Ontario Arts Review: The King returns to riff with the N.A.O.!

Review by Danny Gaisin
Aug. 6th ‘10

♫ On a cold and grey (1969) Chicago morning ♪ - Elvis recorded ‘Vicious Circle”… no kiddies he didn’t write it – Mac Davis did & it was the Colonel who changed the title to “In The Ghetto”. Now, you have the true story when the question comes up on Jeopardy!

I and the other almost six billion earthlings (except for Iranians & North Koreans) who anointed Presley as the king of rockabilly (early rock & roll) still can feel that excitement and quiver we all experienced during his two decades on the throne. Another such opportunity came last night when Boris Brott’s N.A.O. presented Stephen Kabakos and his entourage in a tribute performance. Like any artistic caricatures; exaggeration is tantamount- think of the editorial cartoons of Joe Clark [the mittens]; Trudeau [the rat-faced teeth] or Mulroney & ‘the jaw’. Ditto when entertainers do Elvis. The gyrations; costumes; perambulations and last -syllable slurring are obligatory. Kabakos is no excluder, but he does possess a marvellous jazz baritone voice and certainly better lyrical diction than the original.

Serendipity enabled us to sit right beside the enormous sound control panels being operated by engineers Brian & Robert. Watching them making the continual minute adjustments to mikes, monitors and electric guitar output was a little like observing Kuerti at his keyboard. From the opening Strauss ‘Also Sprach’ that segued into Cee Cee Rider, until the encore end, both gentlemen were narrowly focused, and I admit, were a fascinating distraction for this humble writer.

The soloist gave us the requisite ‘Teddy Bear’; Jailhouse Rock; Don’t Be Cruel etc. with change-of-pace selections like ‘Peace In the Valley’ and the Elvis interpretation of ‘O sole Mio’ (he did write the English lyrics himself); and of course – Love me Tender. Biggest audience response by far: – the aforementioned “In the Ghetto” to which Kabakos added an extra dimension of heartfelt compassion, and Paul Simon’s “Bridge over troubled water”. For the latter, he seemed to modify his persona into something a little more comfortable, and no pun intended.

The N.A.O. ensemble performed under Brott, Tam & Leclair without the usual mentoring professionals. Seemingly more relaxed, their technical talents were in no way diminished and there were obvious signs of a connection with the jazz style & taste of their parent’s era. Boris looked stunning in a white jacket embellished with a flashing gold lame scarf…but the wig!!! I understand Conway Twitty suffered an embolism; and Jack Lord spun in his grave.

This was one very fun evening. The sold-out McIntyre audience, in a most un-Hamiltonian manner, exchanged verbiage, traded osculations, even humorously heckled the guest soloist. Obviously, a social connection was established over the footlights; in this case – the monitors. The obligatory encore was ‘Suspicious Minds”. Kabakos took it to a new level, even more expansive than the Dwight Yoakum version of a few years back. To me, it was over the top; sort of a Jumping the Shark moment, but hey, that’s what it’s all about. To Kabakos, Brott, & the NAO....thank ya ---thank ya veer mush !

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