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Cohen is a poet and entertainer

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By CURTIS ROSS

cross@tampatrib.com

Published: October 21, 2009

TAMPA - With his trim dark suit and a fedora pulled low over his eyes, Leonard Cohen looked less like a poet and singer-songwriter Monday night and more like a veteran song-and-dance man working the boards.

But what song-and-dance man ever entertained us with such terrible truths:

"Everybody knows the war is over/Everybody knows the good guys lost."

"I've seen the future, brother, it is murder."

Maybe it was for Cohen, whose literary and recording careers scream "Art" with a capital "A," to acknowledge that the poet is an entertainer, too.

The 75-year-old Cohen fulfilled both roles admirably Monday night at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Carol Morsani Hall before a sold-out crowd of 2,590.

The show closely followed the one captured on this year's "Live in London" album, with some changes.

But the similarities made sense given the subtle theatrics of the show, particularly the way the recitation of "A Thousand Kisses Deep" served as the pre-encore climax.

For a performer who has never troubled the top 40, it was amazing to recall how many of his tunes are familiar to even the casual fan.

"Hallelujah" is the most obvious of these, remade by Jeff Buckley, appearing on the "Shrek" soundtrack, even turning up in the repertoire of an "American Idol" hopeful. Cohen and his band played the song as gospel-soul, stripping away the hymnal qualities of Buckley's version.

"The Future" and "Everybody Knows" formed a dystopian tag-team early in the first set, leavened by Cohen's mordant humor. He began "Bird on a Wire" on his knees, possibly to emphasize the song's prayer-like quality, or possibly to show that his 75-year-old joints still are limber.

The second set began with "Tower of Song," one of Cohen's funniest numbers. The line "I was born with the gift of a golden voice" never fails to get a laugh.

A set of encores covered most of the remaining bases, including "Famous Blue Raincoat" and "First We Take Manhattan," finally closing with "Whither Thou Goest."

Cohen's band featured his sometimes songwriting partner Sharon Robinson, along with the Webb Sisters, on background vocals; Roscoe Beck on bass; Neil Larsen on keyboards; Bob Metzger on guitar; Javier Mas on a variety of stringed instruments including bandurria and laud; Rafael Gayol on drums; and Dino Soldo on woodwinds.

Today's birthdays

Actress Joyce Randolph is 85. TV's Judge Judy Sheindlin is 67. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 60. Actor Ken Watanabe is 50. Actor Michael McMillian is 31. Personality Kim Kardashian is 29. Actor Matt Dallas is 27.

Source: The Associated Press

Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568.

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