Friday, March 4, 2016, was a night different from all other nights at the Strand Theater in Lakewood, NJ. It was the night of the recording of Remember Jones’ first album, “LIVE…and Alive!”
The community of 300+ guests who donated to the Jones’ indiegogo.com campaign to fund the album were invited to this one-of-a-kind Remember Jones recording session disguised as a party.
As members of the crowd mingled with friends old and new before the show, some noticed that the stage was decorated with hints of the artistic experience about to be shared.
There was the expected — microphones standing at the ready for the mighty voices of backup singers and even more mikes set up on a back platform for a small string section. A baby grand piano, vibraphone, and assorted keyboards, silent but ready to be caressed or perhaps, exercised, into a frenzy. A horn section station gleaming with anticipation. A place for the rhythms and riffs of beloved guitars. Percussion galore - along with the necessary ecoutrement of wires, computers, amplifiers, speakers, headphones. (And, yes, lots of water bottles to put on a show.)
But there was also the unexpected — a large easel with a blank canvas, a cup of brushes, assorted tubes of paint, and large sheets of plastic wrap.
And piquing the audience’s interest even further was a T-shirt-covered stool and mike, center stage, patiently awaiting the arrival of the man everyone in the audience was here to see: Remember Jones.
As the musicians slowly start to filter onto the stage, RJ fans recognize familiar faces taking their respective seats ready to support Remember’s vision as only they truly can.
And then…Remember Jones — “LIVE…and Alive!”
The stage instantly springs to life with the call of Remember and his rock-solid rhythm section along with the echoing response of the horns as backup singers and lights punctuate the opening song, “Let ’em Look,” with dancing colors.
As the serenade continues, far stage right, visual artist Josh Matson begins his live interpretation of Jones’ performance when he takes paint, brushes, and plastic wrap to canvas.
True to Jones’ vision, this is a LIVE event in every sense of the word.
Jones thanks the appreciative audience for their support and takes a moment to explain the unique journey that he and the congregation will share as his very first album is recorded live before our eyes and ears. For instance, he indicates that two versions of each song will be performed in order to provide for a creative choice when it comes to choosing selections for the album.
To the crowd’s delight, Jones’ repeat performance of his opening number, “Let ‘em Look,” eggs the audience, already whistling and cheering, into an even bigger vocal frenzy proving to everyone at The Strand that this particular evening is more than just a show — it’s a “Live.. and Alive!” multi-sensory experience.
In Jones’ second number, a powerhouse cover of Rick Barry's “All of Your Mistakes Have Names,” the keyboardist plays the part of the stumbling girlfriend as his fingers tumble over the keys of the Fender Rhodes. This song features wonderful storytelling and the jamming band and backup singers punctuate the story with their tight stylized riffs.
While the music grooves, on the extreme right-hand side of the stage, visual artist Matson continues to work. Creating a starburst background on the canvas, covering it with plastic wrap and rubbing the transferred paint over the rest of the canvas, he begins to add the face of RJ. This elicits from Jones an approving, “Now I see where you are going with that…”
Jones introduces his six accomplished backup singers — Lindsey DeSena, Bre Cade, Emily Grove, JaQuita May, Virginia Cavaliere, and Brielle Von Hugel. He also introduces sound engineer extraordinaire, Chris Everett, who is not only mixing the house sound for the audience, but simultaneously engineering the recorded sound for the live CD.
Next up is Arlan Feiles’ “Everybody Steals.” The bluesy music crescendos as the girls sing like angels and the Barefoot Strings’ accompaniment floats above sharing the mood with the crowd.
And as they perform that song a second time, it does sound different, just as Jones’ had anticipated. The lyrics stick in one’s head and the energy has slightly changed, but it is impossible to tell which version is better. It is not the audience’s purpose here, however, to make that determination. Rather, each person in the congregation is here to be a part of Remember’s vision — to experience his music “Live…and Alive!”
Jones’ original composition, “Before You Turn the Record Over,” is up next. It is here where the night starts to become even more of a house party where everyone is just relaxing and enjoying each other’s company — musicians, stage hands, crew members, and audience members alike.
During this piece, even Jones seems to take a break when he descends the stairs from the stage and joins the audience in one of the Strand’s velvet seats while Daimon Santa Maria’s rhythmic flute flutters over the rhythm section.
However, Jones, as we come to learn, is really just checking how the music sounds to the crowd, always working to improve the experience for his fans.
On the next number, the backup singers get a much-deserved break as RJ’s voice is front and center on Keith and Lindsey McCarthy’s “Miranda” in which Jones intones, “Tell me your story and what’s behind those watery eyes/You’ve been waiting a long time for me.” On this song, RJ spills his emotional story like a seasoned performer from another era.
As he works his magic, Jones skillfully markets the music into a sensory experience, filling the audience not only with sound, but dreamlike visuals, dancelike movement, and true art — art you can feel, bringing the audience members to their feet. Someone in the crowd shouts, “Do it again…but don’t hurt yourself,” to which RJ replies, “That WAS a workout…” but willingly works it out again, painting a picture with his soulful voice that soars.
This second time, the audience knows what to expect and demands even more from RJ. Ever the showman, Jones does not disappoint, for he has taken these songs and made them his own.
The night continues with composer David Ross Lawn’s fierce string arrangement on “Wolves at Your Door” and continues with Reading Samba School’s A.J. Merlino playing his vibraphone with a bow (most often seen used with stringed instruments) instead of mallets, and feeding off the attention of the audience as sound envelops sound.
The backup singers rejoin the band, loose and friendly, on Jones’ high-spirited “When I Used to Do You,” and also join in the fun with the infectious groove and blips of horns on long-time Jersey favorite Glen Burtnik’s instant smash hit, “Bam.”
Introducing his bandmates, including keyboardist Mark Masefield, guitarist Zac Silva, and many many more — explaining “they are good people first; then they play their instruments well” — Jones concludes the recording session portion of the evening with Arlan Feiles’ Viola” and an effervescent cover version of Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy.”
The concert ends after three encores — including an impossible-not-to-get-up-on-your-feet-and-dance cover version of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”— a gift to this audience from these talented musicians who obviously love what they do.
As the last notes drift from the stage, some in the audience begin to realize that what they have experienced is only the beginning of the live recording process, for there is no album to take home with them tonight.
Recorded sounds will be engineered into a CD, capturing the live performance sonically in an effort to replicate Jones’ “cool community house” — the Strand Theater. And even though the RJ faithful will have to wait for that gift, the ever-pleasing Remember Jones has already provided the audience with yet another gift to help us remember, courtesy of artist Josh Matson.
For Matson’s blank canvas now stands filled with an image of what we all had just communally experienced — mind-blowing music bursting out of the mind of the Jersey Shore’s very own “soul sensation” — the one and only Remember Jones… “LIVE… and Alive!”
For more information on the release of Remember Jones’ upcoming album, “LIVE… and Alive!,” go to indiegogo.com. For more on upcoming events at The Strand — including “NOW! That’s What I Call Music LIVE!, Vol. 2” on April 8, 2016, starring Remember Jones — please go to strand.org.
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