Barry Manilow – One Last Time
With Dave Koz
Manilow
Last night, I went with my wife to see Barry Manilow in concert. Like a lot of guys, I’m not really all that into his music. Judging from the female choir sounding crowd participation song, I don’t think I’m alone in that respect. Still, he has a long and respectable track record. As a musician and singer, he is truly one of the great voices of the 20th century.
Manilow has a number of songs I know mainly through radio play in the 70s and 80s. He played some of them, and those he couldn’t fit into a 90 minute concert, he slammed together into an extremely long medley. I’m not much of a fan of medleys, but I understand why artists do them.
His portion of the concert was mostly what I expected. I actually sang along with one song, which surprised my wife, both that I knew the song and she didn’t, but also that I sang at all. Of course, the song was a cover of Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade, which is a fabulous song no matter who is performing it.
Koz
Manilow is north of 70 years old, so I assumed he would have an opening act. Paul McCartney is the only septegenarian I have seen pull off a 2.5 hour non-stop performance. A few hours before leaving for the concert, I looked it up and discovered the opening act to be Dave Koz, a jazz saxophonist I like a lot. Apparently, he and Manilow have been friends for years and Manilow asked him to tour with him. So, the first part of the show with Koz, I enjoyed quite a bit.
Manilow even pulled Koz on stage a couple of times during his show, which was cool. The show did seem to be all about Manilow, though. The band was walled off away from him. He had a keyboard and a piano situated well away from the band, and he had a runway out into the crowd, where he spent most of his time. When Koz came on stage for a mid-song solo, the large screen cameras remained on Manilow’s face instead of on Koz.
Overall, it was a pleasant evening where I enjoyed the opening act far more than the feature artist, but this show wasn’t for me anyway. We went for my wife, and she enjoyed it. That’s what matters most.