Diana Ross – The Supreme Supreme
The Hollywood Bowl is 100 years old. I’m 82, and the concert I attended at the Bowl last week featured Diana Ross, who is 78. I felt right at home.
My father was a professional French horn player. I remember attending concerts at the Bowl in the mid 1940’s when he played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Diana Ross was the lead singer of the Supremes in the 60’s. At the pinnacle of their success, Berry Gordy, the president of Motown, renamed the group, “Diana Ross and the Supremes.” In 1970, Diana left the group to start her solo career, and they went back to being called The Supremes. At the Hollywood Bowl, Diana was supreme all by herself. I enjoyed the concert.
Of particular interest to me were the technical aspects of the performance. Usually, a performance of that caliber is technically seamless, but that night there were glitches.
At one point Diana asked to have the stage lights turned down. Nothing happened. That was the canary in the coal mine.
Half an hour into the show it was apparent that Diana was having trouble hearing the band. As with many onstage performers she was relying on earbuds, or some other kind of hearing device. She mentioned she was having a problem twice. But no one appeared on stage to help her out. She seemed to be able to synchronize her singing with the band just fine but it was clear to me from her demeaner that she was not happy.
The problem with having to perform for the public at that level was aptly summarized by the Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff, who said, “If I don’t practice for one day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, my students know it. If I don’t practice for three days, everyone knows it.” He didn’t even mention “technical difficulties.”
Despite the technical difficulties, however, Diana remained entirely professional. But at the end of the concert, in the middle of a song, she left the stage. The song continued, and we heard her singing, but she never returned. She didn’t even take a bow. When the song ended, the lights came up. That was strange.
Well, Diana, at least you solved one technical difficulty. You live nearby, so you probably arrived home before I even drove my car out of the parking lot.
Alan