The Burt Bacharach Discussion Forum

Last February, I had tickets to a tribute to A&M cofounder at LA's Music Center that was touted as including a performance by Burt. It was canceled on account of the pandemic. But now it's on for January 14:

https://www.musiccenter.org/tickets-fre ... erry-moss/

The lineup has changed, and though Dionne is now billed as performing, Burt is said to be making a "special presentation." Whether that involves performing music or not, I'm not sure. I'd dearly love to see Bacharach perform in person again--I haven't since 2018--but don't expect to get to this. If any of you are in LA maybe you will.

Better late than never, I suppose, but this seems awfully late. For how many decades has the entire A&M catalogue been secreted in a bomb-resistant bunker? And why just Jerry? And what happened to Sergio Mendes? And why Dionne, whose sole recording for the label was the singing of the last line of "Whoever You Are..." on Burt`s recording? (That was her, wasn`t it?)
Certainly, nothing is wrong with all of this but I confess that I really don`t get it.
Unless UMG is going to use the occasion to reissue the entire catalogue. Now, that would be worth celebrating. But I won`t be holding my breath.

Perhaps it's significant that at last year's cancelled event Bacharach was scheduled to perform while this time round he's merely doing a presentation.

The article linked below states unequivocally that Burt is definitely NOT scheduled to perform at this event. I actually first saw the piece a few days before this thread was started and because it makes it pretty clear that Bacharach is only doing a spot of presenting I didn't think it was worth alerting the forum. However, the fact that he isn't billed to perform this time is interesting in itself and we can only speculate as to its possible significance.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ ... 79645/amp/

When my wife and I attended what turned out to be Carol Channing's final onstage appearance (I'm pretty sure) some years ago, they made a point of saying she would be talking but not singing. But she did sing quite a bit, albeit a cappella, and was wonderful.

I hope Burt will perform again at some point, if he wants to. The Hollywood Reporter says that Herb Alpert also won't perform, and he's still touring.

Burt did not appear tonight. Alpert explained that he and Bacharach had rehearsed something for the show — This Guy’s in Love With You — but he was suddenly unable to attend.

This event still puzzles me.
Assuming that the A&M label was not re-launched, that neither Burt nor Sergio Mendes was there, and that for some arcane reason Dionne was...WTF?
Did this make any sense to anyone there? Not that Jerry doesn`t deserve credit for his accomplishments, but neither he nor Herb has gone without recognition.
Maybe it`s just me.

It would have been great to see Burt and Herb perform together. I’m sorry for those at the event that it didn’t happen, but relieved I didn’t make the trek. Here’s hoping that Burt is well.