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Subject: Re: Kennedy Center Honors
Date: 9 Dec 2024 13:50:30 GMT
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Kennedy Center Honors: A one-night ‘church’ of soul, blues, jazz and
jams
The annual ceremony brought together musicians, movie stars, President
Biden and several bears to pay tribute to Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval,
Francis Ford Coppola, the Grateful Dead and the Apollo Theater.

December 9, 2024


By Travis M. Andrews

It was a musical evening at the Kennedy Center Honors — so musical, it
turned out, that even Robert De Niro played piano.
Before anyone was
lionized at the annual ceremony on Sunday night, Queen Latifah led a medley
of songs connected to each honoree — from Bonnie Raitt’s “Something to Talk
About” to the theme from Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather” — with De
Niro on keys. “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band and J’Nai
Bridges performed the “Star Spangled Banner.”

As the night went on in the Kennedy Center’s 2,364-seat Opera House, the
tunes kept coming.

The 47th edition of the cultural center’s marquee event honored Coppola,
the beloved filmmaker; Raitt, the blues-rock star; Cuban American trumpeter
and composer Arturo Sandoval; and jam-band trailblazers the Grateful Dead.
(The honors went to three living members of the Dead — Mickey Hart, Bill
Kreutzmann and Bob Weir — as well as bassist Phil Lesh, who died Oct. 25 at
84. Lesh’s son Grahame sat in his place.)

Completing the lineup was the 90-year-old Apollo Theater, a nucleus for
Black performers in Harlem that retains a packed calendar to this day. The
ceremony marked the first time the Kennedy Center has honored a fellow arts
institution, though it has sometimes departed from its usual format to pay
tribute to bands, “Sesame Street” and the cast of “Hamilton.”

The evening
was going to be a swan song for David M. Rubenstein, the Carlyle Group
co-founder and philanthropist who said in January that he was stepping down
as Kennedy Center chairman only to announce in late November that he will
stay until September 2026. “I want to apologize those who spent time and
money on my retirement party,” he joked.

President Joe Biden, first lady
Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff put
their hand over their heart as the Star Spangled Banner is played during
the 47th Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts on Sunday. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

It really was the swan song for President Joe Biden and first lady Jill
Biden, who were in attendance. Keeping to the usual spirit of the evening,
politics weren’t raised, though Rubenstein thanked the Bidens for their
service, along with several others in attendance, including Vice President
Kamala Harris, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Virginia Gov. Glenn
Youngkin.

And it might prove to be a swan song for a president attending the honors.
President-elect Donald Trump skipped the Kennedy Center Honors throughout
his first term. (No word on if he plans to continue the trend.)

The evening followed the usual script: five segments, a tribute for each
nominee, while the honorees watched from a balcony near the president.

The
question mark was the Apollo. How do you honor a building, one known not
only for music but also comedy, dancing and more.

The answer: Do it all.

The result: The centerpiece was easily the most exciting stretch of the
evening.

Queen Latifah poses on the red carpet at the 2024 Kennedy Center
Honors. (Maansi Srivastava for the Washington Post/for the Washington Post)

It began with a short speech by Queen Latifah, the evening’s host, who
called the Apollo the “heartbeat of Black America” while Kamasi
Washington’s sumptuous saxophone erupted into a manic solo.

After singer-songwriter Raye performed “Cry Me a River” (Hamilton, not
Timberlake), rapper Doug E. Fresh, clad in a sparking gold tuxedo, popped
up from a seat in the audience to beatbox and then explain why there was a
small tree stump on the stage.

It was a replica of the Tree of Hope found inside the Apollo. Performers
at the venue’s famous Amateur Nights are supposed to rub it for luck.

“The s--- doesn’t work,” comedian Dave Chappelle said, remembering his own
disastrous debut there when he was 15 years old and got booed off the
stage. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The Black community agreed on
something!”

Nonetheless, his feelings were warm: “The Apollo Theater was a
church where we could talk like ourselves, to ourselves,” Chappelle said.

Tap dancing from Savion Glover followed, and the first half of the show
concluded with a medley from country duo the War and Treaty featuring
“You’re All I Need to Get By,” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and
“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” — beloved soul duets immortalized by Marvin
Gaye and Tammi Terrell — that had the room clapping into
intermission.

Bonnie Raitt poses on the red carpet at the 2024 Kennedy
Center Honors. (Maansi Srivastava for the Washington Post/for the
Washington Post)

Raitt was the first artist honored on Sunday, with well-known musicians
tackling some of her biggest hits as an interpreter of country, blues and
rock-n-roll: Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harris sang “Angel from Montgomery”;
Keb’ Mo’ and Susan Tedeschi did “Walking Blues”; Brandi Carlile and Sheryl
Crow played “I Can’t Make You Love Me”; and Jackson Browne, James Taylor,
Arnold McCuller and Crow performed “Nick of Time.”

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, an avowed Raitt fan, praised the artist as “all red
hair and no bulls---.” Of Raitt’s activism, the comedian said, “It really
makes you feel like crap, but in a really good way.” Browne said that when
he first met Raitt, she “looked like Little Orphan Annie and sounded like
Mae West.”

(In one charmingly impromptu moment, Matthews grabbed the mic
to tell Raitt that he read in The Washington Post that she was raised a
Quaker — exciting news to him since he was also raised a Quaker.)

2024
Kennedy Center honorees Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Francis Ford Coppola, Apollo
president Michelle Ebanks, Arturo Sandoval and Bonnie Raitt stand for the
“Star Spangled Banner.” (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

The music continued with the tribute to Sandoval, and the volume jumped up
a notch. Trombone Shorty, Chris Botti and Cimafunk blasted Afro-Cuban
melodies on their horns. The audience feasted on flamenco dancing while
listening to a tapestry of tumbling rhythms and funky beats, all set
against an almost neon background that illuminated the Opera House as the
crowd danced in its chairs.

Andy Garcia, who portrayed Sandoval in the 2000 film “For Love or
Country,” said that when the Latin jazz innovator performed in Cuba, he was
“shouting in the face of the oppressor.” Sandoval would eventually defect
to the United States.

Sandoval spoke very little English when he came to the U.S. 35 years ago,
Garcia said. He paused. “Now, his English is worse.”

Francis Ford Coppola
poses on the red carpet at the 2024 Kennedy Center Honors. (Maansi
Srivastava for the Washington Post/for the Washington Post)

The musicians got a break once it was time to honor Coppola, and some of
the director’s most famous Hollywood collaborators took a turn, sitting
around a dinner table on the stage of the Opera House.

Cue Robert DeNiro,
Laurence Fishburne, Al Pacino, Talia Shire (Coppola’s sister), Jason
Schwartzman (his nephew), George Lucas, director Gia Coppola (his
granddaughter) and Martin Scorsese.

They mostly offered speeches about family and passion. Fishburne broke out
some Italian to — this non-Italian-speaking reporter believes — express his
love for Coppola.
It was earnest, but at least it was funny.

“I first met Francis Coppola when I was born,” Shire said, calling him the
“best big brother.” Schwartzman, her son, said: “I wouldn’t trust my family
if I was on a circus trapeze. They might catch you, but they’re going to
give you notes.”
Pacino made a joke about “Megalopolis,” Coppola’s
self-financed epic that opened this year to mixed reviews (and no shortage
of awe at its chutzpah). “He broke the most important rule in film,” Pacino
said. “Hollywood’s first command: Never put your own money in your own
film.”

Coppola jumped to his feet in excitement when Scorsese told a story about
the time Coppola was cooking red sauce, but they had to go to the movie
studio to watch a cut of Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz.” The key to a good red
sauce is constant stirring, Scorsese said. Someone has to watch the sauce!
So Coppola attached a wooden spoon to an old projector and turned it
on.

And that, Scorsese said, is exactly how his friend approached
directing.

The Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir and Mickey Hart
pose for a portrait on the red carpet. (Maansi Srivastava for the
Washington Post/for the Washington Post)
And then? Some jams, Grateful
Dead-style.

After a video featuring John Mayer, Norah Jones, both Ben and Jerry and
San Francisco’s own Nancy Pelosi, actor Miles Teller climbed onstage to
say, “Being a fan of the Grateful Dead is nothing short of a religious
experience.”

Here’s what church sounded like on Sunday: an all-star lineup of Maggie
Rogers, Leon Bridges, Sturgill Simpson, Don Was, Dave Matthews, Derek
Trucks, Susan Tedeschi and more playing classic Dead tunes like “Friend of
the Devil, “Ripple,” “Sugaree” and “Not Fade Away.” (That one’s a Buddy
Holly ditty, but the Dead made it one of their signatures.)

One of the night’s most touching moments wasn’t found in a speech. It was
when the long-deceased Jerry Garcia performed, in a manner of speaking,
with Simpson and Grahame Lesh. A video of the late Dead front man played
along with the band, with Garcia’s vocals filling the room.
A religious
experience for any Deadheads in the audience, followed by David Letterman
walking out of an old hippie van and pretending — we think — to be
stoned.

“I am so f---ed up,” he said. “I’d like to apologize to President
Joe Biden.”

The night before Sunday’s ceremony, the honorees received medallions at an
event at the State Department. As usual, Secretary of State Antony Blinken
spoke about the power of the arts with a mix of genuinely funny lines (“If
you ever go to a Dead show, you can smell the feeling of community”) and
some clunkers (“Bonnie Raitt is officially brat”).

Crow and Mavis Staples toasted Raitt, who choked back tears. Coppola
congratulated every person in the room, including himself — and shared his
surprising connections with the other honorees. How members of the Dead
scored “Apocalypse Now.” How “when I was heavier and had a big black beard,
everyone thought I was Jerry Garcia.”

Phylicia Rashad praised the Apollo, saying, “Name somebody. Somebody
great, somebody incredible. They’ve all come through.” She listed some of
the biggest names to grace its stage before exclaiming, “Oh, my mercy!”

Sandoval brought his trumpet and belted out a heartfelt “God Bless
America” before getting the room to its collective feet to sing “When the
Saints Go Marching In.”

“Well, I’m glad I didn’t choose to open with ‘When
the Saints Go Marching in,’” deadpanned Al Franken as he began a toast to
the Grateful Dead.

The Dead were the final honorees to receive their medallions, and in his
own impish way, drummer Mickey Hart tried locating what makes the honors so
special, what makes music and art itself so deserving of recognition.

“It’s the only thing that’s universal,” Hart said. “It’s right up there
with, you know, sex.”

The Kennedy Center Honors will be broadcast Dec. 23 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern
on CBS and streamed on Paramount Plus.