Tribute act mania seems to know no bounds, as even established international baby boomer artists take stylistic detours to salute heroes from their youth.
Many make sense. Bassist Will Lee, of countless recording sessions and David Letterman’s covers-heavy TV band, started the Beatles tribute Fab Faux. Guitarist Mike Keneally, of Frank Zappa’s band, joined both Zappa alumni acts and the progressive rock tribute band ProgJect. And former King Crimson violinist/keyboardist David Cross’s band is touring to play material by those recently retired prog icons.
But jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan, renowned for his clean-toned, pianistic two-handed tapping technique, paying homage to rock music’s late guitar virtuoso, Woodstock star and feedback champ Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970)?
It might have come as a surprise, yet not a shock, to anyone who’s followed the 64-year-old Jordan when he crafted the project five years ago. The guitarist had, after all, essentially walked out of the star spotlight inspired by his 1985 major-label debut album Magic Touch nearly four decades back. Jordan has long followed his muse rather than a business model.
Yet with recording royalties faltering in the streaming era, and artists primarily making earnings off concert appearances and inspiring tribute mania in the process, that may be changing. Jordan recently started an additional series of Grateful Dead tribute shows with a band that includes keyboardist/guitarist Jesse Hiatt, bassist/vocalist Greg Koerner, and drummer/keyboardist/vocalist Kenwood Dennard.
At the Arts Garage in Delray Beach, “Stanley Plays Jimi” featured Jordan in a trio with Koerner and Dennard for two separate shows April 6. And the 80-minute early show at 6 p.m., filled nearly to capacity, was a hit-and-miss affair in which Jordan — wearing an Afro wig and Woodstock-era ensemble of boots, jeans, black T-shirt, white tasseled jacket and peace sign necklace — often had troubles with his pedals and effects, especially early on.
Another anomaly was that Jordan, who emulated Hendrix by playing with a guitar pick early in his career before finding that extraordinary niche involving his two-handed, finger-tapped attack, played with a pick most of the night for throwback authenticity. The unintended result was a stunted version of Hendrix’s fire by an artist perhaps better equipped to pay tribute to late fingerstyle or tap-and-touch guitar peers like Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Beck, or even Eddie Van Halen.
Nonetheless, there were highlights throughout, especially when Jordan eschewed the pick. An early example was “Foxy Lady,” from the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1967 debut Are You Experienced. Like Hendrix, who started his career as a non-singing session instrumentalist, Jordan’s capabilities as a vocalist are eclipsed by his guitar playing. But the rocking hit proved to be one of his best vocal efforts, and his solo, in spite of the effects challenges, featured not only vintage wah-wah pedal embellishments but an incomparable finger-picked midsection.
The ballad “Angel,” from Hendrix’s posthumous 1971 release The Cry of Love, also stood out. Jordan’s lengthy solo featured both tapped and looped sections as he played with a pick, all as Koerner’s accents provided telling counterpoint. The bassist was the glue linking the more mercurial Jordan and Dennard, and he took a compelling solo on “Red House,” Hendrix’s blues classic from Are You Experienced.
The show-stopper, though, was “Voodoo Chile,” from Hendrix’s 1968 double LP Electric Ladyland. Slower and bluesier than the original, the epic featured Dennard simultaneously playing drums (with his feet and right hand) and keyboards (left hand) to accompany another banner Jordan solo, then taking his own unaccompanied break with thunderous, showman-like one-and-two-handed rolls.
At age 68, Dennard is both an esteemed educator (as a retired longtime professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston) and jazz and fusion trailblazer whose recording and touring credits include Dizzy Gillespie, Brand X, Pat Martino, Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis, Larry Coryell and Quincy Jones. The drummer’s spoken-word intro to “EXP” came as a surprise, leading to the jazzy, subsequent “Up From the Skies,” both from Hendrix’s 1967 sophomore album Axis: Bold as Love. But by the time he’d switched from using brushes to drumsticks midway, the trio’s swinging feel had faded and the element of surprise had come down to earth.
Other near-misses included a trendy, reggae-tinged version of “Little Wing” from Axis: Bold as Love, and an appropriately titled “Manic Depression” from Are You Experienced. Dennard started the latter unaccompanied by quoting Max Roach’s classic drum solo “The Drum Also Waltzes,” before attempting both Hendrix’s lead vocal and one of Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell’s most explosive drum patterns. And he might’ve pulled off the latter if not for his own technical problems — his crash cymbals falling forward on their stands, causing him to playfully hit them with upstrokes.
“I want to thank you all so much for being here,” Jordan said preceding the trio’s encore. “I just feel so connected to Jimi’s legacy. Here’s a song he didn’t write, but he might as well have.”
Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” from Electric Ladyland, received an abbreviated, cursory treatment. It seemed as if the band, looking to have time to eat dinner before its second appearance at 8:30 p.m., was as handcuffed by the two-show format as Jordan was by using a guitar pick. There were also neither selections from Hendrix’s arguably best release, 1970’s live Band of Gypsys album with bassist Billy Cox and drummer/vocalist Buddy Miles (“Who Knows,” “Machine Gun,” “Power To Love”), nor Experience classics like “Fire,” “The Wind Cries Mary,” “Third Stone From the Sun,” “If 6 Was 9,” “Castles Made of Sand,” or “Crosstown Traffic” recorded with Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding.
From a practical standpoint, Jordan moving into touring tribute territory as he approaches standard retirement age might make financial sense. But from the view of his own impressive legacy, he could’ve approached the Hendrix vault by playing to his strengths. If he’d taken Koerner and Dennard into the studio and on the road to recreate the same catalog while remaining the touch guitarist he truly is, his interpretations of the late guitarist’s futuristic compositions could be mind-blowing. Jordan says he wants to imagine what the visionary Hendrix would sound like modern-day. There’s no guarantee that literally getting in touch with his instrument wouldn’t have completed that vision.