Photos by Sterling Munksgard // Written by Kevin Quandt //
A Tribute to Stand! by Sly & The Family Stone featuring David Möschler //
The Independent // San Francisco
January 17th, 2014 //
When a show starts with a 50-person ensemble playing the title track to Sly and the Family Stone’s seminal 1969 album Stand!, you know you are in for something pretty unique.
That was the case for the three-night stand in SF last weekend put on by UnderCover Presents and Faultline Studios with nine different groups and ensembles each playing a song from the classic LP.
Led by Awesöme Orchestra Collective, the event saw appearances from The Bengsons, Bayonics, Ensemble Mik Nawooj, Marcus Shelby, Jazz Mafia feat. Crossroads, Tumbleweed Wanderers, Will Magid & Friends, Zakiya Harris and Con Brio over the course of the evening.
Zakiya Harris
A well-attended and well-dressed crowd was extremely receptive to the various formations that each played a song while adding their own flair via musicianship, dancing or spoken word.
Bay Area-based group Ensemble Mik Nawooj deconstructed and reconfigured “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey”, while Americana-inspired and 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 its 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!