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May,
1991 Tim
Buckley Tribute
Church of St. Ann and the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn Heights By
Stephen Holden Since
his death in 1975 from a drug overdose, a cult has grown up around Tim Buckley,
a folk-jazz singer and songwriter whose free-form compositions and fervent yowl
suggested a hybrid of Van Morrison and Kenny Rankin skewed with avant-garde inclinations.
A fascination
with Buckley's avant-garde side was clearly what drew nearly two dozen musicians,
many of them rock-jazz experimentalist, to participate in an informal tribute
at the Church of St. Ann and the Holy Trinity on Friday. The
evening, Greetings From Tim Buckley,was organized by the producer Hal Willner.
One of the guests was the composer's son, Jeff Scott Buckley, who delivered his
first public performances of several of his father's songs in a high droning voice
that echoed his father's keening timbre.
Each
of the concert's more than twenty numbers featured a small ensemble drawn from
a central core of players that included Anthony Coleman (keyboards), Sharon Freeman
(French horn and piano), Hank Roberts (cello) and five guitarists -- Gary Lucas,
Robert Quine, Barry Reynolds, G.E. Smith and Elliot Sharp -- all stylistically
dissimilar. The program gave special attention to songs from Buckley's most experimental
album, Starsailor. One
of the constants in Buckley's music, whether the idiom was folk, rock or jazz,
was a fixation on the mystical and the erotic. IN a concert that devoted more
energy to exploring interesting instrumental juxtapositions than to lyrical expression,
that essential quality came to the fore only intermittently. The low point was
Richard Hell's excruciating monotone declamation of Jungle Fire. The
most passionate performances belong to Syd Straw, who performed The Earth Is
Broken and Pleasant Street with a sweet, wailing intensity. The experimental
vocalists Shelley Hirsch and Julia Heyward also had their moments. The most striking
instrumental was Cheryl Hardwick's glowing arrangement of Morning Glory
for guitar, cello and keyboards. ©
1991 Holden/New York Times | 
