some people in the 60's before Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton helped popularizing it as a style of its own.
The proceedings were started of by Buddy Guy being presented the first "Great Performers of Illinois" by some city officials. While we were entering the park we were handed over huge white Polka dots. Even though i have seen Buddy Guy wearing Polka Dotted shirt and playing a signature Fender Stratocaster guitar colored black with polka dots in it(he was also presented one by some guitar manufacturer in Chicago), but it never occurred to me that it was one of his likings. We were asked to put them up our heads when asked for to show appreciation. I thought it was a nice gesture and it looked really nice when everybody(almost) waived it around during his award presentation. People initially were not too keen to take them but later on it grabbed their attention as they saw other people in their neighboring seats have them. I wonder why people like to avoid things like this and prefer to follow after the people around them have it. Most of the people have a much more curiosity and attraction towards what other people have as per the saying"the grass looks greener on the other side". I myself have been guilty of that a few times, but i wonder why it is so, is it something so human that we can't eradicate it? i don't know!!..
So on Sunday afternoon after coming back from the Chinatown summer fair, i decided to take nap to rejuvenate myself before heading out the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park to see the Buddy Guy Tribute Concert and award ceremony. I have been an ardent fan of his since i started listening to Blues and got addicted specially to Chicago Blues. In my view if anybody living comes close the likes of Muddy Waters,Howling Wolf,Willie Dixon then is Buddy Guy. I am ashamed to say that i have never been to "Buddy Guys Legend" Club, but to rectify that i have put it on top priority in my list of "Things to do in Chicago in Fall".Buddy Guys aggressive guitar playing was considered noise by some people in the 60's before Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton helped popularizing it as a style of its own.
The proceedings were started of by Buddy Guy being presented the first "Great Performers of Illinois" by some city officials. While we were entering the park we were handed over huge white Polka dots. Even though i have seen Buddy Guy wearing Polka Dotted shirt and playing a signature Fender Stratocaster guitar colored black with polka dots in it(he was also presented one by some guitar manufacturer in Chicago), but it never occurred to me that it was one of his likings. We were asked to put them up our heads when asked for to show appreciation. I thought it was a nice gesture and it looked really nice when everybody(almost) waived it around during his award presentation. People initially were not too keen to take them but later on it grabbed their attention as they saw other people in their neighboring seats have them. I wonder why people like to avoid things like this and prefer to follow after the people around them have it. Most of the people have a much more curiosity and attraction towards what other people have as per the saying"the grass looks greener on the other side". I myself have been guilty of that a few times, but i wonder why it is so, is it something so human that we can't eradicate it? i don't know!!..
The tribute concert was started off by a Blues Student band from Columbia University. They played pretty well apart from the fact that they kept forgetting that blues is more about slowing it down and putting emphasis on the notes ( 1930's-1950's) and suddenly going up in fervor if you want it to incorporate Buddy Guy style, and kept going faster and faster. The guitar whiz kid Quinn Sullivan who has the seal of approval from Buddy also played with the college band.Some other local blues old timers (can't remember their names) joined in. Even Buddy Guy was forced by the crowds continuous chanting of this name to join in, but sadly he played only for couple of minutes.
After a brief lull of 10 minutes or so "Jimmie Lee" Vaughan (the brother of Steve Ray Vaughan,any blues fan doesn't need any more introduction that this) came out with his "Tilt a Whirl " band, consisting of Bill Willis on Hammond Organ, Billy Pittman on Rhythm Guitar and George Rains on Drums. He played some songs before being joined by Lou Ann Barton as lead singer. They played some really nice "Texas Blues" songs.
Surprisingly Buddy Guy didn't jam with them, even though he was present throughout.After an entertaining hour or so of music, they concluded the program but the crowed was not satisfied and kept on chanting "Encore" and "Buddy Guy". It was the only disheartening moment of the evening when none of the performers responded by playing an encore. I know Buddy was supposed to go to his club for release of his new album but he could have definitely played for his fans. Anyway i went back home little bit sad as i hoped to hear Buddy play,as i knew i won't be able to afford his end of August concert in Ravinia and wondering why is live music still more off a rich man's indulgence.
Copyrights @ 2008 Rahuljit Pal.
For More Pictures please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/rahuljitpal
Copyrights @ 2008 Rahuljit Pal.
For More Pictures please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/rahuljitpal
No comments:
Post a Comment