Reunited

Me minus you. Obviously a bad idea. That's why it feels so good to get back together. It's easy to dismiss the 1987 Peaches & Herb smash “Reunited.” Let's be cool about it. Let's call it "romantic schlock," like NPR's John Murph, but let's also praise The Jazz Passengers for their clever remake. Maybe John's right. Maybe founding members Roy Nathanson and Curtis Fowlkes are being sarcastic and "daffy" at the prospect of their band playing together again after a dozen years. Or maybe there's another reason they added the spoken word intro: “You grow to care about each other...and of course you drift apart.” Maybe they took on the song and scraped off the eighties production goo for a sincere purpose.

We can all decide for ourselves at Kilbourn Hall on June 12th.

One of the most interesting and versatile guitarists around will be on stage that night as part of the reunion tour. Marc Ribot's sound has been an important part of Tom Waits' output since the Rain Dogs record, but he can rein in all those weird twists to create the kind of gorgeous atmosphere everbody responded to on the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss opus Raising Sand. And then there's the blistering, soulful sound of his band The Prosthetc Cubans (which includes two other Jazz Pasengers: bassist Brad Jones and drumer E. J. Rodriguez). Should be something to see.