Marshall Charloff channels the energy of Prince for tribute show
WENATCHEE — To perform Prince cover songs, Marshall Charloff must have a vocal range of four and a half octaves with a falsetto soprano to hit the “ooo”s in the song “Purple Rain.”
Charloff and the Purple Xperience perform a 7 p.m. show Friday at Numerica Performing Arts Center, 123 N. Wenatchee Ave. Tickets cost from $29 to $49 and can be purchased online at numericapac.org or at the PAC box office.
In a telephone interview from Austin, Texas, Charloff said that he is not in his head about impersonating Prince while on stage, and that this allows for a very comfortable delivery of musicianship at the highest level, reflected in his style, movements and gestures. “I channel his energy and that’s it,” he said.
Since he has been touring as Marshall Charloff and the Purple Xperience for almost 12 years, he said “performing Prince’s catalog for this long has taken me to different areas I wouldn’t have explored if I wasn’t a tribute artist in my own writing and composition. In that respect I’m sure it’s stretched me as a musician.”
Prince played 27 different instruments on his debut album, “For You,” which he produced, arranged, composed and performed in 1978 at age 20. Charloff also hails from “The Purple City” of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is an accomplished musician in his own right as a producer and recording artist with the Commodores, Little Anthony and others, and an inductee in the Mid America Music Hall of Fame with the band Westside.
Charloff met Prince for the first time while recording together on a 94 East album with his mentor Pepe Willie, with Prince on lead vocals and Charloff on keyboard and bass guitar. Notably, Prince’s keyboardist Dr. Fink was a founding member of the Purple Xperience in 2011 with Charloff, and played with the band until going on tour with The Revolution in 2016.
Current members of Purple Xperience are Charloff as lead singer and instrumentalist, Tracey Blake on lead guitar, Ron Long on bass guitar, Ron Caron on drums and Cory Eischen on keys.
Prince died in 2016, so he was alive and touring when Purple Xperience began performing in 2011. “When Prince passed away it was much more purposeful,” said Charloff. “It shaped our approach.”
Charloff said since venues pay licensing fees, bands don’t need permission from the original artist to perform or record their works, so there’s no contention about performing covers; it’s a win-win situation.
“The hits are the hits,” said Charloff, meaning about 30 of the most popular hit songs from Prince’s catalog of a couple thousand songs. Prince released almost 40 unique albums. The band considers that most audiences are casual fans, but they sprinkle in some deep cuts for the hardcore fans.
Charloff said he’s felt “cosmically connected to Prince” for most of his life. “That’s why I think it doesn’t come across as forced or affected,” he said.
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Purple Xperience Bringing Prince Tribute To NPAC
By LISA WARREN Sun Correspondent
Musical legend Prince was much more than a 1980s hit maker.
Yes, the singer/songwriter produced a slew of mega hits, such as “Little Red Corvette,” “Kiss,” Raspberry Beret,” “When Doves Cry,” “U Got the Look” and “Purple Rain,” just to name a few. But Prince was also a musical influencer, who blended together funk, rock and R&B — along with generous helpings of synthesized pop, soul and hip-hop — to form his own signature sound and inspire new generations of musicians.
Born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prince became one of the best-selling artists in music history with more than 150 million records sold, according to Billboard magazine.
His seventh album “Purple Rain,” released in 1984, propelled him to superstardom, but the artist released a total of 39 albums. What’s more, as a songwriter, Prince also wrote a string of hits for other artists, including “Manic Monday,” a major chart topper for The Bangles, as well as Sinead O’Connor’s signature hit “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
Prince died in 2016 at the age of 57.
Like many teenage music fans back in the 80s, Marshall Charloff was swept up by the artistry of Prince.
What’s more, Charloff, who grew up in Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis, was also blessed to be a first-hand witness to the birth of the Prince phenomenon. Charloff not only had opportunities to watch Prince perform live, but he also became personally acquainted with the superstar when, at age 18, he began performing in a band with one of Prince’s cousins.
Today, Charloff is continuing to keep the music and legacy of Prince alive through a tribute band called the Purple Xperience.
The project, which labels itself as “the most authentic and awe-inspiring celebration of Prince in the world,” was founded in 2011 by Charloff, along with Dr. Fink (Matt Fink) who was an original member of Prince’s backing band The Revolution.
On Jan. 29, Charloff and the Purple Xperience will be in Greeneville for a performance at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center. Show time is 7:30 p.m. A limited number of tickets still remain available.
In a recent phone interview, Charloff spoke about his respect for Prince’s musical artistry and how he is excited to be returning to the State of Tennessee to share his love of Prince with fellow fans of the late artist.
“Tennessee has music everywhere,” Charloff said of the Volunteer State. “I’ve been there many times,” he said noting that, among his stops, he has performed with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra as well as at the Tennessee Valley Fair in Knoxville.
Prior to his upcoming show in Greeneville, Charloff will present a solo performance on Jan. 22 at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center, located near Memphis.
At this show, Charloff will present his one-man Prince tribute performance, which he developed back in 2020, in response to the covid pandemic, when, he noted, many music venues found themselves “on life support.”
Venues were “at like 20 percent capacity and they couldn’t afford full production shows, or, in some cases, any production period,” Charloff said. “That’s where my show was attractive to them. I was one guy showing up with his piano.”
He based his one-man show off of Prince’s “A Piano and a Microphone Tour,” which was the artist’s last concert appearances before his sudden death in 2016.
The solo tribute show became so popular that Charloff soon landed a residency in Las Vegas for five months.
While the Prince fans in Greeneville will be receiving the full-band Purple Xperience, Charloff said there will also be a segment of the show dedicated to a solo performance with him and the piano.
The full-band Purple Xperience was formed prior to Prince’s death — and the tribute band even received blessings from the artist himself.
Charloff said the origins of Purple Xperience began in 2011 “when we were invited to do a show at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and perform some of Prince’s songs.”
The group wasn’t a Prince tribute band at that point, though, he noted.
“After that show, we said, ‘Hey, what about doing more of these types of shows? That was really fun!’”
Charloff said he told Matt Fink that he would love do it, but only if Prince agreed to it.
“I told Matt, ‘He’s your boss. Is he going to be cool with it? If he is, then I’ll do it. If he’s not, then I won’t.’”
Fink met personally with Prince to discuss the Purple Xperience idea and the project was given the green light by the artist.
“Prince believed that people needed the freedom to work and to earn,” Charloff said. “It was how he was brought up. His only comments were that he wanted the musicianship to be of the highest level. There is a legacy that needed to be protected, especially since Matt was part of the Revolution.
“There is high scrutiny and a higher bar when you have an original member of Prince’s band playing keys for you,” Charloff said.
“Prince also wanted it not to be about the costuming and all of the theatrics. He wanted it to be about the music — and be the highest levels of musicianship — and for us to take it seriously,” Charloff added.
Today, the Purple Xperience has been together for 11 years and has shared the stage with such bands as the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Cheap Trick, Cameo and The Time.
“We have a level of comfort and playing off one another that only happens when you’ve been playing together for a very long time,” Charloff said.
He describes the band as very “high energy.”
He said they give the casual Prince fans the hits that they want, but they also delve deeper into Prince’s musical repertoire and perform some of his lesser known songs from his early albums as well.
“We try and sneak those in a little bit. We know our hot spots in the country where the Prince fans want to go beyond the radio hits,” he said.
In addition to playing the guitar and piano, Charloff brings to the stage many of Prince’s signatures moves, which he says are all organic on his part.
“Nothing is premeditated,” Charloff said. “I guess through watching Prince live and through videos for so many years, there is an energy that I channel when I’m onstage. I don’t think about it and I think that keeps the show authentic and natural.”
Charloff went on to stress that everything about the band is real from the vocals to the musicianship.
“Often tribute bands use pre-recorded tracks, but we don’t use anything pre-recorded,” he said. “Everything is us, including the vocals.”
In the solo piano show, Charloff says it feels as if he is “walking a tightrope with no net. It’s just me and the piano. There is nowhere to hide. I do over 30 songs in that show. It’s very intimate, but there’s still high energy and fun and audience participation. We have a great time.”
So is there a Prince song that Charloff enjoys performing live more than others?
With a laugh, he said, “The only reason I’m going to say ‘Purple Rain’ is because it’s the obvious one. It’s an anthem that brings people together. You see and feel so many emotions from the audience when you perform it.
“It’s one of the most powerful moments of the night … and I don’t take that for granted. It’s not lost on my how powerful that song is.”
Original Article
Tickets for the Purple Xperience at Greeneville’s NPAC are available for $35 orchestra, $30 mezzanine and $25 balcony levels. For more information, call the box office at 423-638-1679 or go online to npacgreeneville.com .
Tribute band Purple Xperience honors Prince’s legacy
Prince’s final public concerts in 2016 were at the Fox Theatre. For Prince fans in Atlanta, the poignancy of his unforeseen death still runs deep five years later.
That history and legacy will weigh on the Prince tribute band Purple Xperience when they arrive Friday at Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center.
“There’s a certain Prince army that will be there,” said lead singer Marshall Charloff, a Minneapolis native himself who has been performing Prince hits both with his five-piece band and in solo shows. “We bleed purple together. There’s this sense of community. And people bring their kids. They feel an obligation because their kids will never see this amazing performer ever.”
In 2011, he started the group with Dr. Fink, Prince’s original keyboard player. Before Prince died, Charloff met with the legendary artist at Paisley Park and Prince watched Purple Xperience perform. “He was cool with it,” Charloff said. “He knew musicians need to work. He saw we could do his songs at an extremely high level.”
Not that it was an easy sell early on for hardcore fans, he said. “We had to prove ourselves,” he said. “It took time to earn our stripes.”
In his mind, the concert “isn’t forced or phony in any way. We are real musicians playing real music honoring the greatest musician ever. Nobody can touch Prince. It’s uncontested. I’m as close as you’re going to get.”
Charloff said he performed in Chicago the day after Prince died on April 21, 2016, with great reluctance.
“I had to almost be dragged on the stage,” he said. “I felt so stupid. But I put on the outfit, the wig and the heels. I walked on the stage and this is going to sound corny, but it felt spiritual. I felt this sense that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. What felt wrong a few seconds earlier suddenly felt right.”
He opened with the solemn song “The Cross,” then said “it quickly turned into a celebration.” He said on stage, he felt joyous, not sad. He was able to keep it together from beginning to end. Of course, “Purple Rain” had many fans in tears, he recalled.
Before Prince’s death, Charloff got to talk to the artist a few times one on one.
“I don’t feel loss now,” he said. “But I will reflect on things he said to me, moments we had together. That happens.”
Of course, Prince’s death has fueled demand for Purple Xperience and Charloff’s own work. “I’ve fronted 30 symphony orchestras,” he said. “We’ve headlined Red Rocks and toured Europe. I wrote with Prince’s sister. We did a concert for the Dubai state department. As far as the tribute world goes, you can’t get much higher.”
Charloff, for more niche audiences, will do shows as himself performing original jazz. And when he does his Prince piano solo shows, he gets to change the song arrangements around more than when working with the entire band.
He knows there will always be a stigma attached to doing what he does but Charloff’s goal is to gain respect one listener at a time.
“When we walk into a venue for the first time, the sound guys, the lighting guys, they don’t give us the time of day,” Charloff said. “They just worked with Eric Clapton the day before. So that’s understandable. But when they hear us play, they’ll come up afterward and say we blew their minds.”
The original article can be found here!
Rock with Michael Jackson tribute show in Aurora, Waukegan
At least for a night, Michael Jackson lives onstage again.
Las Vegas performer Michael Firestone stars as pop icon Michael Jackson in “I Am King: the Michael Jackson Experience.” He will perform at 7 p.m. Oct. 16 at The Piazza in Aurora and at 7 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan.
“I love that area — Southern California, Japan and the Chicago area are probably my top three places because the crowds are off the charts,” Firestone said.
He’ll have the look, the sound, the dancing, the live band and professional dancers with him. Audiences will hear songs like “Billie Jean,” “Thriller,” “Beat It,” “Smooth Criminal,” “ABC,” “Black or White” and “Human Nature.”
This show has been rescheduled a couple of times thanks to COVID-19. A treat for the audience, Firestone will have Michael Jackson’s former touring guitarist, Jennifer Batten, on board.
“She’s amazing,” Firestone said. “She jumps on gigs here and there with me and I happened to get her on this one. I don’t get all fan crazy — I met Michael and I was surprisingly calm until he walked away and then I passed out. But it’s still cool to get onstage with people I watched on TV growing up. I’ll be in rare form that night.”
Firestone said audiences will be treated to amazing dancers and a phenomenal band.
“I’ve got a girl that plays guitar for Cirque (Michael Jackson ONE by Cirque du Soleil), Shani Kimelman; she’ll be at that show with Jennifer Batten,” he said. “The guitarists are all female in the show and they’re so solid. I won’t even look at a guitar around them. I’ve been playing guitar longer than Shani’s been alive and I still won’t touch a guitar around her.”
The multimedia show will span almost the entirety of Jackson’s career from The Jackson 5 and on, he said.
“We’re taking it in an hour and a half through 30 years,” he said. “It will remind people of why it’s called ‘I Am King.’ Because he really was. Nobody’s ever going to come close to that guy. Ever. We will give the fans what they’re familiar with and make it fresh and also try to suck in (new fans).”
Firestone grew up in the 1980s and was listening to Jackson for as long as he could remember, thanks to his mom, who was a fan.
“Then ‘Thriller’ hit and I was obsessed,” he said. “I knew I was going to do something with music but I never thought I was going to turn into him.”
He got attention growing up with his dancing and singing like Jackson. It was on a visit to Las Vegas that made him see he could maybe do this for a living. That was in 1997, when he was just 18 years old.
“It was my backup plan next to my own music. Then I started getting paid pretty well and I thought, well, I guess my own music can wait a minute. It’s been waiting for 25 years now,” he said, laughing.
“I couldn’t imagine life without it. It’s been a real fun ride. His fans are completely amazing. They’re not there to see me and I am very aware of that but I’m so happy they do come and support me and the band. We work hard to make this as legit as possible.”
While the singing and dancing came naturally, the makeup didn’t.
“I looked like crap for like the first three years. I looked like Dee Snyder from Twisted Sister but without the yellow hair,” he said. “I don’t look like (Jackson) at all. Drag queens are big in Vegas and they … were brutally honest about my makeup. I figured out you have to white your face out and start over. I have to paint his face onto my face.”
When he’s not performing as Michael Jackson, he’s a normal suburban dad who has to cut the grass and change diapers. He never got to see Jackson live, even though he had tickets to one of the shows of the This Is It concert residency in London in 2009. Jackson died on June 25, 2009.
“Dead center second row, which I was super excited about. I positioned myself to catch the hat,” he said. “That sucked, that I never got to see him. But I did get to meet him and he did call me. He almost looked like a superhero or something. Like if Superman actually touched down in front of you.”
People won’t be bored at his show, he said.
Not too many people other than my father tell me it’s boring. He’s so honest, I love him,” he said. “We try to get as many lightning strikes as we can in an hour and a half. Especially with the addition of Jennifer Batten, you get a pretty legit look at what he did for 30 years while he was entertaining.”
I Am King: the Michael Jackson Experience
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 16
Where: The Piazza, 85 Executive Drive, Aurora
Tickets: $22-$45[Most read] Former Eric Ferguson co-host Melissa McGurren files suit, alleging ‘sham investigation’ into misconduct complaints at WTMX »
Information: 630-978-2088; piazzaaurora.com
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 24
Where: Genesee Theatre, 203 N. Genesee St., Waukegan
Tickets: $25-$99
Information: 847-263-6300; geneseetheatre.com
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
Beatles vs. Stones at Genesee puts popular 60s bands up for a vote
Back in the day, you could ask someone “What’s your sign?” or you could ask “Beatles or Stones?”
Local audiences can decide this age-old question for themselves when “Beatles vs. Stones” performs at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 23 at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan. That’s when Rolling Stones tribute band Jumping Jack Flash squ
ares off against 4 Lads from Liverpool in an ultimate Beatles vs. Stones showdown.
Young Hutchison stars as Keith Richards in Jumping Jack Flash. He created the show 15 years ago.
“The interesting thing about the whole premise is the passion people still have for this music 50 years on and people really care and they’re passionate, as was the case in 1964,” he said.
“You had to be a Beatles or a Stones fan — not both. That’s still kind of the case. As the performers, we don’t particularly care because at the end of the night the audience chooses who won with the noise that they make. And we don’t take it personally as performers. The point of the whole show is that they do care and that’s why they show up.”
Audiences will get to hear two amazing songbooks back to back and against each other, Hutchison said.
“Fifty years later, people are still yelling and screaming for these songs. We love it,” he said. “Which is interesting, because The Beatles only existed for five years as a group in the public eye. But their legacy is now going on 50 years.”
The bands play six alternating mini-sets that move the timeline along, complete with British accents, elaborate costumes and onstage banter culminating in a finale with both bands on stage playing a mash-up of their biggest hits. Then the audience gets to vote on which band “wins.”
“When you think about it, in the case of the Rolling Stones, there’s 50 years of wardrobe and hairstyle changes and fashion changes,” he said. “Figuring out how to encapsulate that into a 90-minute show, half of which The Beatles are onstage, was a neat trick. I think we’ve done a good job of it and we take the audience along for the ride. And again, the audience was there, too. The audience remembers dressing like that and wearing their hair like that.”
They switch up the set lists from show to show to keep things fresh for themselves, he said “It’s hard because if you put somebody’s favorite song in you’re going to make 1,000 other people sad because you didn’t play their favorite hit,” he said. “Each band has 400, 450 songs to choose from.”
Even after 15 years, there are songs he never gets tired of playing, like “Jumping Jack Flash.”
“It remains so much fun because it has such an impact on the audience,” he said. “The audience is so lit up from night to night.”
The group 4 Lads From Liverpool includes an original member of the Beatlemania cast who also played with 1964 the Tribute, Beatlemania Now and Rain.
As for his own band, “all the guys are very busy with music,” he said. “Our singer is actually a career bassist with a number of other groups but he stepped into this role eight years ago. And he’s really something,” Hutchison said. “It’s fair to say the audiences have no idea what they’re in for. It includes pretty elaborate onstage media. The energy level is pretty insane.”
They love to meet audience members after the shows too — and they learn a lot that way, too.
“People will tell us things that they noticed or did or didn’t like and that can affect changes we make in the show,” he said.
At the end of the day, audiences are going to be treated to the soundtrack of their lives, he said.
“The two greatest bands contrasted with each other in direct, immediate, back-to-back mini sets … it’s pretty thrilling,” he said.
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun
Link to original article.
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