Stars Align: Everybody Loves Jimmy Vivino
Holy fucking shit. That’s about as clear as I can put it. Last night’s star-studded concert at BB King’s was easily one of the cooler experiences I’ve ever had in all my years of seeing live music. BEST $12.50 TICKET EVER! In all caps!
Photos by Adam Kaufman
Pretty much everyone that ever played with Jimmy Vivino came out to help celebrate his birthday, as well as promoter Bill Graham’s birthday. Everyone who was on the rumored lineup turned up, plus even more legendary musicians. This was one of the many nights that I’m so happy to live in New York City.
I had a hard time keeping track of who sat in on what, but John Sebastian came out for the first two songs. The Prisoners of 2nd Ave played the next few songs, and were joined by Elaine Caswell for the Jefferson Airplane shiz. Warren Haynes then came out for blistering versions of both Had to Cry Today and Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad. At this point Levon Helm came out, and the drawlin’ drummer stayed at the kit the whole night. An old white dude named Robert Gordon also came out to sing a couple of Elvis tunes with the ensemble.
I’d never heard of Willie Nile, but he blew me away. That dude is like a mix of early John Cougar and late Bruce Springsteen, and he sang his tune Hard Times in America to much applause. After Willie left the stage, Vivino called upon his Fab Faux band mates for intense driving versions of I Want You (She’s So Heavy) and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Warren came out for While My Guitar, giving us the monumental lineup of the Fab Faux, Warren, Levon and Paul Shaffer. I couldn’t believe my eyes. READ ON FOR MUCH MORE, PLUS VIDEOS AND PHOTOS…
Al Kooper and the Rekooperators played a few songs after that. Shaffer delivered quite the vocal performance during a I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know that ended with Al Kooper draping Paul Shaffer in a cape, James Brown style. The Rekooperators gave one of the funkiest performances of the night with their reworking of Season of the Witch. Throughout the night Vivino showed so many different sides of his vast talent.
Towards the end of the show Little Sammy Davis Jr., Hubert Sumlin and David Johansen came out, as well as fucking Rick Nielson from Cheap Trick for a couple of Howlin’ Wolf tunes. Danny Louis from Mule played keys for the last three songs as well. As I’m not a big Larry Campbell fan, I wasn’t too upset he only played on two song throughout the evening. The final two songs of the evening were beautiful versions of Bring It On Home To Me and I Shall Be Released. I left exhausted, but extremely giddy at what I had just witnessed.
Here are a few clips and photos thanks to Adam Kaufman:
Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad?
I Shall Be Released
Warren gets down with Al Kooper
Buster Poindexter David Johansen delivers his best Howlin’ Wolf
Little Sammy Davis adds some tasty harp to the mix
Levon Shines Behind The Kit
The Fab Faux Rock BB’s
While Warren’s Guitar Gently Weeps
Is it legal to fit that many people on stage?
Paul Shaffer Hams It Up
Jimmy Vivino’s Birthday Party
Prisoners of 2nd Avenue
BB King’s
January 10th, 2008Set: Harmonica Solo, And When I Die, Tell The Truth, See My Way, A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, Shapes Of Things, White Rabbit, Somebody To Love, Had To Cry Today, Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad, God Don’t Never Change, Mess of Blues, I’m Left You’re Right She’s Gone, Hard Times In America, I Want You (She’s So Heavy), While My Guitar Gently Weeps, I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know, Season Of The Witch, Killing Yourself By Degrees, Killing Floor, 300 lbs of Joy, Wang Dang Doodle, Bring It On Home To Me, I Shall Be Released
sweet review, thanks scotty, wish i was well enough to go….
well I’m totally blown away by that review, B. You really have no idea how jealous I am. Love all the old Derek & The Dominoes tunes that are coming back…
Scotty, you’ve done it once again! Fantastic review — only now I fucking hate you because you were there and I wasn’t. And $12.50? You suck!
Great writeup! It was a fantastic night.
On the setlist, they also played White Rabbit before Someone to Love. And i think the Bloomfield song is called “Killing Yourself by Degrees.”
And I hated Willie Nile. But loved everything else.
Dam Scotty!!
u lucky SOB.
what an amazing night of music. start to finish i had a big grin on my face. like scotty said, a night where i’m lucky to be a new yorker.
I should regret not going. But Benevento and company was tasty enough for me to be satisfied with my decision.
Shit, Should’ve gone.
I went… was really blown away by the closing “I Shall Be Released” and Paul Schaeffer’s tune– who knew?
And then I made it to Sullivan Hall for second set of Marco.
$12.50 in NEW YORK!?! Was there a seventy drink minimum? Amazing…. I share in feelings of jealousy & envy. I don’t go out much anymore because it’s usually so “by the numbers” but this seems like the opposite. Musicians playing for themselves who understand that, if they do that, more than enough of the rest of us are happy to come along for the rid. I hope Al Kooper lives forever. It may came down to an epic broadsword battle in a lower Manhattan parking garage between Al and Keith Richards since “there can be only one.”
you know what else is AWESOME about being a New Yorker? Steroids.
i cant believe there was no Soulshine
I grabbed a printed setlist after the show. They were supposed to close with The Shape I’m in, not sure why that fell by the wayside.
Also on setlist, not played:
Rekooperators, Birds Nest on the Ground, Albert’s Shuffle
Played, not on Setlist:
Season of the Witch, Killing me by Degrees
Bring it on home to me
Audio torrent here
That ^^^ was a link, by the way.
SCott:
Many thanks for the great review — but, really, how can you NOT be a Larry Campbell fan!?
joe
I am so sad that I missed it. Truly a NY experience. Go Willie Nile.
$12.50….Why did my ticket cost $27?
Do you remember when Vivino was saying the first time he met and heard Warren play was at a NYC bar called Hades? I was there that night!. It was 1990 and Hades was a tiny dive bar on the Upper Upper Eastside where Donald Fagen of Steely Dan was making his comeback. I think there was about 30 people in Hades that night. I remember it like it was yesterday!
It was a great showing of friendship from fans and artists. Jimmy’s band, ‘Prisoners of 2nd Ave’ killed. I’ve seen them do their Fillmore E. show. It’s great. Also in that band are Rich Pagano from the Fab Faux and John Conte from Southside Johnny.
Just went to their website to see pictures…nothing from this show yet.
http://www.prisonersof2ndavenue.com.
Found this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKMK8LvIL0A
Willie Nile was great? How could you say that you hated him?
I heard Jimmy for 5 shows at Jazz Standard last week with Hubert Sumlin, Tony Garnier, James Blood Ulmer and David Johanssen.
Then this. It will be hard to top this show. Holy f’n shit. It’s great to be in NY!!
I got one of those half-off-full-price, $12.50 tickets. It actually cost me $23.60: $12.50 $2 facility charge (which is BS) $4.75 per-ticket convenience charge $4.35 per-order processing charge. Had I gone to the B.B. King’s box office to avoid the fees, I would’ve had to pay full price plus the facility charge, as one of the earlier commenters did. To answer another commenter’s question: Last time I was at B.B. King’s, there was a minimum only if you sat at a table.
I paid full price for my ticket, and also one for a friend - and it was WELL, WELL worth it!! Great show, great crowd, great time!
Had an amazing time at BB Kings this past Thursday night. What started out when I bought the tickets as a simple prisoners of 2nd Ave show, became much more than that.
It turned out that it was rescheduled from January 8 to January 10. So the show just happened to land on Jimmy Vivino’s birthday. So a few days before while is having a monthly poker game listening to Q104.3 they mentioned all the incredible special guests. I knew right then, this is going to be a very special night.
I e-mailed my large group or friends trying to recruit more people to attend the show. To me, the more the merrier. I love seeing people happy enjoying the music that I love. I feel a certain camaraderie and affection for all those like-minded individuals. They say that you can control 40% of your happiness by the decisions you make. A few years ago I decided to follow my childhood dreams and see as much music as possible. I’ve never looked back, and most of these nights have proved to be memorable and happy occasions.
I made arrangements to meet as many people as possible by about 5:30 p.m. at BB Kings so we could get a good table. I arrived first at five o’clock, just about the time when Jimmy Vivino’s birthday cake also arrived. It was a cake shaped like a guitar. It was one of the most beautiful cakes I’ve ever seen. A piece of artwork. Bravo to the cake maker.
I grabbed a beer and starter waiting for other friends to arrive. I start a conversation with the woman next to me, and we discovered that we had both been to the prisoners of 2nd Ave show at Greenwich Library a few months ago. Her name is Deborah Novak, and she turned out to be a great person. She also had a ticket with the number 12 on it, instead of 17 which was my ticket. So after establishing a friendship, a she volunteered to bring me in all my friends in with her to get a table. Her paramour had not arrived, and we would attempt to save a seat for him. His name is Derek Meade, and he is a photographer. He also was in music management in a prior life. Anyway, it is funny that you can meet people who have similar interests, and make friends.
Ultimately, said a friend made it before the cut off and were seated with us. An old friend from Brooklyn, a few friends from Larchmont, a few friends from college, and a friend from law school all ended up at the show. We had excellent seats. Luckily, we were situated to the left of the stage. This would be excellent for saying the Jimmy Vivino’s finger work. Unfortunately Rich Pagano was a little blocked off, and I had to pop my head up to see Levon Helm. The prime seats were all reserved for friends, family, and VIPs.
That brings me to my next revelation. This event ended up really being a private celebration for the prisoners of second Ave., and all their friends and family. The lucky other people who were there, such as fans, and other members of the public were treated to this special intimate evening.
Before the show, I saw Rich Pagano examining the tables for his friends and family. I e-mailed them the night before to get a new copy of a steaks and chops CD which was defective, that I obtained in Greenwich Connecticut. By the way, he is a very very nice guy. He brought me backstage, gave me the CD, shook my hand. Nice way to start.
To introduce the show, Ken Dashow, a famous DJ start off by bringing on John Sebastian. This is the first time I’ve ever seen John Sebastian unfortunately. I have always admired his work in particular with the Lovin Spoonful, and later as a solo artist. He gave a great speech, and I remember him saying how he played the Longshoremen’s Hall in the 60s, before it later became the Fillmore East. He did an incredible harmonica solo.
Then Jimmy Vivino came out and join John Sebastian to play “and when I die”. The song came into prominence when blood sweat and tears covered it. I think the lead singer was David Clayton Thomas. His voice was incredible, and people forget how great he was, and how great the band was. During the song, I can try to remember who wrote the song. It was killing me. Because I knew. It was one of those senior moments. About an hour later I remembered it was Laura Nyro, a with a great singer-songwriter who attended the performing arts high school in New York City. This is the same school that Fame was based on. Laura died a few years earlier of some sort of cancer. She wrote a ton of very famous songs. The 60s band the fifth dimension and huge hits with many of them. Anyway, John Jimmy tore up that song.
Prisoners set of 2nd Ave came on next, and performed three songs in a row. As always, they were great, and it was exciting. Keeping this music alive, and playing it for a live music audience is the purpose of their collaboration. And sacred it is to music lovers of this genre. The first song was tell the truth by Eric Clapton and Bobby Whitlock. The next song was see my way by bloodwyn pig. Then, a blistering version of Dylan’s classic it’s a hard rain that is going to fall.
Then John Conti’s brother, Steve Conti join the prisoners to sing and perform shape of things, or yard bird classic. Steve was dressed like a New York doll that he is. Very enjoyable.
Elaine Caswell joined a prisoners, Steve Conti,and Jeff Kazee to perform white rabbit and somebody to love, Jefferson airplane classics. It was very cool to me, since I’ve never seen them perform live. Elaine was amazing, and the prisoners rocked the house out.
Out steps Warren Haynes. They launch into blind Faith’s had to cry today. Before the song, Jimmy was gushing to the audience and how great Warren was, and what a beautiful tone he had while he played guitar. True that. The song was outstanding, and I remember watching war in Jimmy a foot apart jamming on their guitars, and thinking does it get better than this? After that Danny Lewis joined Morin and Jimmy, and the prisoners, and sang the Derek and the dominoes classic one of his love have to be so sad.
The show heats up even more as Levon Helm sits down at the second drum set, Larry Campbell, John Sebastian, and Teresa play God don’t never change. Seeing Lavonne Helm and Rich Pagano play drums together, smiling at each other, and having a great time was very special. The old guard in the new guard playing together in harmony. Passing the torch. How special is that? Levon Helm would play the rest of the night with Rich Pagano during every song I think.
Robert Gordon was brought out to sing two songs. I have a long history at Robert Gordon. In the early 80s, I saw him bunch of times. I really liked Red Hot, and his excellent cover of Bruce Springsteen fire. It was very cool seeing him after all these years. He still has an amazing baritone voice. Robert Gordon and the stray cats were once my link to the rockabilly days.
Willie Nile came out, and sang a blistering version of hard times in America. He is unbelievably energetic, and fun to watch perform. You feel the passion. That’s what the music’s about three and a
The Fab faux join the prisoners. Saw them a few weeks ago performed revolver. They are great! Enough said. I have seen them 10 times, and I’m looking forward to seeing them 10 more. They play she’s so heavy, I want you. After that they started an intro into bungalow Bill, but I knew what they were really up to. I have seen them do that before, and told everyone they were going to launch into while my guitar gently weeps. That song never gets old. The only bummer was that Jimmy Vivino seemed to be upset about the sound system, and kept running over to Warren Haynes to try to solve it.
Paul Schaefer, and Anton Fig, and Al Kooper,mike merit, performed birds nest on the ground and the Albert shuffle.
David Johansen, Hubert’s sumlin, sammy davis, and the ensemble performed 300 pounds of joy, killing floor, Wang Dang doodle with Catherine Russell.
The ensemble also played season of the witch, a Donovan classic. Rick Nielsen from cheap trick took to the stage. I missed one of his guitar picks by one person.
Finally, everyone came out and performed I shall be released. A great choice to and an amazing evening. My only regret is that I didn’t have time for their second encore to shape on in with Levon drumming.
Some great comments in here…thanks for writing in, folks. Here’s a couple media updates:
FULL WHY DOES LOVE GOT TO BE SO SAD?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKMK8LvIL0A
FULL CONCERT STREAM:
http://panicstream.net/streams/bill_graham/birthday_show/player.html
DISC 1 :
01-RADIO DJ TALKING
02-JOHN SEBASTIAN SOLO
03-JIMMY VIVINO SOLO
PRISONERS OF 2ND AVE
04-TELL THE TRUTH
05-SEE MY WAY
06-A HARD RAIN A-GONNA FALL
07-LED ZEP TUNE ?
08-SHAPES OF THINGS
09-WHITE RABBIT
10-SOMEBODY TO LOVE
11-HAD TO CRY TODAY
12-WHY DOES LOVE HAVE TO BE SO SAD
DISC 2 :
01-GOD DON’T NEVER CHANGE
02-MESS OF BLUES
03-I’M LEFT YOUR RIGHT SHE’S GONE
04-HARD TIMES IN AMERICA
05-HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMY VIVINO
06-I WANT YOU ( SHES SO HEAVY)
07-WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS
08-I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU’LL EVER KNOW
DISC 3 :
01-SEASON OF THE WITCH
02-KILLING YOURSELF BY DEGREES
03-KILLING FLOOR
04-300 LBS OF JOY
05-WANG DANG DOODLE
06-BRING IT ON HOME TO ME
07-I SHALL BE RELEASED
Jimmy Vivino is a National Treasure! Great comments from above writers. It was a time machine that
compressed the best that was comfort food to my ears. There was so much correspondence and love. Tears
of joy. I sincerely believe Jimmy Vivino is a Master.
My deepest graditude. Allen Bloomfield
Any mp3 links floating around? I know the show is circulating on bt sites, dime a dozen and bt.etree.org.
Also Rich, nice writeup, but I can tell you are looking at the printed setlist, which was a little different than the show. Levon did not do the Shape I’m in, as the setlist had it. Too bad. Also, Al Kopper did not do Bird’s Nest or Albert’s Shufle.
We did get some songs not on the printed setlist: Season of the Witch, Bring it on Home, Killing Yourself by Degrees. (That last one was for Allen Bloomfield, by the way, who just posted. Your brother sure could play, Allen! ;-)
I dont understand how you got tickets to this….on the site it was listed as a “private party”.
there are a few more private parties listed….should i just show up just in case?
They were absolutely selling tickets for “Jimmy Vivino’s Birthday Celebration featuring The Prisoners of 2nd Avenue.” We even posted a link to ticketmaster a few days before the show.
I don’t think stalking private parties at BB’s is the best strategy.
obviously not stalking….if you go to BB’s site, you stand cant click on the link because there is none!
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