I went to a Tom Jones tribute live performance (!) and loved myself. Ideas about tributes, imitator and AI

I spent Sunday afternoon at a Tom Jones tribute live performance on the Lakeside Little Theatre in San Juan Tlayacapan, the village subsequent to my village in Mexico.  The Lakeside Little Theatre is the oldest English language theater in Mexico and usually is the scene of drama and musicals. However this weekend about 3/4 of its 120 seats have been crammed for 2 Tom Jones tribute exhibits by the singer Nacho Granados and the Stargirls dance workforce.

The present was plenty of enjoyable, though, as anybody who reads this column repeatedly is aware of, Tom Jones shouldn’t be precisely my first (or 10^th) selection for a live performance.  However since my spouse was co-producing and the newssite I edit was a sponsor, I needed to be there. I’m glad I used to be.

Nacho Granados is a superb singer with a educated voice and the flexibility to not solely fill a big auditorium with sound, however to intimately connect with his viewers. And he does it with out being grandiose. He manages to be bigger than life whereas making you are feeling like he’s singing simply to you.  A neat trick whereas strobes are going off, rotating spotlights are spiraling across the auditorium, and an enormous display is exhibiting movies of Tom Jones concert events from the 70’s.

But it surely was a tribute present -not a knock off of what Jones did half a century in the past. Nacho made that clear not solely in his interchange with the viewers, however with the design and course of the choreography of the dancers, and the usage of video to focus on Jones. Whereas I’m undoubtedly not nostalgic in regards to the songs of the ’70s or the 80s, it was a pleasure to observe somebody with an excellent voice and a really properly put collectively act even when it was primarily based on Tom Jones. However the present brings up a query what’s the distinction between a tribute and an imitator?

I requested Nacho as I drove him again to his lodge and he instructed me he would by no means attempt to be Tom Jones, however to transmit his music and spirit. My good friend Militia Vox , the founder and lead singer and guitarist within the tribute band Judas Priestess, has instructed me one thing comparable.  There are a lot of tribute bands on the market – Peace Frog for the Doorways,  Bohemian Queen for Queen, E5c4p3  for Journey, Brit Floyd for Pink Floyd, and plenty of extra.  Folks love them.

What all of them have in frequent , moreover being glorious musicians, is that none of them attempt to copy their favourite band, however to convey its songs to audiences with respect, reverence and enjoyable. It might be onerous for Militia Vox and her all lady crew to repeat Judas Priest. However her stay present audiences are full of Judas Priest followers        

The result’s that you simply don’t stroll away from a tribute live performance feeling such as you’ve been to a second class act, however you’ve been to a present during which very proficient individuals introduced again the time of Tom Jones or the Beatles or the Doorways,  and reminded you of simply who they have been and the way proficient they have been.

Nacho did precisely that. I by no means listened to Tom Jones within the 70’s (not sufficient medicine), however Nacho entertained me and jogged my memory that, no matter my tastes then or now, Jones might sing and make individuals completely happy. And I’m mature sufficient now to understand each Nachco’s and Jones’s expertise, and acknowledge that  there’s extra to music than rock and pop, and Latin , and  singer-songwriter, and nation and the opposite genres I speak about right here and within the Scorching Half Dozen.

However imitators are a complete different subject. You recognize them whenever you see them. They attempt to copy the music, the strikes, the costumes of their goal. Lots of the individuals do Elvis resort to imitation, as a substitute of recreating the time and the temper and feeling of The King. They’re obsessive about getting the strikes excellent, getting the notes excellent, getting the costumes excellent; they usually overlook to get the soul of the music. And also you do really feel like you’ve gotten been brief modified after one among their concert events or recordings. Imitation shouldn’t be homage; it’s rip-off.

This what worries me about AI. You recall from final week’s column that I acquired a handbook about utilizing AI in Latin music. Thankfully, most of it was about creating movies, however not all. Most of the solutions have been imitative, not soulful. For those who inform ChatGPT to put in writing a Shakira or Dangerous Bunny or Rosalia or Selena tribute tune, you’re going to get, as I stated final week, the Taco Bell of Latin music. Identical to Elvis impersonators can’t recreate Elvis, AI can’t recreate, properly, anybody.  And no matter it cretes, it isn’t a tribute.

. Nacho Granados introduced the soul and occasions of Tom Jones to life; Militia Vox brings the soul and occasions  of Judas Priest to life. They observe a excessive artwork kind and efficiently stroll a slim path. It takes an incredible quantity of expertise –musical and creative and logistical – to convey again the texture of the sound of the 70’s or 80’s and even the 90’s with out sounding embarrassing. Nacho did with a really tight, proficient act that does honor to one of many individuals upon whose shoulders at the moment’s musicians stand.  Tom Jones, take him or go away him, was a star and offered thousands and thousands of information.  I loved seeing tribute t paid to 1 the  musicians who helped construct the business.

And it jogged my memory that I had sideburns like that within the 70’s.

Patrick O’Heffernan