Burt Bacharach Songbook Tour is What the World Needs Now!
In downtown St. Pete, at the Mahaffey Theatre, baby boomers were out in full force to hear the tunes of the great Burt Bacharach. Musician Todd Rundgren and a cast of stunning singers paid tribute to one of the greatest popular music songbooks of our time. The versatility of Rundgren over his nearly 60-year career is unmatched by anyone I can think of. From 1967’s Nazz to rock band Utopia, Philly soul, Arena rock, guitar god, innovator of video music, producer of hit records, Todd pays tribute to Burt who influenced his early musical foray into songwriting and Rundgren calls him, “The greatest songwriter of my lifetime”. This was not a Todd Rundgren show by any means, in fact it was as far from it as you could imagine, which just shows that Rundgren is a true music man through and through regardless of the genre or time period. I will get back to Todd later, so many musicians, so little time…
Over 35 songs divided into two sets made for over 2 hours & 45 minutes of sheer pop bliss for the audience. Musical director Rob Shirakbari who was Burt’s music director for over 40 years and worked with the incomparable Dionne Warwick, who made the most hit records of Bacharach songs, is in charge of the production. Of course, he knows these songs backward & forward. The band is filled with stellar seasoned professionals like the horn section of Probyn Gregory who has played with Brian Wilson (Beach Boys) and the multi-talented Woody Mankowski, who not only played a mean saxophone but came out to take a turn at the mic to sing as well. Todd’s longtime bass player Kasim Sulton came along and was having fun playing bass and with the audience on vocals with the 1968 hit, “This Guy’s In Love with You” and the 1983 Naked Eyes MTV and radio hit “Always Something There to Remind Me.” Drummer Elise Trouw is a force and sings a couple of tunes from the songbook including Dusty Springfield’s hit, “The Look of Love.” Londoner keyboardist Kenny Dickenson has worked with Eurythmics Dave Stewart and K.T. Tunstall among others, rounds out this band and its great sound.
Singer Wendy Moten who was runner up on The Voice in 2023, takes on the challenge of singing Warwick’s parts and more does it with incredible soul and range. From 1963’s iconic “Walk On By” to her duet with Woody (who does Michael McDonald proud) of the Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald ginormous 1986 hit “On My Own”; she does all these Bacharach songs complete justice. One of my fav moments of the show was Wendy performing the Fifth Dimension’s classic hit, “One Less Bell To Answer”. It brought tears to my 11 year-old self, listening to it on a transistor radio in 1970.
Newcomer Tori Holub does an amazing job of channeling the late Karen Carpenter. She sounds like Carpenter but yet has her own sweet voice on “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and the Warwick hit, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose.” On “Close To You”, you can hear Karen’s tone clearly. She is already collecting fans on Carpenters social media sites. A bright future ahead for her! The band gave us some of Burt’s well- known instrumental s from the movie “Casino Royale” and the ABC-TV Movie of Week theme, this show brought musical memories that took the audience back in time.
Coming back to Todd, the song choices were interesting. “Baby Its You” taps into Todd’s R&B Philly back round, any fan of TR knows his ballads and “House Without A Home” was a perfect fit. The acoustic duet with Kasim of “Trains and Boats and Planes” was a delight. His fun version of the Tom Jones classic “What’s New Pussycat” got the audience involved and someone gave him a cat ear headband to wear. The show closed with “What the World Need Now” and who else should sing that than the man who wrote, “Love is the Answer.” The encore was a beautiful combination of two of Burt’s masterpieces, “Alfie” and from Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid “Raindrop Keep Fallin’ On My Head”
This show was way beyond my expectations. Professional in every way, fun, heartwarming, emotional and simply a joy! I hope they do a second leg of the tour, even with different players it would be fabulous. You can’t miss with the perfect songs of Burt Bacharach! Catch video of the tour on www.youtube.com
Vicky Sullivan Photos