Jazz at Lincoln Center

I was the lucky recipient of a friend's extra ticket to see the fall gala performance at the Rose Theater tonight. Wynton Marsalis performed with his quintet, and George Benson with his entourage of musicians. Ken Burns was also there; he was accepting the Ed Bradley award for leadership.

The reason I'm writing about this in my tech blog is to discuss the very basic argument of real instruments vs. synthesized instruments. Mr. Benson had a rhythm section (including the man who conducts Barbra Streisand's orchestra!), a live string orchestra, a chorus of backup singers, and an overworked synthesizer player. I wondered why he hired every instrument family except for winds and brass; surely a few more players could have been written into the budget? It would have added immensely to my enjoyment.

Mr. Benson was doing a tribute to Nat "King" Cole. His voice is already quite close to Mr. Cole's voice, and the strings' presence brought out the schmaltzy quality of Mr. Cole's signature sound. But as soon as I heard flutes, and didn't see any, I raised an eyebrow; seriously? He's got a synth player for that? It was a very good synthesizer, don't get me wrong; but no professional flute player would choose to keep such a steady, uncreative vibrato for those long notes. The tone was adequate but the expression wasn't there. It detracted from the performance because it seemed like he took an unneeded shortcut.

It was even more apparent when the synth player was doing an entire choir of brass hits. That was obviously inadequate. The sound wasn't present enough, and it was a little too tinny to be believable. I was almost distracted by its wimpiness.

Of course musicians can choose to use a synth player in place of a live performer for budget or space reasons. But Mr. Benson seemed to have both financial and spatial means. I don't know if Mr. Cole skimped on musicians, but my guess is he would have had as many live performers as possible. If Mr. Benson wanted to bolster his sound and his tribute, he should have gone with the real players, even if just for those few measures.