Random Thoughts on the Kennedy Center Honors

I realize that everyone else probably watched the Kennedy Center Honors in December when it was originally broadcast, but I only managed to view it this past week. (It's been a long but busy holiday break.) I enjoy this event every year because it really is a lovely tribute to outstanding creative artists. Most of the time I'm familiar with their work, but each year I get introduced to someone whose career is a revelation (and it's usually someone in the opera or classical musical arena). I'm not going to comment in this post on the people who were chosen for this year's honors: Shirley MacLaine, Martina Arroyo, Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, and Herbie Hancock. Instead, I'd like to concentrate upon some random moments during the show itself that struck me as interesting. Perhaps it's best to organize this sense of randomness by going in order of how each tribute was presented.

• Carlos Santana
• Tom Morello may just be the best damn guitar player of his generation. He performed on both "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va," and I was in awe of his virtuosity. I know I shouldn't have been, given how many of my friends are fans of Rage Against the Machine, but I've not heard a better guitar player in a long time, and I don't think there are many younger guitarists who can rival him at this point. By the way, just as an aside, at what point do we describe him as "former Rage Against the Machine guitarist"? Is there still a Rage Against the Machine?  
• Martina Arroyo
• I know very, very little about opera, but you must be a big deal if you get a Supreme Court Justice to introduce you. Justice Sonia Sotomayor gave a lovely overview of Arroyo's career. Apparently, she was a supreme interpreter of Verdi's operas such as Aida. All I know is that she is obviously filled with the joy of music. She sang along with everyone's performance during the evening, whether the music was rock or soul or show tunes. Not even President Obama or the First Lady sang along as much as Arroyo did. (And they sang along quite a bit themselves.)
• Herbie Hancock
• Bill O'Reilly has a sense of humor. Even about himself. I realize that isn't a surprise to viewers of his show on Fox News, but I'm not exactly a part of his demographic, so I wasn't aware that he could first shock the audience at the Kennedy Center and then begin his introduction of Herbie Hancock with "I know. I'm surprised too." It was a nice introduction, actually, but I'm still unsure why it was O'Reilly who gave it. Is he a big fan of jazz-fusion-r&b-soul-hip hop? And he even shook hands with Snoop Dogg, who did a wild version of "Flip Fantasia," at the end of the Hancock tribute!
• Shirley MacLaine
• At one point in our past, the entertainment industry knew what to do with people who could sing and dance and act. Shirley MacLaine's career is a fine example of that. She was a dancer who stepped out of the chorus in The Pajama Game to fill in for the lead one night and was discovered. She wound up in Hollywood making dramatic movies as well as comedies and musicals. I was thinking of this while watching the delightful Sutton Foster perform "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This" from Sweet Charity. Foster is so supremely talented, but all she's managed to do is a television show called Bunheads that lasted only one season. I loved the show, and Foster demonstrated how adept she is at comedic acting on it, but where are the opportunities for her that mirror those that MacLaine had? Have we stopped using Broadway as a source of new, exciting talent?
• Billy Joel
• The Billy Joel tribute was perhaps the highlight of the show, and for me, the highlight of the tribute to him was watching one of my favorite artists, Rufus Wainwright, perform my favorite Joel song, "New York State of Mind." He also sang "Piano Man" with the rest of the performers who were honoring Joel, but it was the first song that really got me. I actually heard it the first time not on a Joel album, but on Barbra Streisand's Streisand Superman album, and then I searched for Joel's version because Streisand gave it such high praise herself. (I now have four different versions of the song on my playlist.) I wish Rufus would consider doing another entire album of work by other songwriters. I love his own material, of course, and I own all of the CDs he's put out so far, but I also love when he interprets someone else's material, as he did a few years ago with Judy Garland songs.