john zorn tour 2022

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John Zorn, Kim Gordon, Sparks Set for Big Ears Festival 2022

By Jon Blistein

Jon Blistein

John Zorn , Kim Gordon and Sparks are among the artists set to play the 2022 Big Ears Festival , taking place March 24th through 27th in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The festival, which was last held in 2019, will also feature performances from Animal Collective, Moses Sumney, Arooj Aftab, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Bill Callahan, Mdou Moctar, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Bill Frisell, Sons of Kemet, Low, Yves Tumor, Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band, Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Dawn Richard and Saul Williams.

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Big Ears will also feature an array of unique performances and collaborations. For instance, the Kronos Quartet will present their new piece with filmmaker Sam Green, A Thousand Thoughts ; and composer and vocalist Meredith Monk will collaborate with Bang On a Can All-Stars for the live world premiere of Memory Games . Zorn, meanwhile, will present eight concerts during the festival, with his pieces being performed by groups like the guitar trio Bill Frisell, Julian Lage and Gyan Riley, the “heavy metal” Hammond B-3 organ trio fronted by John Medeski, and the New Masada Quartet.

A full lineup of artists and programming is available on the Big Ears website , with additional performances, films, readings, talks, exhibitions and other events to be announced soon. Tickets for Big Ears 2022 will go on sale September 16th at 12 p.m. ET.

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John Zorn, Elbphilharmonie

New York composer, improviser, alto saxophonist, and organist John Zorn has been taking his entire repertoire on tour in recent times, colonizing venues and festivals, immersing audiences in his variegated musical strategies. Soon after this four-day takeover in Hamburg, he headed for Big Ears in Knoxville, and in July he’s the Artist in Residence at Moldejazz on the west coast of Norway. Most of Zorn’s many writing obsessions are covered, including prompted improvisation, string quartet pieces, jazz complexity, folkish rock, fried rock, and various manifestations of vocal work.

Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie opened in 2017, its massive construction budget producing a suitably impressive edifice, towering over the docklands, and built up from a 1963 brick warehouse. Its glassy topping has the concert halls up high, with slowly chugging walkways transporting its visitors, but the building also houses a hotel, restaurants, and even permanent living quarters. The Elbphilharmonie’s halls and rooms emanate acoustic excellence and visual individuality. Mostly, the curiously Gaudí-esque organic interior of curlicues and knobbles played a dual role, aesthetics perched between sound and vision. As with Symphony Hall in Birmingham, England, for instance, the Elbphilharmonie acoustics are also sympathetic to the sounds of rock and jazz, with physical fine-tuning possible to accommodate drum kits and electric guitars. The very spacious surroundings in the entrance hall, outside the restaurants, and in the multi-floor bar areas are kept to a clean white brightness, almost sterile in nature, but the interior of the actual concert halls turned to a sweeping asymmetry, writhing with organic detail. Curving stairways led up and around, with elevators never going all the way up or down, instead requiring a mid-journey shift to another shaft. Geography was still being absorbed on the fourth day.

The Elbphilharmonie operates an ongoing “Reflektor” series, inviting artists to present a weekend of works, with previous residents including Anoushka Shankar, Laurie Anderson, Nils Frahm, Max Richter, and Manfred Eicher, the founder of ECM Records. Zorn is almost certainly the artist who has presented the greatest mass of facets during a Reflektor weekend. He had already presented a day-long marathon of his Bagatelles soon after the Elbphilharmonie opened.

Heaven And Earth Magick is a quartet of Stephen Gosling (piano), Sae Hashimoto (vibraphone), Jorge Roeder (bass), and Ches Smith (drums). They played at noon on the third day, setting a vaulting standard that was tough to top throughout the rest of the program. Zorn writes scored material for Gosling and Hashimoto, then encourages Roeder and Smith to improvise, his idea being to extend beyond the old 1950s concept of third stream music. Ultimately, it sounded closer to a particularly wired form of free improvisation, as Gosling and Hashimoto played as if they were being spontaneously inspired. Zorn appears to have retired his old practice of sitting in front of his performers, conducting his compositions, and now contents himself with sitting cross-legged onstage, to the shadowed side, behind the rear light-box. He’s “merely” a highly active listener, perhaps knowing that his conduits have now become extremely familiar with his music. Hashimoto seemed to be new to most folks in the audience, including your scribe, but she’s a guaranteed rising star of the vibes, performing with an exact passion, spilling out convoluted patterns with the power of chance, even though in reality she’s strictly governed. It turns out that Hashimoto has recently joined the new music ensemble Yarn/Wire. Meanwhile, Smith erupted repeatedly, his sheer attacking extremity of volume and presence indicating what seemed like a pent-up frustration that had bubbled up during the last two years or more. Zorn’s pieces were cut on the sharp blade between jazz and classical modernism, reeling with dynamism, tense with unpredictability, coiled then exploding.

The weekend’s most thrilling performance happened by chance. Keyboardist John Medeski and guitarist Matt Hollenberg both became ill, so the sets by Simulacrum and Chaos Magick had to be cancelled. Instead, Zorn led a version of his classic 1984 Cobra game-piece, improvised via a highly-involved cross-lattice of signals between himself and the selected performers. The players were Bill Frisell, Brian Marsella, Roeder, Trevor Dunn, Hashimoto, Ikue Mori, Kenny Wollesen, Smith, Cyro Baptista, and Jay Campbell (cellist in JACK Quartet). The stylistic slicing of this Cobra manifestation highlighted the defining characteristic of Zorn’s early work, with a particular ascension of Latin bebop as a featured, recurring style, pianist Marsella at the vanguard. Like an eager, ecstatic child, Marsella reveled in the immense crackling transmission of energies between the participants, the dangling danger of chance. One of the most frequent requesters to wear the red headband of soloing permission (one of the game's rules involves the prompter giving permission for an enthusiastic performer to temporarily take control), Marsella had an overflowing amount of aggressively hammered salsa-oid climaxing to communicate. Smith retained the same level of power from his noon performance, here in the early evening of that same Saturday. Frisell shot fuzz forth, refreshingly harking back to his more serrated 1980s days with Naked City. Zorn pointed to pairings, or even bigger multiples, as three-drummer excess cut to a dappling Frisell, with cello serenity courtesy of Campbell. Musicians rarely work at such dazzling speed, reacting to sudden switches, clusterings, solo outbursts, or texture-spreading interludes. This Cobra represented the most extremely exciting music heard in several years, distilled into the absolute vivid essence of tension, relief, joy, clashing, careening, and cutting-up.

The weekend’s climactic set was provided by the New Electric Masada, an expanded version that had Zorn leading on alto saxophone, joined by Frisell and Julian Lage (guitars), Marsella (Fender Rhodes electric piano), Mori (electronics), Dunn (bass), Wollesen, Baptista, and Joey Baron (drums/percussion). The outlook was almost jam-band orientated, grooving with fluidity, sparking with guitar solos between Frisell and the increasingly diverse Lage, the latter tending to choogle out in a Creedence Clearwater Revival manner. Frisell also cranked up the smolder, but his style was more individual, rooted in funk improvisation but still featuring atonal distortion. The three-drummer crew bonded together in an almost endless workout of cross-patterned meshing. Marsella returned to a free flail, this time amplified into the cosmic zone, as Frisell strafed to emphasize Dunn’s racing bass line. One number sounded so close to being Ornette Coleman’s “Happy House” that surely it was a reading of that very tune. New Electric Masada is also a home for Zorn in retro-exotica tropical mode, with cycling guitar and twinkling Rhodes, Dunn pacing purposefully, Zorn soloing relaxedly. The final number was a heavy driver, Baptista offering big-gong deep-shimmer, while the doom-guitars churned.

Throughout almost all of this extended weekend, Zorn remained in an outgoing, satisfied, beaming state, with just one or two visible moments of frustration with his players. He praised the Elbphilharmonie acoustics, and he was ecstatic following JACK Quartet’s two-concert Complete String Quartets presentation. Zorn was grateful and excited that he could so thoroughly inhabit such a prestigious concert hall here in Hamburg, but he was perhaps disregarding his ability to do so in NYC, implying that he was only invited to present such works in small downtown settings of an informal nature.

Ultimately, most of the utterly outstanding performances over these four days involved Zorn actually being part of the ensembles, with the various Masadas, as well as his key game-master presence during Cobra . The set by Heaven And Earth Magick was the only one to transcend to a similar extent. Zorn’s organ set was a highly engaging environmental drone-ambiance exploration, complete with pulsing light show, triggered by his keys, and glowing from behind the Gaudí-esque pipe-forest.

Some of Zorn’s compositions within the more formal classical realm were surprisingly mellow, tonal and traditional, with the string quartets and Gosling’s solo piano recital being the most nervy. Gosling initially adopted a Stockhausen-Xenakis stance, but a third section held a shock of lyrical calmness, although soon returning to heavy bass strikes and sharp treble shivers.

Frisell, Lage, and Gyan Riley played acoustic guitars, as if gathered for a west coast hippy fireside happening, seeking a group style by shedding their individual quirks, even sounding like a joint John Williams toward the end. The three ended up taking different roads, passing waves of mini-solos between themselves, strings struck with increasing passion, as Riley bent his expressively, ofttimes with a trembling vibrato. On several occasions during Reflektor, Zorn’s Middle Eastern hues moved closer to Andalucia.

Zorn’s strange encounter with country-folk Americana featured Petra Haden as lead singer, but wouldn’t have been remotely recognizable as part of his songbook if presented as a blindfolded listen. For an artist so devoted to extreme innovation and dangerous strategies, your scribe has to observe that Zorn’s most powerfully stunning sounds emerge from the red zone of his early decades, rife with collaged slicing and dicing, tense with sudden surprise, and rattling with spit-showering alto solo-bursting of high-acceleration complexity. This didn’t prevent us from being salved by the glowing tranquility of his Gnostic Trio, with harpist Carol Emanuel, Frisell, and Wollesen. This was also the set where Zorn was at his most relaxed and wise-cracking, introducing the performance with the compacted japery of a hybrid Groucho Marx-Woody Allen stand-up entity.

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John Zorn tour dates 2024

John Zorn is currently touring across 4 countries and has 4 upcoming concerts.

Their next tour date is at Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli, Lingotto Musica in Turin, after that they'll be at Porgy & Bess in Vienna.

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Upcoming concerts (4) See nearest concert

Auditorium Giovanni Agnelli, Lingotto Musica

Porgy & Bess

Klub Stodoła

San Sebastian Jazz Festival - Jazzaldia

Past concerts

Teatro De La Ciudad Esperanza Iris

Great American Music Hall

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The show was amazing. Total avant-garde weirdness. I was a little disappointed in the length of the show though. I mean, 40 minutes for a $50 ticket seems a little short, but still great show.

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For any fan of contemporary classical musical, John Zorn is a must see act for your live calendar. At the age of 61, the composer is still touring around with his avant garde, experimental sound which bends conventions of the classical yet the way Zorn performs is so masterful that the audience are completely engaged throughout his shows.

The multi-instrumentalist crosses various genres when performing ranging from jazz, blues and classical as he believes all variations of music are 'organically connected'. His set lists draw from his incredibly interesting career including works with his punk jazz group Naked City and the klezmer-influenced Masada, which he seems to really enjoy playing onstage. Along with the majestic music he composed for film and TV, which is beautifully recreated onstage by Zorn and his personal phenomenal band and the various musicians he invites to perform tracks with him.

For those who enjoy the classical, yet also the unconventional, John Zorn is a master in his field. His musical influence and vast array of work will be studied and admired in years to come so take your chance to see a piece of living history.

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John Zorn at 70 Barbara Hannigan + John Zorn

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This fall, Miller Theatre celebrates the 70 th birthday of New York musical icon John Zorn.

One of today’s leading sopranos, the extraordinary Barbara Hannigan teams up with a cast of new music superstars to perform five of John Zorn’s recent vocal works. This incredibly ambitious evening of song includes Star Catcher , a surrealistic fantasy that is both notated and improvised, which premiered last fall in Germany.

• John Zorn Star Catcher (2022)
• John Zorn Split the Lark (2021)
• John Zorn Liber Loagaeth (2021)
• John Zorn Ab Eo, Quod (2021)
• John Zorn Pandora’s Box (2013)

“All my compositions are platforms to enable creativity.” — John Zorn

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John Zorn: Three Premieres

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Zorn ’s writing for strings has yielded some of the most powerful and virtuosic string music around—and Roulette is proud to present an exciting program of three world premieres written for and performed by select members of  Zorn ’s inner circle.

Sigil Magick , subtitled A Curious and Detailed Exposition of Sigils, Signs, and Hieroglyphs Peculiar to the Occult Orders, Hermetic Brotherhoods, and Dark Mystery Schools of the Late Middle Ages is a tour de force concerto for cello and string quartet and features the phenomenal JACK Quartet with virtuoso master Michael Nicolas .

Drawing on a life-long interest in Dada and Surrealism, and based on Tristan Tzara’s provocative play  Le Coeur à Gaz ,  The Gas Heart  is an outrageous Dadaist opera scored for two celli and two percussionists. Absurd texts, virtuosic chamber music, bizarre foley sound effects, and wild improvisations blend together into a strange and unique landscape where anything becomes possible.

Concluding the concert is an expansive twenty-minute piece scored for six strings, and is one of Zorn ’s major recent works:  Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science. “Magic is not the contradiction to the law of cause and effect, but its crown or nightmare.”—J.L.Borges

Sigil Magick: A Curious and Detailed Exposition of Sigils, Signs, and Hieroglyphs Peculiar to the Occult Orders, Hermetic Brotherhoods, and Dark Mystery Schools of the Late Middle Ages for string quintet (2020)

Jack Quartet Chris Otto – violin Austin Wulliman – violin John Pickford Richards – viola Jay Campbell – cello with Michael Nicolas – cello

The Gas Heart a mini opera for 2 celli and 2 percussionists (2020)

Jay Campbell – cello, voice Michael Nicolas – cello, voice Sae Hashimoto – percussion, voice Ches Smith – percussion, voice

Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science for string sextet (2020)

Jack Quartet Chris Otto – violin Austin Wulliman – violin John Pickford Richards – viola Jay Campbell – cello with Yura Lee – viola Michael Nicolas – cello

Please note: this concert will be in-person only and will not be livestreamed.

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DUE TO OVERWHELMING DEMAND ELTON JOHN ADDS SECOND AND FINAL BAY AREA SHOW SUNDAY OCTOBER 9

LEVI’S ®  STADIUM

SANTA CLARA, CA

FAREWELL YELLOW BRICK ROAD

THE FINAL TOUR

Presented by Alliance for Lifetime Income

“Elton John’s set on this tour is a beautifully curated trip through his golden era. He drops enough deep cuts to keep the musicians and veteran fans on their toes…” – Variety 

“ Elton John Is On Fire for ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road,’ Making a Case for His Amazing Legacy as a Rock Legend” – Showbiz411

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SANTA CLARA, Calif.  – Due to overwhelming demand,  Elton John’s Farewell Brick Road The Final Tour  has added a second and final show in Santa Clara, CA on Sunday, October 9, 2022 at Levi’s ®  Stadium. 

American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Friday, April 8 at 10:00AM local time through Tuesday, April 12 at 10pm local time.  

Rocket Club fan presale begins Friday April 8 at 10am local time. Sign up to become a Rocket Club member for exclusive news and announcements at  www.EltonJohn.com/Rocket-Club . 

A limited number of exclusive VIP packages will also be available starting Friday April 8 at 10am local time. These exclusive offers can include excellent reserved seated tickets, photo opportunities at Elton John’s piano, backstage tours, limited-edition lithographs, custom merchandise and much more. 

Tickets will go on sale to the public Wednesday, April 13 at 10am local time at  www.EltonJohn.com .

The new stop marks the thirty-second date added to Elton’s final North American stadium tour. Tickets for the previously announced October 8 Levi’s ®  Stadium date are on sale now. 

Elton John’s final North American show – a return to the site of what is arguably his most iconic performance, Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium – on November 20 will be his 2,000 th  U.S. concert, capping off a touring run that’s seen him play all 50 states, alongside 108 shows alone in top markets like New York City. Over a staggering 52 years of live performances, Elton has played for tens of millions of fans worldwide, and has broken multiple attendance and box-office records throughout his career, hitting an unrivaled apex that is sure to remain unchallenged for years to come. The past year has also seen Elton return to the recorded music charts with his smash hit “ Cold Heart (PNAU REMIX),”  which hit #7 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and #1 on its Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, as well as charting at #1 on the U.K. singles chart upon its release. 

Elton John begins his final run of dates in North America in Philadelphia, PA on July 15, finishing with the three-night engagement at Dodger Stadium November 17, 19 and 20.  2023 kicks off with two shows in Auckland, New Zealand on January 27 and 28, and soon-to-be-announced dates in Australia before the epic 5-year tour formally concludes in Stockholm, Sweden on July 8, 2023. 

The tour is currently wrapping up the arena leg, with just 11 U.S shows left ahead of the stadium run. More details on the previously announced arena dates on sale now at   www.EltonJohn.com/Tours .  

NEWLY ANNOUNCED NORTH AMERICAN STADIUM DATES Sunday, July 24, 2022                        East Rutherford, NJ                MetLife Stadium Wednesday, July 27, 2022                 Foxborough, MA                     Gillette Stadium Thursday, September 8, 2022            Toronto, ON                            Rogers Centre Tuesday, September 13, 2022           Charleston, SC                       Credit One Stadium**> Saturday, October 8, 2022                 Santa Clara, CA                      Levi’s® Stadium  Sunday, October 9, 2022                   Santa Clara, CA                      Levi’s® Stadium Sunday, October 16, 2022                 Tacoma, WA                           Tacoma Dome Monday, October 17, 2022                 Tacoma, WA                           Tacoma Dome Saturday, October 22, 2022               Vancouver, BC                       BC Place Wednesday, November 9, 2022         San Diego, CA                        Petco Park Friday, November 11,2022                 Phoenix, AZ                            Chase Field Thursday, November 17, 2022           Los Angeles, CA                     Dodger Stadium **Elton John & His Band

>Not part of the American Express presale

PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED NORTH AMERICAN STADIUM  DATES Friday, July 15, 2022                          Philadelphia, PA         Citizens Bank Park Monday, July 18, 2022                       Detroit, MI                   Comerica Park Saturday, July 23, 2022                      East Rutherford, NJ    MetLife Stadium Thursday, July 28, 2022                     Foxborough, MA         Gillette Stadium Saturday, July 30, 2022                      Cleveland, OH            Progressive Field Friday, August 5, 2022                       Chicago, IL                  Soldier Field Wednesday, September 7, 2022        Toronto, ON                Rogers Centre Saturday, September 10, 2022          Syracuse, NY              Carrier Dome Friday, September 16, 2022               Pittsburgh, PA             PNC Park Sunday, September 18, 2022             Charlotte, NC              Bank of America Stadium Thursday, September 22, 2022          Atlanta, GA                 Mercedes-Benz Stadium Saturday, September 24, 2022          Washington, DC         Nationals Park Friday, September 30, 2022               Arlington, TX               Globe Life Field Sunday, October 2, 2022                   Nashville, TN              Nissan Stadium Friday, October 21, 2022                    Vancouver, BC           BC Place Saturday, October 29, 2022               San Antonio, TX         Alamodome Friday, November 4, 2022                  Houston, TX                Minute Maid Park Saturday, November 12, 2022           Phoenix, AZ                Chase Field Saturday, November 19, 2022           Los Angeles, CA         Dodger Stadium Sunday, November 20, 2022              Los Angeles, CA         Dodger Stadium 

ABOUT ELTON JOHN:

Elton’s career achievements to date are unsurpassed in their breadth and longevity. Elton is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time. In the UK and US charts alone he has 1 diamond, 32 platinum or multi-platinum, and 21 gold albums as well as over 70 Top 40 hits. He has sold more than 300 million records worldwide.

He holds the record for the biggest-selling single of all time, “Candle in the Wind 1997”, which sold over 33 million copies. Released in 2017 ‘Diamonds’ the Ultimate Greatest Hits album, became Elton’s 40th UK Top 40 album and has spent over 200 consecutive weeks in the top 75 of the UK album charts, over 110 of these in the top 20. This release celebrated 50 years of his songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin. August 2018 saw Elton named as the most successful male solo artist in Billboard Hot 100 chart history. At present, he has logged 70 Billboard Hot 100 entries, including nine No. 1s and 28 Top 10s. ‘The Lockdown Sessions’, an album of collaborations recorded during the COVID-19 Pandemic, was released in October 2021 and went straight to number 1 in the UK album Charts, becoming Elton’s 8th UK number 1 album in the process. It’s lead single “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) with Dua Lipa” became a bona fide global hit, reaching number 1 in the UK and Australian singles charts. Its success meant that Elton became the first ever solo artist to score a UK Top 10 hit single in 6 consecutive decades. In America, he holds the record for longest span between Billboard top 40 hits at 50 years.

Elton announced the ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour at New York’s Gotham Hall in January 2018. Encompassing 5 continents, and over 350 dates, this 5-year-long tour started in September 2018 and marks his retirement from touring after more than 50 years on the road. In 2019 it was named Billboard’s Top Rock Tour and Pollstar’s Major Tour Of The Year. To date, Elton has delivered more than 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries since launching his first tour in 1970. 2019 also saw the release of ‘Rocketman’ and global bestselling autobiography, ‘ME’. An epic fantasy musical motion picture of Elton’s life, ‘Rocketman’ has been a commercial and critical hit, taking close to $200m at the box office. It has won an Oscar, two Golden Globe Awards and a Critics’ Choice Award and garnered BAFTA nominations. Its soundtrack was also nominated for a GRAMMY Award.

Among the many awards and honours bestowed upon him are six GRAMMYs, including a GRAMMY Legend award, a Tony and two Oscars, a Best British Male Artist BRIT Award, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Kennedy Center Honor, Legend of Live Award, 13 Ivor Novello Awards between 1973 and 2001 and a knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II for “services to music and charitable services”. Most recently, Elton was awaded the 2021 iHeartRadio “Golden Icon” Award in recognition of his incredible influence on music and pop culture. In February 2022, he topped the inaugural  Pollstar  Artist Power Index, a weekly rank of the world’s most popular artists based on streaming, touring, airplay, and social media metrics. 

In 1992, Elton established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which today is one of the leading non-profit HIV/AIDS organizations and has raised over $515 million to date in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. In June 2019 President Emmanuel Macron presented Elton the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest award, for his lifetime contribution to the arts and the fight against HIV/AIDS. Elton was awarded the Companion of Honour in the 2021 New Year Honours list. The highest acknowledgement in the list, Elton became one of only 64 people to hold the honour. September 2019 saw The Royal Mail issue a set of 12 stamps as a tribute to Elton being one of the most popular and enduring music artists of all time. Elton was only the second individual music artist to be featured in a dedicated stamp issue. In July 2020 the Royal Mint released an Elton John commemorative coin, the second in their music legends series to celebrate ‘one of the most successful and enduring artists of all time’. Always a tireless champion of new artists, Elton has been a leading industry voice in lobbying the government for young artists visa-free touring rights in Europe post Brexit.

ABOUT AEG PRESENTS: 

Combining the power of the live event with a focus on true artist development, AEG Presents is a world leader in the music and entertainment industries. Operating across four continents, the company has an unparalleled commitment to artistry, creativity, and community. Its tentpole festivals and multi-day music events — which include the iconic Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, the legendary New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, British Summer Time at Hyde Park, Stagecoach, Hangout Festival, Electric Forest, and Firefly — continue to set the bar for the live music experience alongside such renowned clubs and theaters as Webster Hall, Eventim Apollo, Mission Ballroom, The Roxy and Forest Hills Stadium, to name a few.  AEG Presents promotes global tours for such artists as Justin Bieber, Kenny Chesney, Celine Dion, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Katy Perry, The Rolling Stones, Ed Sheeran, and Taylor Swift, in addition to creating and developing an unmatched infrastructure for artist development and audience reach through its network of clubs, theatres, arenas, stadiums, renowned wholly owned brands Concerts West and Goldenvoice, and partner brands Messina Touring Group, The Bowery Presents, PromoWest Productions, Marshall Arts, Frontier Touring, and Zero Mile Presents. More information can be found at  www.aegpresents.com .

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Music | review: what did elton john have in store for his final bay area shows, elton john brought farewell yellow brick road tour to santa clara.

They were ready to rock. They were ready to sway. And they were definitely ready to sing along to some of the greatness tunes in pop music history.

Yet, fans were not ready to say goodbye to Elton John as the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer set up shop at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara for his final Bay Area shows on Oct. 8 and 9.

John’s multiyear Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour had already touched down at a number of Northern California venues in 2019 — Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Oakland Arena, SAP Center in San Jose and Chase Center in San Francisco. This time around, however, the farewell felt very real.

Following the two Santa Clara gigs, the number of dates left on John’s North American itinerary hit single digits — with only eight left to go. The trek is scheduled to wind up next month, as it should, at the site of one of John’s greatest triumphs — Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles — where he performed a pair of legendary concerts in 1975. (John then plans to hit Australia and New Zealand in early 2023, before moving on to Europe.)

There was a complicated mixture of joy and sadness in the air as some 50,000 fans packed the home of the 49ers on Saturday night and took in — most likely for the final time in the live arena — hit after hit from John’s deep songbook.

Many fans were having a hard time coming to terms with this being John’s last-ever Bay Area concert stand, explaining to this reporter that they simply weren’t ready to bid adieu to this all-time great. They then went about trying to wring out every bit of joy out of each and every song played.

“We are kind of on the last legs of the American tour,” John said early in the evening. “So, we’d better make these shows count.”

The 75-year-old piano man, born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, certainly made this one count as he provided a wonderful soundtrack for his own goodbye party.

He’d lead his solid six-piece band through 23 songs — including probably a dozen that rank among the finest pop offerings of the last 55 years — during the approximately 2½-hour show.

John kicked off the gig with a rocking version of “Bennie and the Jets,” one of five selections played from 1973 multiplatinum effort “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

His vocals sounded strong, and his piano work even better, as he offered up another uptempo favorite — the 1975 single “Philadelphia Freedom” — before slowing things down with “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues” from John’s best ‘80s outing, “Too Low for Zero.”

These fans, many of whom were wearing blinking-light sunglasses, feather boas, coats of many colors and other Elton-approved accessories and styles, sang along with gusto as the star moved through such beauties as “Tiny Dancer” and “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time).” One of the early highlights was an inspired version of his 1970 debut single — “Border Song” — which John dedicated to Aretha Franklin, whose cover of the song resulted in a Top 40 hit for the Queen of Soul.

He did a terrific job mixing up the slow and fast numbers, ramping up the energy with the likes of “Take Me to the Pilot” and “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” only to cool things off with such lovely numbers as “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” — the latter of which may have been the finest offering of the entire show.

He’d close the main set with four consecutive rockers — “The Bitch Is Back,” “I’m Still Standing,” “Crocodile Rock” and “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” — nicely setting the table for a sweet encore that ended, as it should, with “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

What a way to say farewell.

Tickets are still available for John’s concert on Oct. 9 at Levi’s Stadium, ticketmaster.com .

“Bennie and the Jets”

“Philadelphia Freedom”

“I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues”

“Border Song”

“Tiny Dancer”

“Have Mercy on the Criminal”

“Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time)”

“Take Me to the Pilot”

“Someone Saved My Life Tonight”

“Candle in the Wind”

“Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding”

“Burn Down the Mission”

“Sad Songs (Say So Much)”

“Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word”

“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”

“The Bitch Is Back”

“I’m Still Standing”

“Crocodile Rock”

“Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”

“Cold Heart”

“Your Song”

“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”

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Elton John Adds 11 New U.S. Dates to Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour: 'I Cherish These Memories'

Elton John will now wrap things up in Los Angeles in November with his 2,000th U.S. show

The sun is finally going down on Elton John 's long-running farewell tour, but not before he adds a few more shows.

The "Tiny Dancer" singer, 75, announced an additional 11 dates have been added to his lineup of Farewell Yellow Brick Road: The Final Tour stadium performances, which is due to kick off in Philadelphia in July.

Some of the shows are extra dates at locations already playing host to John, including Toronto and Los Angeles, while others are new locations, like in San Diego, Tacoma, Washington and Santa Clara, California.

John's new show at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles in November will be his third night at the venue, and will also mark his 2,000th U.S. concert.

Other new dates will take place in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Foxborough, Massachusetts, Charleston, South Carolina, Vancouver and Phoenix.

"It's hard to believe that after tomorrow in St. Louis, I'll have just a handful of shows left before I wrap up my final arena performances in the United States," John said in a statement. "This year will see my grand finale in North America, playing stadiums all around the country, with the most spectacular production I've ever had. Thank you for sharing this journey with me. I cherish these memories we're making together. It has been nothing short of incredible and I look forward to seeing you very soon one last time, on my Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour."

The Grammy winner has 15 arena shows left in the U.S. before he begins his stadium run. After wrapping things up in North America in November, he'll head elsewhere for stops in New Zealand, Australia and Europe, where he'll conclude the tour in Stockholm on July 8, 2023.

"After the tour pause during the pandemic, it's so wonderful to see Elton back out there electrifying audiences every night, but obviously with this announcement of the final North American dates it's bittersweet as well," AEG Presents' Chairman & CEO, Jay Marciano said in a statement. "It's really starting to feel like the end of this tour is in sight, four years after it began."

John announced the tour back in 2018, but it's faced various delays and setbacks due to both COVID-19 and injury.

The musician celebrated his 75th birthday last week, and marked the milestone with a heartfelt letter written to sons Zachary, 11, and Elijah, 9 , whom he shares with husband David Furnish.

"You're 11 and 9 years old now, and when I was your age, I could never have dreamed where life would take me," John said in the note, which was published in Time . "Looking back over the past 75 years, there is so much I am proud of, so much I have learned."

The legendary piano man continued, "When I was young, I was told to fit in, to do what others expected even when it didn't feel right. Now I realize I can only be me. Being true to myself is what gave me my voice, and helped me face my greatest fears."

As a result of his authenticity, John said he discovered "deep friends, found the love of my life and became your Daddy."

"Whoever you grow up to be, just be you — fully and completely you," he noted.

Tickets will go on sale to the public on April 6 at 10 a.m. local time here .

The new tour dates are below:

Sunday, July 24, 2022 — East Rutherford, N.J. — MetLife Stadium

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 — Foxborough, Mass. — Gillette Stadium

Thursday, September 8, 2022 — Toronto, Ontario — Rogers Centre

Tuesday, September 13, 2022 — Charleston, S.C. — Credit One Stadium

Saturday, October 8, 2022 — Santa Clara, Calif. — Levi's® Stadium

Sunday, October 16, 2022 — Tacoma, Wash. — Tacoma Dome

Monday, October 17, 2022 — Tacoma, Wash. — Tacoma Dome

Saturday, October 22, 2022 — Vancouver, B.C. — BC Place

Wednesday, November 9, 2022 — San Diego, Calif. — Petco Park

Friday, November 11,2022 — Phoenix, Ariz. — Chase Field

Thursday, November 17, 2022 — Los Angeles, Calif. — Dodger Stadium

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