Sound and Vision: Questlove, Kimbra, Yale Symphony Orchestra 1/25/17 Schwarzman Center

The evening's program was the opening of "Blackstar Rising and The Purple Reign. Celebrating the Legacies of David Bowie and Prince". The Schwarzman Center is the soon to be renovated large hall to the right of Woolsey Hall when entering from Grove St. The hall was hot and had poor acoustics that swallowed the sound of the YSO who opened the program. The YSO played student arrangements of selected Bowie and Prince works. For Bowie, Space Oddity, Starman, Heroes, and Modern Love. The Prince selections: Controversy, Darling Nikki, U Got the Look, and When Doves Cry. These songs are difficult to arrange for symphony, but the students did an admirable job.
   After a brief intermission, the stage was cleared for what was termed "a critical deejay session with Questlove and Kimbra in conversation with Professor Daphne Brooks".  Ahmir Questlove Thompson is drummer and co-founder of the hiphop band The Roots, author, dj, producer, and
late night frontman for the bands on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show. Quest is also a professed Prince-ecologist. Kimbra is a young pop star from New Zealand. Her claim to fame is that she is the female voice heard on Gotye's 2011 pop sensation "Somebody That I Used To Know". Quest handled talk on Prince telling tales of taboo sexuality, career low point (opening for the Rolling Stones early in his career), the originator of the remix (played two mixes of Little Red Corvette) and the notion of boundary pushing R&B star turned rock and roll star turned oversized persona all with a backdrop of an extreme work ethic that fueled greatness. Kimbra, who can't be thirty, spoke of her circuitous entry into the Bowie canon. She started with the African rhythms contained on the album Lodger. Kimbra dissected the layered nursery rhyme chaos that is Ashes to Ashes stating that this type of complex pop song is rare today. Her final choice was Let's Dance which evoked stories of producer Nile Rogers lending his pop and funk magic wand to the record. More events in this celebration include screening and conversation with film-maker D.A. Penne baker of Ziggy Stardust, talks with Sheila E., and an art gallery performance with TV on The Radio.