Review: James Taylor brings the magic on Hong Kong performance with all-star band
This concert came at the end of a regional tour which seemed to have taken its toll on Taylor’s wistful baritone, but he delighted a crowd of aficionados who had come to hear his beloved back catalogue
Introducing one of only two songs he chose to perform from his latest album, Before This World, James Taylor mock apologised, saying they would be over quickly and “sound the same as the old ones anyway”.
There was some truth in that, but in a good way. In the first place, none of Taylor’s songs ramble on much, which is why he was able to pack almost all of his most popular original compositions and cover tunes into two well-paced sets at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday night.
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In the second, he found a signature style based on his attractively wistful baritone and intricately finger-picked acoustic guitar playing as long ago 1970’s Sweet Baby James.
He has stuck with that, but over time has developed more sophisticated arrangements for the old tunes, involving a large band, which, in another wry stage announcement, he said was the real point of the show.
The band does, indeed, have an extraordinarily high level of musical firepower for essentially simple albeit well crafted songs.
He announced several members, without hyperbole, as “musical legends”, among them drummer Steve Gadd, Latin percussionist Luis Conte and saxophonist Lou Marini. Bassist Jimmy Johnson, electric guitarist Michael Landau, trumpet player Walt Fowler and keyboardist Jim Cox are all elite American session players.
