Best concert in history?

When Kurt Elling gave a bravura performance earlier this summer at Corson Auditorium, I was sure it would be the concert of the summer. No matter what else was coming (quite a bit, as it turned out, from Return to Forever IV to the Tubes to Barrage), his performance was so warm, ingratiating, and spectacular it couldn't be topped.

Elling is almost without question today's premiere male jazz vocalist. His voice has warmed over the years, and he's now so comfortable performing that it reminds one of a professional athlete who is so good he just makes it look easy. Am I dating myself if I think of Tigers centerfielder Mickey Stanley? Elling is that effortless, yet he and his band played magnificently. Pianist Laurence Hobgood was brilliant, and his substitute rhythm section of Erik Privert on bass and especially the brilliant Pete Van Nostrand on drums was fantastic.

But with apologies to Kurt, his show is now only second best. The Steely Dan show Monday may be this veteran concert-goer's #1 show EVER. It was that good. As a 50-something, the sounds of the Dan were a soundtrack to my life in high school and college, generally the most formative years of anyone's life. Add to that the fact they stopped touring in '74, before they produced such brilliant albums as The Royal Scam and Aja, and then broke up after Gaucho. Probably never to return.

But ah, they did, and finally, 15 years later, here they were in northern Michigan. The crowd was electric as the band took the stage, with Becker and Fagen finally joining them. I don't even remember what the first couple tunes were, but when they played the opening notes of "Aja," the crowd went berserk. Or maybe it was just me. Nah, it was pretty much everybody. Walt Weiskopf took the saxophone spotlight, and Keith Carlock nailed the drums with all the passion and precision Steve Gadd brought to the original. It was a highlight, one of many.

Like, so many it was hard to keep track. "Black Cow" and "Peg" from Aja, a trio of tracks from Gaucho, a killer arrangement of "Reelin' in the Years" that melded the original guitar-heavy version from their debut disc Can't Buy a Thrill and the latter-day piano-filled one from Alive in America. Perhaps most surprising was the inclusion of "Dirty Work" from Thrill, replacing original vocalist David Palmer (remember him?) with the Embassy Brats, the backing trio of Cindy Mizelle, Catherine Russell, and my pal Carolyn Leonhart Escoffery (more on that momentarily).

By the end of the concert, the auditorium was a quarter empty - as the fans rushed the stage to bob and dance. "Kid Charlemagne," "Bodhisattva," "Peg," all joyfully embraced by a crowd that was as loud as any I've ever heard at Interlochen. The band was magnificent, Becker and Jon Herrington sharing stinging lead guitar work. Carlock was a wiz, fiery and dynamic. Fagen's voice isn't as elastic as when he was in his 20s and 30s, and could/should have been a little more prominent in the mix, but it was the unmistakable sound that graced the turntables and radios of my youth and that of and the rest of the crowd. The horns and singers, bass and keyboards all added just the right amount of sass and brass.

I've seen favorite artists like Yes and Todd Rundgren over a dozen times each, but it's the single times I've seen some artists that still stand out: Squeeze in Grand Rapids, Ronnie Montrose at a disco in East Lansing, Jeff Beck at DeVos Hall. This one tops them all.

And I finally got to meet my friend Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery. The daughter of legendary jazz bassist Jay Leonhart, and sister to the Dan's trumpet player Michael, she and her husband Wayne Escoffery released If Dreams Come True in 2007. I reviewed the disc (positively) for Jazziz. Must have been a very good one indeed, as three years later, they asked me to write the liner notes to their then-upcoming release, Tides of Yesterday. I of course said yes (I'm nothing if not magnanimous), and began a correspondence with the two of them that culminated in a meeting after the show. Carolyn is as lovely a person as she is brilliant a singer. So now we just have to get Wayne to perform here, or better yet both of them. Whaddya think?