words by Patty Riek
photos by Jon Bauer
Bigger and better than ever – the Sixth San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival hosted five events in four different venues as the scope and attendance continues to grow for this fabulous, niche very San Francisco event. Honoring its homey roots at the intimate The Lost Church and Four Star Theatre, the festival is growing and growing up by hosting opening night at the Great American Music Hall and hosting two nights at The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Blue Shield Theater.
Night One – The Red Room Orchestra & Conspiracy of Beards
The Red Room Orchestra opened the festival at the Great American Music Hall playing Cohen’s music from McCabe and Mrs. Miller as well as other dance hall-esque favorites. Marc Capelle, founder of the Red Room Orchestra, noted Leonard Cohen’s layers – a Canadian Buddhist living in Los Angeles (and the Mount Baldy Zen Center) writing complex verses. With so much personal complexity, it stands to reason that Cohen’s music works for Robert Altman’s “not really Western” Western.
With the sultry GAMH’s red lights and baroque interior as a sensuous backdrop, the Red Room Orchestra first played “Stranger Song” immediately evoking the magic of Cohen’s music – his songs resonate in so many scenarios. While apt for the movie soundtrack, the line, “He was just some Joseph looking for a manger” represents both current events and the universal need for physical and emotional shelter. Cohen’s use of “just” humanizes the line – all of us at some point need shelter.
Melding Cohen’s work with other pieces, Red Room Orchestra offered a sing along to “Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay,” “Sisters of Mercy,” music box selections with a tiny piano!, “Beautiful Dreamer,” and “Travelling Lady.” Throughout the performance, actors directly above the stage depicted scenes between McCabe and Mrs. Miller, while members of the Leonard Cohen a cappella choir, Conspiracy of Beards, hung out in the balcony as if they were men in the saloon.
Closing the evening, Conspiracy of Beards – clad in Western wear rather than their traditional suits – descended from their balcony perches to take the stage. Singing “Suzanne,” “So Long, Marianne,” before their moment of hope with “Anthem” which reminds that “there is a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in.” With encouragement from the audience, they sang one more: “If It Be Your Will” leaving attendees looking forward to….
Night Two – John Mackay Trio & Conspiracy of Venus
The second night of the festival shifted to the intimate and sold out The Lost Church. Event curator Clay Eugene Smith introduced the evening by thanking sponsors and attendees before welcoming The John Mackay Trio. With Mackay on keys, Steve Weber on stand up bass and Kevin Dillan on drums, the trio’s jazzy renditions of Cohen standards such as “Dance Me to the End of Love,” “Sisters of Mercy,” and “Everybody Knows” was the sonic sultriness to the venue’s vibe. Mackay’s arrangements of “So Long Marianne” and “Stranger Song” sped up the timing of the songs in the spirit of the Festival’s goal to “bend” Cohen’s work in new ways.
Also very much in the spirit of the festival is searching for connections. Reading the lyrics for “My Secret Life,” Mackay mentioned the song was co-written by Sharon Robinson, the headliner for the 2024 festival who shared her intimate stories of working with Leonard Cohen!
Like Cohen, Mackay is a fellow Canadian and shared his two Leonard Cohen encounters; one comical story involved a young Mackay who accidentally dropped a cigarette in the footwell of an organ while Cohen was in the audience. After Mackay retrieved it, he noticed that Cohen slipped out.
Just before intermission, Conspiracy of Venus, glided on stage bedecked in sequins and boas to sing “That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” for the jazz trio’s last song.
After intermission, the ladies commanded the stage under the direction of Joyce Todd McBride. Playfully opening with “I’m Your Man,” the all female chorus used their precise articulation, punctuated phrases and aural layers (all created by the medley of choir members’ voices) to give female voice to Cohen classics such as “Suzanne,” “A Thousand Kisses Deep,” and “Dance Me to the End of Love.” With a nod to Cohen’s Buddhist practice, the choir shared McBride’s original musical version of Bertolt Brecht’s interpretation of the Buddha’s Parable of the Burning House.
Night two was a cozy evening of connections and extensions.
Night Three – The Unified Heart Of Leonard Cohen – Conspiracy of Beards, The Crux, & Genny Lim
For his poetry collection, Book of Mercy, Leonard Cohen designed the symbol of the unified heart: two intertwined hearts evoking the mysticism of Judaism and Buddhism and the transcendent power of love of all kinds. The third night of the festival embodied many of the elements Cohen explored in his work as a fitting tribute on the ninth anniversary of Cohen’s death. Cohen’s iconography served as a muse for an incredible night.
Genny Lim, the ninth San Francisco Poet Laureate, noted that her intention was to explore the Buddhist aspects of Cohen – both the sacred and the profane. Lim integrated her own poetry from Facing the Moon: Songs of the Diaspora with her rendition of “Suzanne.” Kathryn Bates’s cello accompaniment added haunting, long notes to Lim’s sung mantras to explore the very paradoxes Cohen himself did – the soaring beauty and the agonizing horrors of life. Throughout the evening, the Beards shared excerpts from Cohen himself. In one of these, he describes the song “Suzanne” as a doorway into a “magical universe.” Lim and Bates, opened that portal for the audience and initiated our journey.
Next on the voyage, Conspiracy of Beards shared a superlative performance. Their arrangements of Cohen’s songs, their physical positioning of smaller and larger cohorts of singers on the stage, the rotating soloists – all echoed one of the comments they shared about Cohen: Cohen sought the transcendence of the “small self” into something larger. In the Beards, each beautiful individual voice contributed to the much more sublime whole. Harnessing their collective hive mind, they worked through new arrangements and old favorites such as “If it Be Your Will,” “Tonight Will be Fine,” “No Cure for Love,” “Come Healing” and of course “Hallejaluah.” The Beards have never been better – polished, inspirational, uplifting.
Part jazz, part folk, part rockabilly, part klezmer, all fun, The Crux, brain child of Josh Windmiller was act three of the evening. Performing most of New Skin for the Old Ceremony, The Crux did a fair share of “bending” Cohen’s works and echoing common motifs of the evening: the sacred “Who by Fire,” and the profane “Chelsea Hotel #2.” Highlights of The Crux set included the soulful, emotive, trumpet by Zachary Thorne – any time their lips hit the trumpet it was a treat; a sensuous duet between Windmiller and Audio Angel; a cameo by MC King Lung on “Who by Fire.” Nate Dittle on keys of all kinds, drummer Libby, and Dylan Juhan on stand up bass rounded out the band.
A full three hours of Leonard Cohen and community, night three could have gone on even longer.
Night Four – A Letter To Leonard Cohen, A Tribute To A Friend – Perla Batalla
Floating on stage in an airy white dress with a black tuxedo style blazer (a wink to her first time meeting Cohen), Perla Batalla began the concert with “If It Be Your Will” – her rich contralto voice as deep and heady as her dress wispy.
Throughout the evening, Batalla shared stories of her time with Leonard Cohen – including their first encounter: When auditioning for him, she wore all white and Cohen walked into the room in all black and giggled saying, “Darling, we are a match made in heaven.” Cohen’s astute judgment was correct. Their voices complimented one another, and they both shared an appreciation of the richness of the layers of identity. Batalla shared her ancestry of Afro, Mexican, Hungarian, Jew. Cohen’s own Jewish background and Buddhist explorations shaped his world view.
Batalla’s stories and songs shared a common theme of gratitude for the world expanding opportunity Cohen provided to her personally, to all fans and the communities created therein. At one point she noted that Cohen’s music continues to evolve like Shakespeare; Batalla and all of the artists participating in the festival are part of that evolution. For example, Batalla sang “Suzanne” framed with “Oh Susanna.” Batalla reworked “Dance Me to the End of Love” to sing in both Spanish and English, having the audience sing the la, la, la refrain ending with a hora-esque flourish at the end.
Carl Byron on piano and accordion, Dimitris Mahalis on guitar and oud, and Claud Mann picking up the percussion, all contributed nuanced facets to Batalla’s soaring vocals.
Another touching story was when Cohen chose Batalla to sing “Anthem” at the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement in 1993. Batalla noted that the song is a celebration of hope, reminding us, “Don’t dwell on what has passed away/Or what is yet to be.” Later, Batalla played an African water drum for “Who By Fire” with Dimitris Mahlis on the oud. Batalla introduced Mahlis explaining that folklore suggests a oud master has a direct connection to God. If Mahlis connected with God, Batalla’s water drum echoed the human heartbeat. These two songs represent the range of Cohen’s oeuvre — we will all perish one day, until that moment, we should seek hope.
Additionally, Cohen inspired her to create her own pieces. Batalla shared her original song “Awakened” from A Letter to Leonard Cohen: A Tribute to a Friend.
That Cohen’s work endures and evolves is a testament to his greatness. Not a stingy, self-aggrandizing greatness, a welcoming, generous greatness that recognized the talents of Perla Batalla and others in his orbit. Batalla’s own music and retelling her Leonard Cohen stories are a way of continuing and extending his legacy. Ending her two song encore with “Hallejuah” Batalla said, “Thank you, Leonard.”
Thank you, Perla, thank you Clay and the SF Leonard Cohen Festival.
Conclusion
Perla Batalla said that it took “guts, balls, courage” to create a Leonard Cohen festival. She is right, but it also took a deep and profound respect for the enduring nature of his art to speak to people. Whether you are a singer, musician, a poet, a choir, a seasoned Festival attendee, or a neophyte, each year, the festival reminds us that Cohen inspires, soothes, questions, criticizes, comforts across time and genre. Hallelujah for Clay Eugene Smith for putting together the San Francisco Leonard Cohen Festival to connect us to our shared community through art. Cheers to the Order of the Unified Heart!
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