Eric Clapton, with Jimmie Vaughan
San Diego-bound Eric Clapton is keeping very busy for someone who, over the past decade, has declared his intention to retire more than a few times.
How busy?
Let’s take a quick tally.
In April, the 79-year-old guitar legend, singer and three-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee released “To Save a Child: An Intimate Live Concert,” a benefit album for the children of war-torn Gaza.
In May and June, he and his band — which features drummer Sonny Emory and former San Diego bass great Nathan East — performed concerts in the United Kingdom, France and Italy. After more concerts this fall in South America and Mexico, they kick off a three-city California tour on Tuesday at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
November 29th will see the release of the 2-DVD box set, “Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2023.” Filmed in Los Angeles last year, it features a slew of guest artists, including Stevie Wonder, John McLaughlin, Sheryl Crow, Santana, Gary Clark, Jr, Taj Mahal, Molly Tuttle, Los Lobos, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Samantha Fish, Kurt Rosenwinkel, H.E.R., John Mayer, the Del McCoury Band and more.
On October 17, Clapton will perform at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles as part of “Life is a Carnival: A Musical Celebration of Robbie Robertson.” The tribute to Robertson, who died last year and was the principal songwriter in The Band, will also feature Mavis Staples, Elvis Costello, Eric Church, Bob Weir, Margo Price, Van Morrison, Daniel Lanois, and others.
On Friday, Clapton will release “Meanwhile,” which features six new songs and eight that have been released as singles over the past four years. A good portion of the album was recorded long distance, with Clapton laying his vocals and guitar parts in England, East adding bass in Los Angeles and Emory doing his drum parts in Atlanta.
“It’s a little inhibited because it was all home recorded but I need to get it out there,” Clapton said in a recent interview on the YouTube channel the Real Music Observer. “We’ll try some of those songs (on tour) but I’m more likely to play stuff that we know well that the audience expect to hear.”
Guests on “Meanwhile” include singer Judith Hill, guitar legend Jeff Beck (who died early last year) and Van Morrison, with whom Clapton teamed in 2020 and 2021 to record three songs that strenuously protested the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, vaccination mandates and masking requirements.
The lyrics to one of those songs, “Stand and Deliver,” compared the lockdown with slavery in such a heavy-handed way that American blues great Robert Cray — who is Black and a native of Georgia — withdrew in protest from his slot as the opening act on Clapton’s late 2021 U.S. concert tour.
Last September saw Clapton raise $2.2 million at a benefit for then-presidential candidate (and fellow anti-vaxxer) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
On his current tour, Clapton plays the song “To Save a Child” on a guitar that has been painted with the colors of the Palestinian flag.
In May, Clapton told a YouTube interviewer that “Israel is running the world.”
Not surprisingly, this fleet-fingered musician’s views and actions have been the subject of controversy in recent years. He has alienated some fans (and, presumably, gained some new ones for the exact same reason he has lost others).
In the process, he has raised a number of pertinent questions.
Can you like or admire music, or any art, while feeling conflicted about the artist who made it?
How much can the contentious words and actions of an artist diminish their work?
Those questions have been raised about everyone from Michael Jackson, Woody Allen and Pablo Picasso to Kanye West, Bill Cosby, JK Rowling and others.
The answer is up to each individual to reach on their own.
One of the best answers came from the pioneering Black opera singer Jessye Norman, who once sagely said: “If I were not able to separate the art from the artists, I think I would limit myself a great deal, and life would be a lot less interesting.”
7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Pechanga Arena San Diego, Sports Arena Blvd. $80.62-$491.67. axs.com
Tom Jones
Now 84, Tom Jones has undergone two hip replacement surgeries over the past seven years.
Fortunately, his voice remains a formidable force of nature. The absence of his trademark hip gyrations means Jones can focus on his ever-soulful singing.
A look at the repertoire for his recent concerts suggests Jones is the only artist anywhere whose performances include songs on aging (“I’m Growing Old,” “It’s Not Dark Yet,” “One Hell of a Life”) and lust (“Sex Bomb,” “Kiss,” “You Can Leave Your Hat On”) in equal measure.
You can also expect him to perform classics by everyone from Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Randy Newman to Ry Cooder and Leonard Cohen, along with such Jones staples as “Delilah,” “It’s Not Unusual” and “What’s New, Pussycat?”
8 p.m. Friday. Cal Coast Credit Union Amphitheatre at SDSU, 5500 Campanille Drive. $68.95-$262.20. ticketmaster.com
Anat Cohen Quartetinho
Israeli-born clarinet wizard Anat Cohen sounds masterful playing almost any style of modern jazz.
She is just as exciting when mixing the music of Brazil, New Orleans and the Middle East, which is precisely what she does with her latest band, the talent-packed Quartetinho.
Their performance was arranged after Cohen’s duo concert with pianist Fred Hersch, originally scheduled for the same date and venue here, fell through.
5 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The JAI, 7600 Fay Ave., La Jolla. $63-$83. theconrad.org
“The Ghost of Champagne Charlie” — Gregory Page presents a tribute to the music of Leon Redbone
Gregory Page has won top honors at the San Diego Music Awards more times than I can recall over the past three decades.
A troubadour’s troubadour with close to 30 solo albums to his credit, he counts Jason Mraz and Jewel among his highest profile fans and collaborators. Page is himself a fan of the late Leon Redbone, whose penchant for weathered but still-vital songs from the 1910s, 1920s and other bygone decades mirrors Page’s affinity for the music of that era. Ditto their stage attire.
Granted, Page’s sweet, sonorous tenor sounds quite different than Redbone’s gruff baritone. And Page is as down to earth on stage as Redbone was enigmatic and aloof. But Page’s devotion to Tin Pan Alley chestnuts, ragtime, torch ballads, bluesy laments and light swing romps would surely have made Redbone smile and nod in approval. Smiles will likely be in ample supply when he pays tribute to Redbone’s musical legacy this weekend.
6:15 p.m. Saturday. The Jazz Lounge, 6818 EL Cajon Blvd., Rolando. $40-$54 (dinner included). thejazzlounge.live