Jeff Goldblum won over the crowd at his debut Glastonbury performance with a mix of easy charm and jazz classics. He also took the opportunity to announce the release of his second album with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, which will be released before the end of the year. It will feature a version of Irving Berlin’s ‘Let’s Face The Music And Dance’ featuring guest vocals from Sharon Van Etten, who joined him onstage today to perform their slow and sultry take on the classic tune from 1936. “Sharon Van Etten, can you please come and join us on stage,” Goldblum asked before she appeared. “The great Sharon Van Etten. We’re going to do a tune that – can I say? – we recorded for a new record on Decca Records.”
In a statement released while he was onstage, Goldblum said: “Getting to do another album with the sweet, sweet, enchanted elves and sprites from Decca has me floating on air, somebody please pinch me (ow, not so hard). I only hope that listeners feel what I felt when we made the record – an explosive release of ecstasy. It’s amazing to let the cat a bit out of the bag here at Glastonbury in the fleshy flesh!”
As well as the music there was, as is typical at Goldblum’s residency at the Rockwell Table & Stage in Los Angeles, plenty of audience participation. At one point Goldblum was introduced to a range of colloquial demonyms for people from various areas of Britain – such as ‘Geordies’, ‘Scousers’, and ‘Brummies’, as well as more obscure names such as ‘Scummers’ for Southampton. He then invited the audience to call out if they identified with each group. Later in the set, he called out the names of famous movies and the audience responded with the most famous quote from that film – such as “Are you talkin’ to me?” in response to ‘Taxi Driver’ and “I’ll be back” in reply to ‘Terminator’.
Musical highlights included ‘Straighten Up And Fly Right’, originally by Nat King Cole, and recorded for his debut album ‘The Capitol Studio Sessions’, which was released last year. Another track from that album, ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free’, provided a crowd-pleasing moment let in the set, but perhaps the biggest cheer of the afternoon was reserved for the moment right at the end when – as Goldblum got up from his piano to say “Grazie, grazie” – his band struck up the ‘Jurassic Park’ theme tune. Goldblum reacted with mock embarrassment, while the cameras cut to fan in the crowd wearing an inflatable dinosaur costume. The crowd roared their appreciation. There won’t be many more elegantly joyful sets than this at Glastonbury 2019.