Review by Bess J.M. Hochstein, Berkshires editor
At the very beginning of summer, in the final days of June, Tanglewood opened its gates for a trio of packed performances. As usual, the Boston Symphony Orchestra had not yet decamped for its splendid summer home — that happened on July 5, after two nights of James Taylor’s annual sold-out concerts marking Independence Day — when music director Andris Nelsons took up his baton to lead the orchestra in an all-Rachmaninoff program, headlined by pianist Daniil Trifonov. However, the Boston Pops was present for the first of three weekend events that got the venue off on strong footing for its 2025 season.
On Friday, June 27, Tanglewood audiences experienced the unlikely combination of veteran rapper Nas (née Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, son of renowned jazz musician Olu Dara) performing with the Boston Pops. At least I thought it was unlikely, but it turns out this is not Nas’s first rodeo with classical backing; in the past, he has collaborated with such venerable outfits as the Chicago Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and this tour includes upcoming dates with the Philadlephia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Pops.
For long-time Tanglewood watchers, this booking represents a leap. I can recall, not too long ago, when the BSO’s then-powers-that-be took a conservative stance as to whom they would present in their popular music concerts. For example, I heard some now-gone heads of the organization had been concerned about bringing Wilco to Tanglewood, worried that rowdy fans would wreck the place. (Clearly, they were unfamiliar with Wilco.) Those fears proved seriously unfounded, and well-mannered pop music fans, combined with an aging, homogenous audience for the BSO, have led to greater attempts to reach younger, more diverse audiences through more expansive programming.
This strategy played out well on Nas night. I chose to forego seats in the Koussevitzky Shed and take in the show from the lawn, which was populated by an enthusiastic crowd, many of whom, I’d venture, had never before been to Tanglewood. It was the most diverse audience I’ve seen there, and also the most weed I’d ever smelled at any concert; all around us, fans were lighting up, singing along, enjoying massive picnics, and having a great time.
Rap is not in my musical wheelhouse, so I can’t report on how this show compares to others of its ilk. I will say that the orchestrations meshed well with Nas’s oeuvre, laying out a rich musical carpet underlying his staccato rhymes and bass-heavy rhythms. Dressed in a natty black tux, Nas looked more Rat Packer than rapper, hosting an evening of reminiscence, looking back on his youth, when he hoped to get into the rap game, combatting uncertainty over his quest to make it big — a huge contrast to the over-the-top braggadocio rappers are known for. With lush orchestration from the Pops and hard-hitting beats from his band, he ran through nearly the entirety of his seminal debut album from 1994, Illmatic, which helped define East Coast hip hop, with a running narrative about his dreams, his doubts, and his career trajectory.
Nas looked back on the making of his seminal release “Illmatic” more than 30 years ago, performing nearly the entire album, backed by the Boston Pops, Photos by Hilary Scott, courtesy of the BSO
Nas entered after the Pops launched into The Genesis and brought the Shed crowd to their feet — where they stayed throughout the nearly hour-long show — with N.Y. State of Mind, the strings providing a sinuous, ominous backdrop to his rapid-fire rhymes and the thunderous beat.. The trumpets came on strong in the anthemic Life’s a Bitch, while his patter before The World Is Yours had Nas waxing nostalgic over the long-gone world of record stores and the sensory memory of taking the plastic off a cassette tape. He and the Pops took us on a musical trip down Memory Lane, with Nas realizing he had all it would take to make it big, leading into One Love with a lesson in ‘90s slang. Nas confessed that he wasn’t even certain Illmatic would be released, then performed the album’s final song and first single, It Ain’t Hard to Tell, which samples Michael Jackson’s 1982 hit Human Nature, among other songs. Closing his set with the Pops, Nas called over conductor Tony Quinn to take a bow with him, remarking, “We should do this again,” and expressed his appreciation to him, the Pops, and the audience before the orchestra left the stage.
Alone with his band, Nas kicked it up a notch, moving through the years since 1994 with a medley that started with1996’s The Message and Street Dreams, a riff on the Eurythmics hit Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), and continued with Got Ur Self A Gun (2001), which samples the theme song from The Sopranos. Exclaiming “It’s a party now,” Nas continued through the decades, while his band let loose, with beats and bass so heavy the video projections of the concert shook. This powerful delivery further endeared Nas to his fans, whom he acknowledged time and time again with sincere words of appreciation and copious moments of personal interaction, leaning over the edge of the stage to shake the hands of audience members thrilled to have a moment of contact. With an exhortation to the crowd to make their voices heard and a final expression of love and gratitude, Nas left the stage around 8:20 pm. It was a relatively short show, but one that left a big impression.
Same time, same place, next night: The affable Jon Batiste, widely known for his seven-year stint as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, made his third Tanglewood appearance on Saturday, June 28, suitably kicking off the evening — which can best be described as a love fest — with the high-energy R&B classic (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher. Batiste was a kinetic wonder, radiating joy as he danced across the stage, shaking hands and signing autographs, graciously receiving gifts from the adoring crowd. The only time he stopped dancing was to show off his chops at the piano; at his first solo sit-down he pounded out the distinct opening chords of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony — not surprising, given his upcoming solo piano release Beethoven Blues — and generally cut up on the keyboard, scattering familiar riffs from the classical canon, pop, and jazz, all the while dazzling the audience with his razzmatazz and his beaming smile.
Batiste proved himself the consummate showman, infusing every moment of the show with warmth and humor, even during the melancholy Bill Withers hit Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone, in which he extended the repeated “I know, I know, I know” refrain for a ridiculously long time. Throughout the evening, he skipped through musical genres, including gospel, zydeco, and pop, every now and then tossing off another nod to classical, coming back to Beethoven during a piano solo with a bit of Moonlight Sonata. A moving moment arrived during his rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, when he encouraged the audience to stand up and sing along. Then the band joined in as he segued into Curtis Mayfield’s It’s All Right, and the crowd stayed on their feet, dancing and swaying.
Not only is Batiste gregarious, he’s a generous bandleader, giving his musicians plenty of time for expansive, explosive solos, running around to highlight the saxophone player or the drummers as they tore it up, giving his vocalist Desz Washington ample opportunity to let loose and shine. When you don’t think the energy can get any higher, he’s back to a piano solo of When the Saints Go Marching In, getting the audience to sing along, and picking up the pace as the band joins in, encouraging the crowd to clap in synch, then getting in on the action with the drummers, playing along with a tambourine during one of their solos. Further paying homage to his New Orleans roots, he starts in on Iko Iko, which leads into another virtuoso drum solo, during which he picks up a drumstick and plays one-handed alongside the drummer.
After this all-out blast, Batiste brings down the energy with a little dose of reality. Center stage, on guitar, he sings from his 2021 single Cry, and his list of what to cry over takes on even heavier meaning at this time — cry, cry, cry for the loss of innocence, the struggle of the immigrants, wrongful imprisonment, all the indifference. After this lament, he breaks into a repeated refrain, “We are born the same,” from his 2023 song Worship and heads into the audience, giving and receiving hugs and kisses, taking selfies with his adoring fans, making his way through the aisles and rows of the Shed in no particular hurry, sharing and relishing these heartwarming moments of personal connection. The crowd is in his hands, and back on stage he exhorts them to turn on their phone lights, hold them in the air, and sing along with him a wordless healing melody, which they do, and the entire venue feels united in spirit. “I love you even if I don’t know you,” he says, with evident sincerity, “We have the power when we come together.”
Next day, same place, different time, different John: The only comedy I’ve seen at Tanglewood has been when the NPR show Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me arrives, pretty much every other year, to record an episode in the Berkshires. When I saw that SNL alum John Mulaney would be performing stand-up at Tanglewood, I didn’t hesitate to get my tickets. I wasn’t alone; the show was set to be for a Shed audience only, but demand was so great that Tanglewood opened up sales for lawn tickets too. The press office informed me that there would be no photos of the performance provided to the media, and at the show in the early evening of June 29, stern notices projected to the crowd warned that audience members could be ejected for taking photos, recording, or texting during the event. Evidently these precautions were in place because Mulaney would be trying out new material for his summer tour, “Mr Whatever.” That said, I won’t reveal any of Mulaney’s lines (and I don’t have any photos from the show). I can characterize him as funny and witty (table stakes for a comedian), a bit arch and also a bit smug, in keeping with his onstage persona. During his set, he told hilarious stories about his grandmother, his grandfather, and his quirky COVID-era tour bus driver Randy. There were a few references to his past addictions and a somewhat overlong, out-of-the-blue riff on exorcism.
Without risking any spoilers, I can say that the best lines in the show (in my biased opinion) came from Mulaney’s references to his experiences in the Berkshires in advance of the show. He kicked off with local humor of the “if you know you know” variety, including how he had shopped at the Guido’s local market in Lenox (“not the good one in Great Barrington”), had been approached by middle-aged women dressed like Dennis the Menace, and had been accosted multiple times by people who told him how good Jon Batiste was the previous night at Tanglewood and that had danced through the Shed hugging people. Mulaney made it clear that he would not be hugging anyone in the Shed, but he vowed to spoon with everyone on the lawn. He also referenced the heavily Jewish presence at Tanglewood, and its fame as the place where Leonard Bernstein had “homo’ed it up for years.” He gave a shout-out to local politician Smitty Pignatelli, and at one point, taking into account the surprising amount of young children on the lawn, he gave a foul-language warning: “The next few minutes are filthy.” (They actually weren’t.)
The evening’s opener, actor and comedian Langston Kerman — a writer for “Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney” — was not as familiar with Tanglewood and its environs, and gave no such warning before launching into a brief act that was a lot more blue than Mulaney’s. At the outset, he did note that he hadn’t realized that he’d be performing for nine thousand people in lawn chairs in daylight, obviously a far cry from the typical comedy venue. He also remarked that he hadn’t seen another black person in two days, a clear indicator that he hadn’t been to the previous two nights’ performances by Nas and Jon Batiste. His loss! It was in all a splendid and wide-ranging weekend at Tanglewood.
The 2025 Tanglewood season continues through September 5 in Lenox, Massachusetts.
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