Bittersweet gala honors Pacino, Eagles, Taylor

Obama bids farewell, for now, to art world at Kennedy Center Honors

WASHINGTON, Dec 5, (Agencies): Al Pacino, The Eagles, James Taylor, gospel and blues singer Mavis Staples and Argentine pianist Martha Argerich were celebrated Sunday for their lifetime achievements at the last major arts gala attended by US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

It was a bittersweet moment, with Obama making one of his final goodbyes to celebrated artists as president.

The first couple received a long standing ovation as they entered the Opera House of the Kennedy Center, a monument to the late president John F. Kennedy. As he kicked off the evening, host Stephen Colbert said America was lucky to have a “passionate, intelligent and dignified” president.

That brought applause and by far the longest standing ovation from the sold-out crowd in the Opera House, paneled in dark red woven fabric under a massive Lobmeyr crystal chandelier gifted by Austria.

Colbert then joked: “Sir, I don’t know why you stood up. I was talking about Michelle”.

“This is a joyous day. It’s the best Christmas present!” Staples told AFP on the red carpet about receiving what is considered the nation’s highest honor for lifetime achievements in the performing arts.

At 77, Staples lives up to the maxim that age is only a number.

“People ask me, ‘Mavis, when are you going to retire?’ Retire for what? I love what I’m doing and I intend to sing until I can’t sing no more, forever”, she said.

Aretha Franklin, Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey and Ringo Starr were among a series of surprise A-listers — the awardees are notoriously kept in the black about who will pay tribute to them prior to the event — who serenaded and hailed the legacy of the award recipients.

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Virtuoso Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman, now wheelchair-bound, and 29-year-old Chinese pianist Yuja Wang played on the huge stage in honor of Argerich, with Perlman saying he felt lucky to have been alive during her time.

Kennedy Center chairman David Rubenstein thanked the Obamas, who have hosted a reception for the honorees and attended the gala for eight years, and offered them a “golden ticket” for free admission to any event at the national arts center.

But there’s a catch. “Parking is extra”, he quipped.

Obama jokingly asked Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, a notorious troublemaker, not to trash the White House because he is leaving soon and wants his “security deposit” back.

Founding member Glenn Frey died in January, and his prior illness caused The Eagles to postpone their awards last year. So Don Henley, Timothy Schmit and Joe Walsh received the medallions and rainbow-colored ribbons, as did Frey’s widow Cindy over the weekend.

Band manager Irving Azoff couldn’t hold back tears as he raised a glass to Frey during Saturday’s State Department reception.

“For our Eagles family, 2016 couldn’t have had a harder beginning or a more appropriate ending”, he said.

Grammy Award-winner Juanes gave a stunning performance of “Hotel California” with guitarist Steve Vai, who spoke of the “surreal” experience of playing the piece’s famed guitar riff in front of the musicians.

Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow and Darius Rucker played some of Taylor’s best hits, including “Carolina in my Mind” and “Sweet Baby James”.

Taylor, 68, performed “America the Beautiful” at Obama’s second inauguration in January 2013, while Staples, who like none other provided the music of the civil rights movement, sang at Kennedy’s inauguration.

Argerich, 75, is widely considered one of the world’s best, if reclusive, living pianists.

For nearly two decades, she largely shunned solo performances, playing almost exclusively with orchestras and chamber ensembles, until a sold-out recital at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2000. “I was surprised. I didn’t think I was entitled”, Argerich, who is famously wary of publicity, said of learning she had won the award.

Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle hailed Pacino’s humility despite a long and storied career that has seen him perform in some 100 films and plays, including “The Godfather”, “Scarface, “Sea of Love”, “Heat” and “Scent of a Woman”.

Kevin Spacey said Pacino “immerses us in his characters so we can experience the humanness in monsters and the monstrosities in humans”.

“The Kennedy Center honors are about folks who spent their lives calling on us to think a little to harder and feel a little deeper and express ourselves bravely and maybe take it easy every once in a while”, Obama said, calling the gala “one of the parts of the job that I will miss”.

At a reception hosted by Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday, Kennedy Center chairman Rubinstein handed the artists medallions and hung wide rainbowcolored ribbons around their necks.

“In 1968, when James Taylor signed with Apple Records, I was in Vietnam and America was at war abroad and in turmoil here at home. We were fighting and marching to the music of (Jimi) Hendrix, the drumming of Ringo (Starr), the Doors, the (Rolling) Stones, and the (Grateful) Dead”, Kerry said.