The Orchestral Jethro Tull

Debbi doesn't do big surprises for me very often ("You're very difficult to surprise!" she tells me), and I think the last time was taking me to Las Vegas for my birthday a year and a half ago. But she pulled one tonight, as we joined Subrata and Susan to go see Ian Anderson performing "the orchestral Jethro Tull" at the Mountain Winery's concert venue in Saratoga. It's a tour in support of the album of the same name.

I'm sorry to say I don't actually own this album (nor the Aqualung Live disc, either), though I do have the oddity A Classic Case (which seems to be obscure enough that Amazon doesn't even list it). And despite being a big Jethro Tull fan, I haven't seen them live since 1989 (in support of Rock Island, not among my favorites of theirs).

But this was still a neat surprise, and it was a great show!

Anderson is touring with a 4-piece band, plus a small orchestra (in this case the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, which, yes, seems to be the one which records with Star Wars composer John Williams) and violinist Lucia Micarelli. None of the band are part of any recent Tull incarnations that I know of, but they were all quite good, particularly the guitarist who does a good Martin Barre impersonation.

The set included many tracks from Anderson's recent, terrific solo album Rupi's Dance, as well as The Jethro Tull Christmas Album, and of course many cuts from Aqualung, as well as a smattering of other tracks. I appreciated the short numbers from Aqualung (such as "Cheap Day Return" and "Wond'ring Aloud"), and I loved that they performed "Life's A Long Song", which is one of my favorite Tull tracks.

They also performed some rearranged classical music, a couple of Micarelli's tracks, and a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" led by Micarelli (which may sound strange, although that track is heavy on strings - or at least the synthesized equivalent - anyway). Ceej observes that there's a bootleg video of the track on YouTube (but not from the same show that I saw).

Overall it was a really good show. Anderson's voice hasn't really recovered quite so much as it sounds on recent albums (he suffered some severe vocal problems in the 80s), which sadly seems to limit his vocal range to the exclusion of my favorite era of Tull (the late 70s folk-rock period), and of course the Aqualung material is always going to be the biggest crowd-pleaser. But Anderson was witty and bawdy and the gags were funny - funnier than I recall the '89 show being - and the performances were excellent. The venue is small and has very good acoustics, too, so overall it was a fine time!

Debbi was very nervous that I wouldn't enjoy myself, but there wasn't much chance of that! For her part, she said this was the first concert she'd been to where she knew nothing about the music going in. (We don't share musical tastes, as she's country and I'm, well, a Jethro Tull kind of guy). But she enjoyed herself, and I had a great time.

Switching gears slightly, The Who are going to release their first album in almost 25 years, and it's being previewed on an EP, Wire and Glass. Sadly it looks like they won't be coming near me on the supporting tour. Alas.