MUSIC REVIEW
PAUL SIMON
At Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, June 24
These are the days of miracle and wonder, or so it seems if you’ve spent time with any among a number of iconic veterans who’ve played here recently, delivering career-spanning shows at seemingly untenable levels of potency. To a list that includes Brian Wilson, Dolly Parton, and — relatively speaking — the Cure, add Paul Simon, who presented an engrossing, entertaining set for a sold-out, wildly appreciative audience at Blue Hills Bank Pavilion on Friday.
Simon, 74, has shown no appreciable diminishment of ambition or skill over the years. Earlier this month he released his 13th solo album, “Stranger to Stranger,’’ chock full of memorable tunes in rich, unorthodox arrangements. It’s his strongest effort since “Graceland,’’ his career-redefining 1986 smash, but it’s no reheat; largely propelled by snappy flamenco rhythms, “Stranger’’ lives up to its title with pensive introspections and vignettes of characters at society’s margins.
Simon — animated and in strong voice, if not particularly chatty — offered just three songs from the new album during his expertly paced show, all holding their own amid vintage material. The title track, dreamy and ruminative, provided space to breathe between the beat-happy “Obvious Child’’ and crowd-pleasing “Homeward Bound.’’
Wiry and loping, “The Werewolf’’ prefaced a set-ending sequence that peaked with two “Graceland’’ showstoppers, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes’’ (gamely harmonized in the absence of the glorious South African choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo) and “You Can Call Me Al.’’ And “Wristband,’’ a wry twister in the playful spirit of “Al,’’ kicked off the first encore soon after.
Simon’s always been a savvy bandleader; here, old and recent tunes alike took on fresh verve and sinew in the hands of his versatile crew. Alongside signature stylists like the guitarist Vincent Nguini and the bassist Bakithi Kumalo were idiosyncratic multi-instrumentalists like Mark Stewart (guitars, baritone sax, whistles, PVC didgeridoo), C.J. Camerieri (trumpet, French horn), and Mick Rossi (keyboards, harmonium, percussion).
Joel Guzman, an accordion player and guitarist, proved particularly vital in the set-opening “The Boy in the Bubble’’ and the zydeco-charged “That Was Your Mother.’’ The saxophonist Andy Snitzer, potent all evening, soloed with passionate grit on “Still Crazy After All These Years.’’ Jamey Haddad’s percussion lent colorful elaboration; when the drummer, Jim Oblon, reeled off bluesy guitar solos while keeping time with hi-hat and kick-drum foot pedals, Haddad reinforced the beat.
That deep bench allowed Simon to prowl around his storied catalog at will, from canonical hits to worthy recent songs like “Dazzling Blue’’ and “Rewrite’’ — the latter paced with plucky acoustic guitar, prepared-piano jangle, and clattering angklung (Indonesian tuned percussion).
The audience, good sports during unfamiliar stretches, roared mightily for an early amble through “Slip Slidin’ Away,’’ “Mother and Child Reunion,’’ and “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,’’ and again for the concert’s second encore, where a limber “Late in the Evening’’ prefaced “The Boxer,’’ here a rousing singalong. Dismissing his band, Simon ended the evening alone, the pensive opening notes of “The Sound of Silence’’ commanding a near pin-drop hush.
PAUL SIMON
At Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, June 24
Steve Smith can be reached at steven.smith@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nightafternight.
