Good Piano
I was a missionary once upon a time. I served in southern Germany and Austria from 2003 to 2005.
I had a mission companion once who was an amazing pianist. I mean, this guy was not just a professional. He could improvise on the spot. He could take church sheet music and change it on the fly, adapting chord progressions, melodies, and harmonies to whatever suited his fancy.
It’s not surprising to say that he’s off in Los Angeles somewhere pursuing a music career. I’m not sure how much commercial success he’s had, but he certainly sounded happy with life the last time I talked with him.
Anyway, Nicky Hopkins reminds me a lot of that former companion of mine. Hopkins was simply a brilliant pianist, and you can hear it all over this show.
This audience recording is just about as good as a soundboard, except that the vocals are mostly off to the left side of the stereo mix. The performance is brilliant for the most part. Nicky sounds awesome, even though he begs for a drink about halfway through the show. His rendition of Jingle Bells is completely impromptu and sounds absolutely fantastic, to the point where I wonder why they didn’t just name the band after him.
Mission in the Rain at the start of the second set is a complete disaster, however. Not only is there feedback, but it sounds like the band just isn’t together.
The rest of the show is just fine. There’s an unfortunate cut in the middle of an excellent I’ll Take A Melody, and the start of It’s No Use and Mystery Train is cut. The show runs 2 hours 20 minutes as a result of these cuts; it would probably be more like 2 1/2 hours otherwise.
Anyway, I highly recommend it. Check out SHNID 101132.