Richard Galliano and Kurt Elling at Lincoln Center NYC

Richard Galliano performed this weekend (May 14 & 15, 2010) with Kurt Elling at Jazz at Lincoln Center. I had been anxiously awaiting this show since I heard about it back in December.

The duo were backed by a great band led by Elling’s longtime pianist Laurence Hobgood, Keith Ganz guitar, Harish Raghavan bass, James Shipp percussion, and none other than Clarence Penn on drums!

The evening’s selections were themed Passion World, and all of the songs were held together by the strand of love’s joy and sorrow from around the world. Kurt Elling sang in many languages, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, English. Galliano played beautifully and improvised on just about every tune. It was a thrill to see him perform live.

The only drawback I could say is that I never got to see Galliano’s fire, that unbelievable energy that comes out when he plays fast. And the reason was the program was for love songs. For romance. And thats okay too, but I hope he comes back soon to perform some fast stuff! : )

Oh and what a gorgeous room is the Allen Room. It looks out onto central park and 60th street skyline. The avenue of cars reflects on the huge glass wall behind the performers and makes a pulsing skyscraper of its own. The lighting and sound are terrific as well.