Several years ago, Paul Simon suddenly lost most of the hearing in his left ear, fearing he might never be able to play music again. And yet here he is at the ripe old age of 84, midway through a world tour fronting a 12-piece band, playing two sets every night. Having kicked things off at five-past-eight, he’s still onstage as the clock ticks towards eleven, fist-bumping the front row.
Music, as we know, is a rejuvenating force. And Simon has staved off senescence by remaining curious, always searching for that extra chord, that perfect phrase, or stirring in some new ingredient. His hearing issues have posed challenges – no loud guitars or thumping drums – but Simon has used that opportunity to transform himself once again. He’s ended up with a surely unique configuration consisting of three avant-garde guitarists, a South African bassist, two crack drummers/percussionists, a chamber trio, a jazz saxophonist and a pianist who occasionally also bangs what looks like a set of giant upturned wine glasses.
This band was primarily convened to perform Simon’s most recent album, 2023’s low-key masterpiece Seven Psalms, which forms the first part of the show tonight. It is a dreamy, wondrous thing, the songs linked together by a recurring guitar motif based on “Anji”, the mesmerising Davey Graham tune learned by Simon in the folk clubs of Soho six decades ago.
He is dressed sombrely in dark blue, appropriately enough for a song-suite pondering the meaning of life, politics, religion and his own mortality. But this being Paul Simon, it’s ruminative rather than preachy – as well as funny, poignant and frequently beautiful. “Sacred Harp” is especially moving, Simon joined by wife Edie Brickell to sing one of his trademark magical-realist parables about a hitchhiker and her mute son, prompting a brief reflection on the mysteries of his own craft: “The thought that God turns music into bliss.”
When Simon returns after the interval, he seems to have shed forty years. Now resembling a Brooklyn hipster dad in baseball cap, bleached skinny jeans and a red shirt over a T-shirt, he launches into “Graceland”, the band leaning in to catch the song’s irresistible rhythm, driven by the unmistakable fretless verve of the song’s original bassist Bakithi Kumalo. It’s actually a treat to witness a full-band live show where everything isn’t competing with the artificially boosted sound of the bass drum – and this is a particularly excellent band, so it’s nice to be able to hear every tap and flutter.
“St Judy’s Comet” and “Something So Right” benefit most from their lithe and lightly-worn virtuosity, the MOR sentimentality of the original recordings replaced by a kind of folk-jazz rapture. “The Late Great Johnny Ace”, with its elegiac string coda, is tailor-made for this setting; as is the modern-day standard “Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War”, Simon saluting the doo-wop heroes of his youth as further evidence of music’s magical, restorative powers.
A pair of songs from 1990’s South American adventure Rhythm Of The Saints – some of which, as Simon cheekily divulges, was written under the influence of ayahuasca – allow the rhythm section to subtly flex their considerable chops, in preparation for a pitch-perfect “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover”.
Not all the new arrangements work, and “The Boxer” loses much of its visceral pathos when reimagined as a cheery country shuffle. Simon doesn’t make the same mistake with “The Sound Of Silence”, allowing the band to take their bows before ushering them into the wings. But though it’s finally back to just him and a guitar, Simon is still rearranging the song on the fly, finessing the melody to suit the inevitable frailties of his voice, seeing if this extraordinary 62-year-old song can still transfix an audience in the way it once did. It can.
SET 1
The Lord
Love Is Like A Braid
My Professional Opinion
Your Forgiveness
Trail Of Volcanoes
The Sacred Harp
Wait
SET 2
Graceland
Slip Slidin’ Away
Train In The Distance
Homeward Bound
The Late Great Johnny Ace
St Judy’s Comet
Under African Skies
Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War
Rewrite
Spirit Voices
The Cool, Cool River
Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
ENCORE
Something So Right
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
The Boxer
The Sound Of Silence