4U: A Symphonic Celebration of Prince (Oct/2018)

4U: A Symphonic Celebration of Prince – October 17th – Toyota Music Factory – Irving,TX 

Put together by Prince ultra-fan Questlove. As the first symphonic Prince show approved by the artist’s estate, the concert website said, it was not meant to impersonate the artist but to celebrate his “boundless creative output.”

Questlove makes an announcement at the beginning via recorded video message laying out the evening’s proceedings:
Set 1 will be all the deep cuts – an intermission followed by a second set of hits. Cool, let’s do this –

Starting off with For You the stage full of musicians showed us we were in for a different experience of these songs. For the first half of the night, no one sang. Instead, we got to focus on the music & a dozen-piece string section riffing away on Controversy. This seemed to confuse and/or disappoint a considerable amount of the audience which was spare by comparison to the size of the venue. It’s hard to believe & even easier to forget that they are still fans out there that only know or care about the 1999/Purple Rain era & aren’t nerds like us hoping to hear Alexa De Paris.

Cool to see how the arrangements cast each instrument. During Computer Blue, the brass section went crazy, with a saxophone giving a rich and scratchy feel to the vocal line. Muted trombones made Christopher Tracy’s Parade feel as alluring as the character. Having so many instruments helped us lean into the immense scope of Prince’s work, and revisit different moods from all over his career.

For me personally this was ideal as the Under Cherry Moon period is my absolute favorite & thanks to the brilliance of Claire Fischer & his string arrangements on that LP, they are the songs that lend itself most to this format. I had an idea as well as all of the handbills has the album cover from Parade on them so I was excited to finally be in Prince environment where my favorite album was finally the focus.

Throughout the evening, projections lit the stage with video footage, photos of Prince, and close-ups on scraps of paper: handwritten lyrics and a list of his costume changes glanced over the screen at one point. The effects that hit home most were clips of Prince talking between songs when the stage was dark.

What this concert did best was keep its promise of never impersonating the artist. Not having vocals for most of the show gave fans some space to use their imaginations & it was fun to look around to see people using their own voices.