Veteran composer, producer and arranger Van Dyke Parks gave a retrospective taste of his distinguished career in the Americana music scene at the Thebarton Theatre during this year’s Adelaide Festival.
As a prolific collaborator it was fitting that he was joined onstage by Daniel Johns and Kimbra. Behind them, the Adelaide Art Orchestra performed Parks’ own rich orchestrations.
The evening opened with an electronic version of the old traditional ‘Black Jack Davey’. Complete with pulsing bass and distorted voices, this was a clear statement that the audience was in for a night of genre-jumping, no-brow music.
The show progressed from song to song with different combinations of performers each time. The music was interspersed with introductions by Parks, who spoke charmingly, modestly and intelligently about why he wrote each piece, and why he chose to include it in the retrospective. These small speeches were at once funny, heartfelt and political, evidence of a large, engaged mind at work.
But this evidence, though very enjoyable, was surplus to requirement. Park’s music already shows the depth and skill that has kept him in the game for decades. In one piece he had an orchestra playing American folk music. Then two pop-rock singers sung from an Eighties concept album. A minute later he was accompanying himself on piano as he sang a jaunty satire on political affairs. The genius of the man is that all of these things seemed to make perfect sense while they were happening.
Though the performers were all clearly very good, some moments came across as a little under-rehearsed. Neither Parks nor Kimbra is the world’s strongest singer and there were a few shaky moments. But nobody was too worried by these glitches as there was so much raw talent on display, especially in the composition provided by Parks. The first half of the evening was only a glimpse at a life overflowing with musical ideas.
After the interval, Parks returned to the stage briefly to thank the audience before handing over to Johns, Kimbra and the orchestra. This may seem odd but somehow it was the perfect way to celebrate the large parts of Parks’ career which have happened off stage. He has worked in the studio with everybody from the Scissor Sisters to Cheryl Crow to Laurie Anderson, and has been in the background – orchestrating, producing, playing – on dozens of famous songs and albums. This includes work with Silverchair and it was the result of this collaboration that took centre stage as the second half began. Though this was obviously a shift in musical gears, in this night of eclectic performance it was strangely apropos.
Unfortunately, this was an evening with two concerts – the one actually performed on stage and the one heard out in the theatre. It was a good thing that Park’s work is of such interest, and that the performers were so on song, because the sound set up in the concert was dreadful; really notably bad. The orchestra was badly balanced within itself, and was about two times as loud as it needed to be in comparison with the singers. The artificial amplification on higher notes meant that descending crescendos were turned into diminuendos. Parks’ piano, central to the whole event, was a muddy mess on every note below Middle C. For reasons passing understanding, the drum kit was placed forward of the curtain line so that each (well performed) snare and cymbal strike rang through the hall with incongruous clarity and immediacy. Sound can be good, bad or indifferent without deserving comment but it is rare you come across sound so bad it nearly ruins a show.
Despite this, the performers shone through and the music spoke for itself. Van Dyke Parks has been a font of creative ideas for more than 50 years and from this concert, it is clear that the well has not yet run dry.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Van Dyke Parks with Daniel Johns, Kimbra and the Adelaide Art Orchestra
Thebarton Theatre, Torrensville
8 March
Adelaide Festival 2013
www.adelaidefestival.com.au
1 – 17 March
