Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Electronics Review Center

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Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Elvis Costello, the Roots, Chris Rock Lead Carnegie Hall Prince Tribute

Elvis Costello performs with Maya Rudolph of Princess during the rehearsals for 'The Music of Prince' tribute concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

If Thursday night's all-star tribute to Prince – including appearances by D'Angelo, Elvis Costello, the Blind Boys of Alabama and ex-SNL star Maya Rudolph – had a theme, it was that the Minneapolis pop genius' best work could withstand just about any kind of treatment and stand up tall. The latest of Carnegie Hall's annual music-education benefits for underprivileged youth – this one, a sellout, raised over $100,000 – featured a few heavy hitters but also a lot of curveballs, befitting an artist who has played hard to get as often as he has played the accessible hit-maker.

At least some of those curves had to have come from Questlove, the Roots' drummer and musical director for the show. The Roots provided unwavering support for most of the acts, accompanied on guitar by Wendy Melvoin of the Revolution, the band that backed Prince on Purple Rain. In many cases the performers took chances on well-known songs. Or not-so-well-known, as was the case with Costello, who near the end sang an unreleased Prince song called "Moonbeam Levels" (known to many bootleg collectors as "A Better Place to Die"). Which of these two ultra-music-geeks onstage decided on that one – Costello, the man who once wrote a listener's guide to a 24-hour cycle, or Questlove, with his complete collection of Soul Train episodes? Either way, the song scored big, as did much of the night.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince (written by Questlove)

There were low spots – sometimes a tribute show is just a tribute show, especially when it involves Citizen Cope, who did a desultory busker's version of "Pop Life" with Alice Smith. Bhi Bhiman's "When Doves Cry" was similarly monochromatic – gutsy, if boring. It was a nice idea to have a kids' choir do "Raspberry Beret," accompanying Booker T. Jones on organ, but it was too scattered to catch heat. Devotchka's "Mountains" (a minor hit from 1986's Parade, and Prince at his psychedelic-poppiest) had a faultless arrangement – the violin, tuba and trumpet were apt touches – but Nick Urata's strained vocals were a distraction.

Most of the time, though, the show cooked. The Waterboys' Mike Scott and Steve Wickham opened with "Purple Rain," which seemed strange given that song's showstopper status, but Scott sang it straight and true, and violinist Wickham took the iconic solo, a rousing switch-up that prompted the first of the evening's many standing ovations.

Melvoin was hardly the only old Prince hand onstage at Carnegie. Eric Leeds, the saxophonist from Prince's Sign 'o' the Times and Lovesexy bands, soloed on "Ten" (by Madhouse, his old Prince-sponsored jazz-funk unit), and sat in for much of the rest. St. Paul Peterson and Susannah Melvoin of the Family, a mid-Eighties Prince act, joined for "High Fashion/Mutiny," off 1985's The Family – another cult favorite that the knowledgeable crowd ate up. Susannah (Wendy's twin sister, who dated Prince for many years) strutted around the stage in a white pantsuit, looking like she was having the time of her life.

Some of the song-artist pairings were obvious: Of course the Blind Boys of Alabama were going to do "The Cross," from Sign 'o' the Times. (And of course Fred Armisen was going to sit in on drums for that one – he used to play indie rock, and "The Cross" is Prince's most Velvet Underground-like song.) Of course D'Angelo would close the show with the celebratory  "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (also from Sign), because he's a great showman and it's a great show song.

And of course Talib Kweli, a politically minded rapper, would do "Annie Christian" (from 1981's Controversy), because it's near-spoken-word about social issues. He got good mileage from extending the bit about "She killed John Lennon" by throwing in other, more recent senseless gun-violence victims ("She shot Gabrielle Giffords"), building to a shout: "Everybody say gun control!"

But much of the music took risks. Bettye Lavette did "Kiss" as a sly, skeletal blues. Sandra Bernhard made "Little Red Corvette" into a semi-monologue, throwing off the crowd's attempts to sing along by following her own rhythms: in true Bernhard style, you didn't know whether it was supposed to be funny or not, but all of it worked, and it brought down the house. (She dedicated it to many Prince women: Sheila E, Vanity, Apollonia, and of course Wendy, who took a small bow, and Lisa Coleman.) Kat Edmondson, a cabaret-jazz singer from Austin, rendered "The Beautiful Ones" as a very slow piano ballad, and nailed it – the last verse was pin-drop quiet, and wrenching.

R&B crooner Bilal, though, went the furthest out, on what may still be the furthest-out song Prince has written: "Sister," a 93-second ode to brotherly-sisterly love from 1980's Dirty Mind. Bilal ran through the song through an iPod playlist's worth of styles, from dramatic art-rock to slow blues and then, finally, back to the frenetic original new wave arrangement. It was a tour de force that many in the audience were talking about after the lights went up.

There was a lot of comedy on stage at Carnegie, but it wasn't simple relief. Chris Rock did the spoken outro from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" as a comic monologue, embellishing it: "Would you laugh and laugh?" – that's from the original song. "Like you heard some shit from Chris Rock?" – that wasn't. And when PrinceSS – Maya Rudolph and Gretchen Lieberum's Prince tribute act – came out for "Darling Nikki," dressed a la the man himself (the heavily pregnant Rudolph in trench coat and kerchief, Gretchen looking like Jill Jones in the "1999" video), they even climaxed it with the backward vocals that end side one of Purple Rain. When they finished, Wendy whispered something to them. "Good job" would have been appropriate – for them, and for most of the night.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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The Roots, Talib Kweli Added to Prince Tribute Concert at Carnegie Hall

BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

The Roots, Talib Kweli, the Blind Boys of Alabama and more will pay tribute to the songs of Prince at a March 7th benefit show at Carnegie Hall in New York. The concert marks the ninth year that Michael Dorf, owner of City Winery, has pulled the benefit together to raise money for arts education programs. This year, they include the Church Street School of Music, Young Audiences New York, Music Unites, the Pinwheel Project, American Symphony Orchestra's Music Notes, Little Kids Rock and the Center for Arts Education.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince

Past benefit concerts byDorf have honored the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Who, R.E.M. and more, but Prince is notorious for his tight control over his music. Booker T., Living Colour, DeVotchKa and Madeleine Peyroux are also set to perform, and the Roots will run point as the house band for the night. Tickets are available online.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

The Roots, Talib Kweli Added to Prince Tribute Concert at Carnegie Hall

BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

The Roots, Talib Kweli, the Blind Boys of Alabama and more will pay tribute to the songs of Prince at a March 7th benefit show at Carnegie Hall in New York. The concert marks the ninth year that Michael Dorf, owner of City Winery, has pulled the benefit together to raise money for arts education programs. This year, they include the Church Street School of Music, Young Audiences New York, Music Unites, the Pinwheel Project, American Symphony Orchestra's Music Notes, Little Kids Rock and the Center for Arts Education.

100 Greatest Artists: Prince

Past benefit concerts byDorf have honored the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Who, R.E.M. and more, but Prince is notorious for his tight control over his music. Booker T., Living Colour, DeVotchKa and Madeleine Peyroux are also set to perform, and the Roots will run point as the house band for the night. Tickets are available online.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon MP3 Download Center

Read more »

All-Star Roster Honors the Rolling Stones at Carnegie Hall Charity Show

Taj Mahal and Jackson Browne perform during The Music of The Rolling Stones: Hot Rocks 1964-1971 at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Six songs into Tuesday night's all-star charity tribute show, The Music of the Rolling Stones Hot Rocks 1961-1971, Marianne Faithfull took the Carnegie Hall stage to perform her breakthrough single, "As Tears Go By." When the song first hit the airwaves in the summer of 1964, Faithfull was a 17-year-old ingenue with a voice that won her the adoration of every man in England. She's lived about a hundred lifetimes since then, and her singing is now weathered and significantly deeper. 

"This is the first song that Mick and Keith wrote," explained Faithfull, who is now 65. "And they wrote it for me, so I was very happy." It's a song of extreme loneliness and despair, and in many ways it carries more weight today than when it first came out. Her riveting performance earned one of the evening's many standing ovations.

New York concert promoter Michael Dorf has been organizing these tribute shows, which raise money for a variety of music-education programs, since 2004. Past shows have paid homage to Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Who, R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen and Elton John. Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. both stunned audiences when they appeared at their respective shows, but no member of the Rolling Stones made the trip to Carnegie Hall, despite persistent rumors in the audience that Keith Richards would be there. But with a bill that included everyone from Jackson Browne to Peaches and Glen Hansard, few people left the two-and-a-half hour show disappointed. 

Previous tributes have let the performers pick any song from the featured artist's back catalog, but this year they were confined to the Stones' 1971 hit compilation, Hot Rocks 1964-1971. It would have been nice if they'd had the option to choose later hits like "Memory Motel" or "Beast of Burden" (let alone deep cuts like "Out of Control" or "Rain Fell Down"), but those first seven years were an amazing period of growth and innovation for the band. In that time, they went from "Time Is On My Side" to "Sympathy For The Devil." (And in the past eighteen years, they've released a measly two albums.) 

The show featured Hot Rocks almost entirely in sequence, but Italian singer Jovanotti (playing with members of TV On The Radio) opted to perform "You Can't Always Get What You Want" with a youth choir. The kids have bedtimes, so they went on first. They earned huge applause from the moment they sang the opening lines, "I saw her today at the reception." If you closed your eyes, you would have thought you were listening to the album. They nailed the high harmonies and had everyone in the concert hall singing along. 

Most of the earlier acts stuck closely to the Stones' original arrangements. The Black Crowe's Rich Robinson did a slightly jammed-out rendition of "Play With Fire," David Johansen looked more like Mick Jagger than ever as he strutted around the stage and belted out "Get Off My Cloud," and Ronnie Spector drew equally from Irma Thomas and the Rolling Stones for her cover of "Time Is On My Side." 

Juliette Lewis had the difficult job of tackling "Satisfaction." She approached it with tremendous confidence, running onstage in a glittery white jacket, short shorts and white heels. It was a sultry version with lots of pomp and attitude, weakened only when she completely forgot the lyrics to the third verse. For a few horrible seconds it felt like group night on American Idol, but she bounced back like a pro and ended strong. 

Steve Earle looked absolutely thrilled to have the chance to play "Mother's Little Helper," telling the crowd, "Marianne just sang the first song I ever sang in front of people. This is the first song I ever learned on guitar, which is why I'm so pumped." Earle played a country-tinged version of the tune, and it was a clear high point of the evening.

One of the wild card slots went to Art Garfunkel, who hasn't sung in public (to our knowledge) since he was sidelined by vocal paresis in the summer of 2010. The 70-year-old emerged midway through the night to play a stripped down "Ruby Tuesday." In a rare turn, he opted to leave his wig at home. "No hair tonight!" he joked. Garfunkel sounded somewhat throaty and fragile, but really not at all different than he has during the last decade. It was just one song, but hopefully Garfunkel's vocal troubles are behind him and Simon and Garfunkel can finally play their postponed concert dates. 

As the night went on, the arrangements became more daring. The Mountain Goats delivered a jazzy, piano-based "Paint It Black" that brought the song's dark pessimism to the surface. Glen Hansard encouraged the audience to snap their fingers along to a moody, slow "Under My Thumb" that used a stand-up bass as the main instrument. Rickie Lee Jones deconstructed "Sympathy For The Devil" and played it solo acoustic, growling out the words as many in the audience provided the "woo-woo" refrain.

Taj Mahal received one of the longest standing ovations for his bluesy take on "Honky Tonk Woman," performed with his daughter. "One of the good things about the Stones is that you can deconstruct their songs back to the blues and country thing they came from," he said. "That's what we're going to do tonight."

He was followed by Rosanne Cash, who showed off her powerful pipes on "Gimme Shelter." The main set ended with Marc Cohn doing an acoustic "Wild Horses" with Jackson Browne, who played a stripped down version of "Let's Spend The Night Together" earlier in the set. 

The Hot Rocks compilation ends with "Wild Horses," but after Cohn and Browne's performance, Faithfull returned to sing "Sister Morphine," a song she co-wrote with the Stones in 1969. Faithfull would learn the dangers of hard drugs all too well in the years following that collaboration, and she now sings about the "scream of the ambulance" and "sweet cousin cocaine" as someone who knows exactly what she's talking about. It was spellbinding. 

The night wrapped up when every performer not named Art Garfunkel returned to the stage for a loose rendition of "Tumbling Dice." It's the biggest hit from Exile On Main Street, which was released less than a year after Hot Rocks. There are enough great songs on Exile, let alone the band's output in the last 40 years, to make for a great tribute show. If Dorf ever runs out of great catalogs to honor with concerts, he should definitely consider The Rolling Stones 1972-2005. 

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All-Star Roster Honors the Rolling Stones at Carnegie Hall Charity Show

Taj Mahal and Jackson Browne perform during The Music of The Rolling Stones: Hot Rocks 1964-1971 at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Six songs into Tuesday night's all-star charity tribute show, The Music of the Rolling Stones Hot Rocks 1961-1971, Marianne Faithfull took the Carnegie Hall stage to perform her breakthrough single, "As Tears Go By." When the song first hit the airwaves in the summer of 1964, Faithfull was a 17-year-old ingenue with a voice that won her the adoration of every man in England. She's lived about a hundred lifetimes since then, and her singing is now weathered and significantly deeper. 

"This is the first song that Mick and Keith wrote," explained Faithfull, who is now 65. "And they wrote it for me, so I was very happy." It's a song of extreme loneliness and despair, and in many ways it carries more weight today than when it first came out. Her riveting performance earned one of the evening's many standing ovations.

New York concert promoter Michael Dorf has been organizing these tribute shows, which raise money for a variety of music-education programs, since 2004. Past shows have paid homage to Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Who, R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen and Elton John. Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. both stunned audiences when they appeared at their respective shows, but no member of the Rolling Stones made the trip to Carnegie Hall, despite persistent rumors in the audience that Keith Richards would be there. But with a bill that included everyone from Jackson Browne to Peaches and Glen Hansard, few people left the two-and-a-half hour show disappointed. 

Previous tributes have let the performers pick any song from the featured artist's back catalog, but this year they were confined to the Stones' 1971 hit compilation, Hot Rocks 1964-1971. It would have been nice if they'd had the option to choose later hits like "Memory Motel" or "Beast of Burden" (let alone deep cuts like "Out of Control" or "Rain Fell Down"), but those first seven years were an amazing period of growth and innovation for the band. In that time, they went from "Time Is On My Side" to "Sympathy For The Devil." (And in the past eighteen years, they've released a measly two albums.) 

The show featured Hot Rocks almost entirely in sequence, but Italian singer Jovanotti (playing with members of TV On The Radio) opted to perform "You Can't Always Get What You Want" with a youth choir. The kids have bedtimes, so they went on first. They earned huge applause from the moment they sang the opening lines, "I saw her today at the reception." If you closed your eyes, you would have thought you were listening to the album. They nailed the high harmonies and had everyone in the concert hall singing along. 

Most of the earlier acts stuck closely to the Stones' original arrangements. The Black Crowe's Rich Robinson did a slightly jammed-out rendition of "Play With Fire," David Johansen looked more like Mick Jagger than ever as he strutted around the stage and belted out "Get Off My Cloud," and Ronnie Spector drew equally from Irma Thomas and the Rolling Stones for her cover of "Time Is On My Side." 

Juliette Lewis had the difficult job of tackling "Satisfaction." She approached it with tremendous confidence, running onstage in a glittery white jacket, short shorts and white heels. It was a sultry version with lots of pomp and attitude, weakened only when she completely forgot the lyrics to the third verse. For a few horrible seconds it felt like group night on American Idol, but she bounced back like a pro and ended strong. 

Steve Earle looked absolutely thrilled to have the chance to play "Mother's Little Helper," telling the crowd, "Marianne just sang the first song I ever sang in front of people. This is the first song I ever learned on guitar, which is why I'm so pumped." Earle played a country-tinged version of the tune, and it was a clear high point of the evening.

One of the wild card slots went to Art Garfunkel, who hasn't sung in public (to our knowledge) since he was sidelined by vocal paresis in the summer of 2010. The 70-year-old emerged midway through the night to play a stripped down "Ruby Tuesday." In a rare turn, he opted to leave his wig at home. "No hair tonight!" he joked. Garfunkel sounded somewhat throaty and fragile, but really not at all different than he has during the last decade. It was just one song, but hopefully Garfunkel's vocal troubles are behind him and Simon and Garfunkel can finally play their postponed concert dates. 

As the night went on, the arrangements became more daring. The Mountain Goats delivered a jazzy, piano-based "Paint It Black" that brought the song's dark pessimism to the surface. Glen Hansard encouraged the audience to snap their fingers along to a moody, slow "Under My Thumb" that used a stand-up bass as the main instrument. Rickie Lee Jones deconstructed "Sympathy For The Devil" and played it solo acoustic, growling out the words as many in the audience provided the "woo-woo" refrain.

Taj Mahal received one of the longest standing ovations for his bluesy take on "Honky Tonk Woman," performed with his daughter. "One of the good things about the Stones is that you can deconstruct their songs back to the blues and country thing they came from," he said. "That's what we're going to do tonight."

He was followed by Rosanne Cash, who showed off her powerful pipes on "Gimme Shelter." The main set ended with Marc Cohn doing an acoustic "Wild Horses" with Jackson Browne, who played a stripped down version of "Let's Spend The Night Together" earlier in the set. 

The Hot Rocks compilation ends with "Wild Horses," but after Cohn and Browne's performance, Faithfull returned to sing "Sister Morphine," a song she co-wrote with the Stones in 1969. Faithfull would learn the dangers of hard drugs all too well in the years following that collaboration, and she now sings about the "scream of the ambulance" and "sweet cousin cocaine" as someone who knows exactly what she's talking about. It was spellbinding. 

The night wrapped up when every performer not named Art Garfunkel returned to the stage for a loose rendition of "Tumbling Dice." It's the biggest hit from Exile On Main Street, which was released less than a year after Hot Rocks. There are enough great songs on Exile, let alone the band's output in the last 40 years, to make for a great tribute show. If Dorf ever runs out of great catalogs to honor with concerts, he should definitely consider The Rolling Stones 1972-2005. 

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Jay-Z Orchestrates a Historic Night at Carnegie Hall

Alicia Keys, Jay-Z and Nas perform at Carnegie Hall to Benefit the United Way of New York City.

“I always wanted to say this in Carnegie Hall,” Jay-Z said last night, midway through the second of his two charity shows this week at the hallowed New York institution. “Is Brooklyn in the house?”

The roar he received in response suggested that his home borough was well-represented among the finely attired patrons of the arts who had handed over as much as $15,000 to be there. All proceeds went to fight poverty via United Way of New York City and the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation, organizations that help secure good educations for low-income students – kids like Shawn Carter once was back in Brooklyn.

But that was ages ago. More than any rapper before him, Jay-Z has become part of America's cultural royalty in the past decade – hobnobbing with Oprah and Obama, publishing a book exploring his lyrics’ intricacies, and, oh yeah, selling out arenas whenever he feels like it. Headlining Carnegie Hall was just one more coronation moment in a career full of them.

Dressed to the nines in a tux and dark shades, he brought a thoroughly satisfying selection of old and new classics to life – nothing from his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt, or last year’s Kanye West collab, Watch the Throne, but the best of everything in between – with help from a 40-piece orchestra and the Illadelphonics, led by the Roots’ Questlove on drums. The set list was more or less the same carefully honed hit parade he’s delivered at Coachella, Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and countless other venues in recent years. As always, he defined effortless charisma as he recited the well-known lyrics with a little extra energy on this special night. The audience, which included Chris Rock, Jay-Z’s mother Gloria Carter and other luminaries, was in the palm of his hand the entire time.

Alicia Keys came out early on, as she had the previous night, to assist Jay on a thrilling rendition of “Empire State of Mind.” It sounded better than ever in that room – one of the world’s sweetest acoustic spaces – and Jay’s pride in the moment was clear. Next up was a mini-set by Nas, who tore though “N.Y. State of Mind” and “If I Ruled the World” with Keys on piano and vocals. On the former song, Jay actually served as hypeman to his onetime archrival, a remarkable sight for anyone who was paying attention to rap in 2001.

“I’m supposed to talk at this part,” Jay-Z said a few songs later, during the elegant orchestral interlude that followed  “Run This Town.” “But I just want to take it in for a second. I can’t believe we’re in this building tonight.” With that, he launched into 2007’s triumphant “Roc Boys,” given extra heft by the orchestra’s brass section. The hits kept coming: “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” “I Just Wanna Love U,” “Hard Knock Life,” “Izzo.” After a titanic “99 Problems” and an insouciant “Girls, Girls, Girls,” he reached the evening’s most emotional stretch, with the regretful 2001 cut “Song Cry” followed by “Glory,” his heartfelt tribute to newborn daughter Blue Ivy Carter. When the song was over, he let the orchestra ride its mellow beat for a while longer, soaking it in. “Thank you, New York City, for letting me share that moment with you,” he said.

Following a brief encore, he returned to the stage once again – finally ascending to an upper balcony, where he stood among the faithful and teased them with quick bits of a few more favorites, plus a reverent a cappella tribute to a fellow Brooklyn poet who didn’t make it this far. “My homeboy ain’t here to rock these halls the way he would have,” he said before rapping a verse each from the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” and “Mo Money Mo Problems.” “We gotta sing so loud for B.I.G.”

Set list:
String overture
“PSA”
“Thank You”
“Heart of the City”
“Most Kings”
“U Don’t Know”
Band medley: “New York State of Mind” (Billy Joel cover)/”New York, New York” (Frank Sinatra cover)/”New York Is Killing Me” (Gil Scott-Heron cover)
“Empire State of Mind” (with Alicia Keys)
Nas mini-set: “N.Y. State of Mind,” “If I Ruled the World”
“Where I’m From”
“Run This Town”
“Roc Boys”
“Dirt Off Your Shoulder”
“I Just Wanna Love U”
“On to the Next One”
“Hard Knock Life”
“Izzo”
“99 Problems”
“Girls, Girls, Girls”
“Song Cry”
“Glory”
“Encore”
(short break)
“What More Can I Say”
“Jigga My Nigga”
“Jigga What, Jigga Who”
“Big Pimpin’”
“Young Forever”

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Read more »

Jay-Z Orchestrates a Historic Night at Carnegie Hall

Alicia Keys, Jay-Z and Nas perform at Carnegie Hall to Benefit the United Way of New York City.

“I always wanted to say this in Carnegie Hall,” Jay-Z said last night, midway through the second of his two charity shows this week at the hallowed New York institution. “Is Brooklyn in the house?”

The roar he received in response suggested that his home borough was well-represented among the finely attired patrons of the arts who had handed over as much as $15,000 to be there. All proceeds went to fight poverty via United Way of New York City and the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation, organizations that help secure good educations for low-income students – kids like Shawn Carter once was back in Brooklyn.

But that was ages ago. More than any rapper before him, Jay-Z has become part of America's cultural royalty in the past decade – hobnobbing with Oprah and Obama, publishing a book exploring his lyrics’ intricacies, and, oh yeah, selling out arenas whenever he feels like it. Headlining Carnegie Hall was just one more coronation moment in a career full of them.

Dressed to the nines in a tux and dark shades, he brought a thoroughly satisfying selection of old and new classics to life – nothing from his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt, or last year’s Kanye West collab, Watch the Throne, but the best of everything in between – with help from a 40-piece orchestra and the Illadelphonics, led by the Roots’ Questlove on drums. The set list was more or less the same carefully honed hit parade he’s delivered at Coachella, Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and countless other venues in recent years. As always, he defined effortless charisma as he recited the well-known lyrics with a little extra energy on this special night. The audience, which included Chris Rock, Jay-Z’s mother Gloria Carter and other luminaries, was in the palm of his hand the entire time.

Alicia Keys came out early on, as she had the previous night, to assist Jay on a thrilling rendition of “Empire State of Mind.” It sounded better than ever in that room – one of the world’s sweetest acoustic spaces – and Jay’s pride in the moment was clear. Next up was a mini-set by Nas, who tore though “N.Y. State of Mind” and “If I Ruled the World” with Keys on piano and vocals. On the former song, Jay actually served as hypeman to his onetime archrival, a remarkable sight for anyone who was paying attention to rap in 2001.

“I’m supposed to talk at this part,” Jay-Z said a few songs later, during the elegant orchestral interlude that followed  “Run This Town.” “But I just want to take it in for a second. I can’t believe we’re in this building tonight.” With that, he launched into 2007’s triumphant “Roc Boys,” given extra heft by the orchestra’s brass section. The hits kept coming: “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” “I Just Wanna Love U,” “Hard Knock Life,” “Izzo.” After a titanic “99 Problems” and an insouciant “Girls, Girls, Girls,” he reached the evening’s most emotional stretch, with the regretful 2001 cut “Song Cry” followed by “Glory,” his heartfelt tribute to newborn daughter Blue Ivy Carter. When the song was over, he let the orchestra ride its mellow beat for a while longer, soaking it in. “Thank you, New York City, for letting me share that moment with you,” he said.

Following a brief encore, he returned to the stage once again – finally ascending to an upper balcony, where he stood among the faithful and teased them with quick bits of a few more favorites, plus a reverent a cappella tribute to a fellow Brooklyn poet who didn’t make it this far. “My homeboy ain’t here to rock these halls the way he would have,” he said before rapping a verse each from the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” and “Mo Money Mo Problems.” “We gotta sing so loud for B.I.G.”

Set list:
String overture
“PSA”
“Thank You”
“Heart of the City”
“Most Kings”
“U Don’t Know”
Band medley: “New York State of Mind” (Billy Joel cover)/”New York, New York” (Frank Sinatra cover)/”New York Is Killing Me” (Gil Scott-Heron cover)
“Empire State of Mind” (with Alicia Keys)
Nas mini-set: “N.Y. State of Mind,” “If I Ruled the World”
“Where I’m From”
“Run This Town”
“Roc Boys”
“Dirt Off Your Shoulder”
“I Just Wanna Love U”
“On to the Next One”
“Hard Knock Life”
“Izzo”
“99 Problems”
“Girls, Girls, Girls”
“Song Cry”
“Glory”
“Encore”
(short break)
“What More Can I Say”
“Jigga My Nigga”
“Jigga What, Jigga Who”
“Big Pimpin’”
“Young Forever”

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Jay-Z Celebrates Historic Carnegie Hall Performance at His 40/40 Club

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