Photos by Sterling Munksgard // Written by Kevin Quandt //
A Tribute to Sly & The Family Stone’s Stand! Feat. Guest Music Director, David Möschler
Awesöme Orchestra Collective feat. The Bengsons, Bayonics, Ensemble Mik Nawooj, Marcus Shelby, Jazz Mafia feat. Crossroads, Tumbleweed Wanderers, Will Magid & Friends, Zakiya Harris, Con Brio
The Independent // San Francisco
January 17, 2014
When a show starts with a 50 person ensemble playing Sly and the Family Stone’s seminal album opener “Stand!”, you know you are in for something pretty unique. That was the case for the 3-night stand put on by Undercover & Faultline Studios at the Independent over the past weekend which featured 9 different groups and ensembles, each playing a song off the the album Stand!. A well attended, and dressed, crowd was extremely receptive to the various formations which played a song each while adding their own flair via musicianship, dancing or spoken word. Ensemble Mik Nawooj deconstructed and reconfigured “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey”, while Tumbleweed Wanderers offered a folk-soul rendition of the classic track, “Everyday People”. David Möschler acted as guest music director, a massive task for the various moving parts that this album, and subsequent live shows, required. This project was purely a Bay Area endeavor, showcasing it’s musical diversity in a way that would make Sly and the Family Stone proud.
I think that Executive Producer Liz Luke deserves a big round of applause. An undertaking of this magnitude takes a certain kind of spirit, persistence, and optimism which Liz has in spades! Her organization tackled Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” and Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” before taking aim at Sly and the Family Stone’s “STAND!” (The next album to get the Undercover treatment will be Paul Simon’s “Graceland.”) What made the STAND! show so meaningful for many was the Bay Area connection and the Family Stone’s historical status as the first-ever integrated rock and roll band. I hope that Liz, David et al will reprise the production in Oakland, at the Fox Theater. Oakland is where it’s at nowadays and it pays to follow the audiences where they live and groove. Kudos!
this was one of the coolest/hottest shows ever!