An Evening with MJ

Last night we packed up the car and drove to the Museum Theater downtown for a tribute concert to Michael Joseph Jackson, 29 Aug. 1958-25 June 2009.

It started off shaky with canned music and dancers. They were skilled enough, but the whole thing was rather hokey. But as the evening progressed, it was apparent that in India there is a lot of love and respect for "MJ" as they referred to him on stage. There was an act of doctors who played a couple instrumental tunes, including I'll be There, with a soulful sax on lead, and a children's choir that did a song with the refrain, "I just want to say, they don't really care about us." All the acts had an interesting slide show in the background that either went with the era of the song (Jackson 5, solo career, visiting orphanages, aids victims) or the content of songs Jackson had written. I didn't even know he wrote songs. There was also a little fog machine going for some songs, for effect, and a short video, "From Indiana to India," which showed how Jackson, born in Gary, Indiana, has had such a great influence on Bollywood dance moves. Then they had the music director from our school come up, talk briefly about how he'd used Jackson's music throughout his career and sing a solo. There was a lot of love for the music and the man.

The show was progressing along nicely when a local group with several vocalists and musicians was introduced with, "And now, you all know 'Subject to Change.'" The crowd went wild--and with good reason. This all-Indian group was talented. They did a long set of old and more recent, ABC, Billy-Jean, Thriller, Black or White...I don't even know the music very well, but it was amazing. A couple of the singers really hit the high notes and had the sound of Jackson's voice. There were a couple other acoustic soloists of note, one did a great rendition of Man in the Mirror and the other of Ben. It all culminated with getting all the performers on stage, including the kids choir and a little boy who moonwalked, and sang "We are the World" as the crowd swayed with cell phones lit facing outward. It was quite a moment, as you can imagine, of American cultural pollution at its very best.