A Look Back: July 17
By Mike Stampalia on July 17, 2025
image: drummer Max Roach (1955)
By Mike Stampalia.
70 years ago: The Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet @ Berkshire Music Barn
RIGHT NOW as this is written the clicking of the typewriter sounds rather futile with the memory of Mr. Roach’s drums still beating on the occipital lobe. His drumming is the most and any description of it must inevitably be the least.
– Milton R. Bass for the Berkshire Eagle
60 years ago: Odetta @ Berkshire Music Barn
Saturday, also, there was wind and rain on the canvas roof to be overcome. A strong beginning of “Deep River” was destroyed by a frightened chipmunk that scurried up and down aisle and set the audience giggling.
– R.C.H. for the Morning Union
30 years ago: The Persuasions / Michael Fambro @ Washington Park
And when was the last time you heard Kurt Weill and The Everly Brothers in the same set? Well, Monday night if you saw the Persuasions.
– Michael Eck for the Times Union
20 years ago: Chicago / Earth, Wind & Fire @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
In a unique move that may presage future collaborations, the two groups began and finished their 3 1/2 hour show together. The 19 singers and musicians who assembled for the opening of Chicago’s “Beginnings” further packed a stage already filled with catwalks, risers and more drums than a Salvation Army convention.
– Mike Curtin for the Post Star
10 years ago: Royal Blood / Northern Faces @ Upstate Concert Hall
1 year ago: RAIN @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
After a brief intermission, things were about to get a little weird in Saratoga. Entering the experimental/psychedelic era of The Beatles, from the moment the opening chords of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” filled the air, the audience was spellbound. Now dressed in vibrant Edwardian military officer outfits, Rain both looked the part and sounded it.
– Zak Radick for NYS Music
1 year ago: Sheila E. / Wurliday @ Empire State Plaza Convention Center
Sheila E. at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center (July 17, 2024) – photo by Timothy Reidy for RadioRadioX
After performing a short Beatles medley, Sheila E. and her band got a real Latin groove on for “Holly Rock,” a song written by Prince and Sheila E. that appeared on the soundtrack of the 1985 film “Krush Groove.” Sheila E. tosses drum sticks the way Bruce Springsteen hands out guitar picks, and she did so on that song.
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