Houston? We have no problem: N’Kenge joins the Jax Symphony in tribute to Whitney Houston

The tragic, accidental death of Whitney Houston did, at first, threaten to overshadow her vast catalog of essential material, but the passage of time has restored at some measure of balance to her public perception. Still, though, it will never really be the same. Many of our greatest singers led lives laced with sadness and self-harm, while a few–Joplin, Winehouse, Billie Holiday–are forever defined by it. Despite all the rumors and gossip and jokes, which did as much to help shorten her life as the alcohol and drugs did, Whitney’s demons never really constituted the true existential threat that they did for so many others, but still they killed her.

All the same, Whitney Houston’s legacy remains one of joy, and that is what will be celebrated by the Jax Symphony at Jacoby Hall, inside the Times-Union Center, on Friday and Saturday nights, March 18 and 19. The band will be led by Assistant Conductor Daniel Wiley, who  also serves as Music Director of the Jax Symphony Youth Orchestra. Stepping in for the legend, behind the microphone, will be N’Kenge, who has performed with the Jax Symphony in the past, notably in “LEGENDS”, a Diana Ross tribute, presented in March 2018. 

With a background that includes extensive work in pop, opera and soul, N’Kenge has already been nominated for the Emmy and the Grammy. She’s a Broadway veteran, most recently earning praise for her work in “Caroline, or Change”. She’s performed all over the world, including that holy trinity of New York concert halls, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Madison Square Garden. She’s also been a featured performer with symphony orchestras in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Seattle, to name just a few, in addition to working with jazz legends like Wynton Marsalis and Ornette Coleman. Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, hsa called her “the most versatile artist I know”, which is rare praise from a man not known for loose talk about such things.

Younger readers may not be acquainted with Whitney Houston, beyond just the hits, but a deep dive into her back catalogue can be quite fun.Blessed with an almost genetic predisposition for success in the music industry, Houston (1963-2012) took one of the most pure voices of the modern era and paired it with top-shelf production, much of which was directly overseen by Clive Davis himself. All seven of her studio albums went at least gold, and most went platinum, with the first three hitting #1 on the album charts; her seven consecutive #1 singles remains an industry record that will probably never be broken. By the time her first decade in the spotlight was over, she was already established as one of the all-time greats. The next decade saw Houston surpass achievements that were already unprecedented. 

Houston was only 27 when she sang “The Star Spangled Banner” at Super Bowl XXV. It remains arguably the definitive version of perhaps the most performed and (thanks to TV) most recorded non-religious song in the history of the world; of course, you partisans for Jimi Hendrix and/or Marvin Gaye do have very strong cases to make. She followed that  by co-starring in “The Bodyguard” with Kevin Costner in 1992. Is the movie great? Nope, but it’s good. Both stars were at the peaks of their powers, and the chemistry was positively palpable. 

“Bodyguard” is notable for being a very rare instance of a major US pop star making a major movie that wasn’t clearly awful, and that is an achievement that sets her apart from almost all of her peers, aside from Prince, Beyonce and, most recently, Lady Gaga. It made over $400 million worldwide, on a budget of just $25 million, so there’s that. Also, the soundtrack sold 45 million copies. One of the songs was a Dolly Parton cover called “I Will Always Love You”, which most human beings have heard at least once.

How many American female artists can exceed Whitney Houston, in terms of sheer clout? Aretha Franklin, Beyonce and Madonna are the only ones indisputably in her league, in terms of record sales, awards, longevity, crossover appeal. We could name plenty of others worthy of discussion, and time will render its own judgment on that, but it’s currently unclear if anyone will ever top her run in the 1980s and early ‘90s. And all those who try will be operating from a playbook that was largely developed by her. Houston thankfully lived at least long enough to know how much she was valued by her fans, and occasions like this concert provide an opportunity to experience her music in a pretty interesting new context.

The Music of Whitney Houston

Sterling, Cooper

Sterling, Cooper: Liz Cooper returns to Florida, finally!

For the first time ever, Liz Cooper is making a proper run through Florida, and that is sure to bring a little extra sunshine into our state. Her gig at Jack Rabbits on Friday, March 18, will be her first time in Jacksonville since her first time in Jacksonville, when a shockingly sparse crowd of just a couple dozen caught her act at 1904 on February 17, 2019. That was over two years ago, and the world was very much different back then. So was Liz Cooper.

Many of our ambitions were curbed, to at least some extent, by the pandemic that began the following year, and which continues to linger in our minds and, in some cases, our bodies. No one in America’s cultural sphere suffered more than touring musicians. Consider someone like Billie Eilish, for example, who entered that era fresh off a near-sweep of the Grammys, with a James Bond title track on its way and sold-out arenas from Hollywood to Hong Kong already lined up. The pandemic cheated Eilish out of more revenue than arguably any other artist. 

Liz Cooper’s situation was not nearly as severe, of course, but also worse, in certain ways. “It’s been hard, for sure,” she says via Zoom from NYC. “From a standpoint of momentum, definitely. But I feel like, for most musicians, we’ve been hustling so hard, and working so hard to play shows. Then when you get a team around you, and all of a sudden you’re able to play a lot of shows, so that’s what you do, and you do it 150, 200 days a year. So, to then just stop is so shocking to the system, after doing it for so long.”

New York’s pandemic experience was perhaps the harshest of any state in the country; there was serious trouble for quite some time, and the city that never sleeps was certainly way sedated for a while. “It took me a really long time to adjust to just being still,” she says. “And, also, I had to adjust to being still in a different city, trying to figure out how to make things work, and learning to get comfortable with not being able to plan anything.” She, too, had most of the year booked fairly solid, which was standard practice for her. Cooper had been on the road fairly close to constantly over the previous three or four years. 

Cooper’s newest album, “Hot Sass”, represents a departure from the more languid, atmospheric sort of jam-rock that previously defined her. The title track is probably her most aggressive song to date, with heavy feedback and rapid-fire tempo shifts more akin to punk rock. The songwriting is more complex now, and she is less apt to lean on her prodigious guitar chops, although there’s still plenty of that.

Part of that evolution, of course, is a function of geography. The Maryland native spent the first few years of her career in Nashville, which is where the rest of her band still resides. It’s more open and spread-out, and those values were reflected in her earlier work. Cooper has ridden out the pandemic in Brooklyn, which is a whole different vibe–more urban, gritty, high-energy, almost sinister at times. Again, those values are reflected in the new album, which was basically written from scratch and recorded over the course of a year.

Liz Cooper & the Stampede first came to public view via their session on Audiotree Live, recorded in Chicago in October 2016. The first track was “Mountain Man”, an instant classic that remains arguably her definitive recording and the first thing I play for people who’ve never heard her before. She did another Audiotree session the following year, that one in front of an audience, and she did a third last year. Her debut album, “Window Flowers” (2018), was a masterpiece, and her high-energy performance style was helping her build a fiercely loyal fanbase, before the world went on pause.

A lot has changed since I last saw her perform, three years ago. Drummer Ryan Usher remains an essential component of her sound, but longtime bassist and backing singer Grant Prettyman has since modulated to family life in Los Angeles, and that marked the end of “Liz Cooper and the Stampede” as we knew it. The name change doesn’t reflect a shift in priorities, but is more of a clarification; as she told Forbes last year, “I just didn’t want to hide behind the name anymore.” Oddly, none of her previous material appears to be available for sale today, and her Wikipedia entry hasn’t been updated in quite some time. (I will forever regret failing to buy “Window Flowers” on vinyl!) 

Comparing “Hot Sass” to “Window Flowers”, it’s hard to think of a recent artist who has released two albums that were so completely different, in such a short period of time.  “I wrote ‘Window Flowers’ when I was 20 or 21,” she says. “I turn 30 this year. It’s just a natural progression. I’m not going to make anything that’s not myself, so if it doesn’t resonate with people, that’s ok.” Having basically mastered a particular approach, early in her career, Cooper put it all aside and built herself a fresh new sound, from the ground up, and she did it in the middle of the most chaotic period in our lifetimes. That takes guts.

Aside from the actual music, which is great, the album itself is gorgeous. “Hot Sass” comes as two pieces of see-through red vinyl, with each record imprinted with graphics from the album art. There’s also a double-sided poster that doubles as the liner notes. The album is also available on CD and cassette.

Her videos have always been interesting, but the ones she’s made lately are even more so. In “Motorcycle”, she comes off almost like a Batman villain. As aesthetics go, Cooper has traded in her signature one-piece jumpsuits for hot pants and leggings, her long curly hair straightened and cropped to earlobe-length, bright red lipstick and makeup like “Transformer”-era Lou Reed. There has always been a palpable fierceness about her approach, but her command presence feels more reinforced. She now seems fully aware of her own power.

When asked what she likes about Florida, Cooper’s answer comes instantly: “It’s warm, and it’s weird,” she says, laughing over Zoom in a black Sonic Youth t-shirt. “The people are strange, not everybody, and it’s fun. It’s a completely different animal. A lot of bands don’t usually tour through Florida, because it’s so big and so out of the way, depending on where you’re based out of. For me and my band, we’ve never really toured through Florida, though we have played Tampa and Jacksonville before.”

The show at Jack Rabbits is part of a mini-tour that will take Liz Cooper all through the southeast. It comes after a gig in Charleston on the 17th. She then plays the Innings Festival in Tampa on the 20th and the High Dive in Gainesville on the 22nd, followed by dates in Athens, Birmingham and Louisville, wrapping up with a homecoming of sorts in Nashville on the 26th. She’ll take a little break after that, because the summer and fall will be busy.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past couple of years, it’s that the future is never certain, and our efforts to control such things are, at best, adorable, and at worst can be deeply destructive to one’s mental and emotional well-being. So, Liz Cooper has no idea what will happen for her next, although she has a few ideas. “I think I’m kind of playing it by ear,” she says. “I would love to go to Europe. I would just love to play overseas. I don’t know if that’s going to happen this year, but I hope so. I’d also like to open for some bigger rock and roll acts.” I’m not psychic, but I predict that all of that will happen for her, this year. 

“I’m trying not to set too many goals,” she says. “I feel like I was very goal-oriented for most of my life, and I think it’s just become kind of unhealthy, so I’m learning to let go and just take things day by day. I’m taking it one day at a time, because that’s all that I can control.”

There’s no way to know for sure, of course, but it’s hardly a stretch to suggest that, if the governments of the world hadn’t botched their initial response to covid-19, Liz Cooper would almost certainly be a millionaire right now. But, at the rate she’s going, that’s probably going to happen, anyway, and few people deserve it more.

https://lizcoopermusic.com/