*I’m all for anything benefitting, well, just about anything reasonable…veterans, the homeless, the hungry, so I was more than happy to be in attendance on June 29th at the Long Beach Terrace Theater in Long Beach, California, for the Legends of Soul, a concert to benefit Greater Educational Milestones (GEMs). GEMs is an organization which seeks to find, advocate and support highly motivated and qualified students of color from South Los Angeles, Watts, Inglewood, and Compton, California. Anything benefitting children is a worthy cause, so off I went.
The MC for the evening, well one of them anyway, was local radio DJ Tammi Mac of Stevie Wonder owned KJLH radio. She assured us we were in for a good evening. She did not lie, but something was not quite right, but I will get to that in a minute.
Sly Slick and Wicked opened the evening and proved to be a good warm-up act to use as the audience filed in. They did a nice performance of “Somebody Please,” but it was “A Thin Line Between Love and Hate” that had people screaming. They performed five or six songs, had choreographed moves that were maneuvered admirably by spry 70+year-old men. They gave a solid and respectable performance.
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The songbird, Deniece Williams, was up next. She began her set with an awesome performance of, “God is Truly Amazing.” To say she can still sing and has her chops intact would be a gross understatement. After her first song, I was like BRING IT ON! I was waiting for “Free,” “Silly,” “Black Butterfly,” “Baby, Baby, My Love’s All for You.” Hell, I wanted to hear everything she made.
Of course, I knew it was not possible, but I could hope, couldn’t I? What we got was a lot of lead in/intro/time filler before she started to sing, “Silly” and again before she sang, “Let’s Hear it for the Boy,” the only songs she performed, unless you count the combined less than 45 seconds she performed “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle” and “Cuz You Love Me.”
The lead-in conversation would have been okay had she had more than the 20 minutes she was allotted. With such a short set, I would have preferred less intro conversation, which would have freed up more time to perform. Deniece admitted she should have brought more songs to cover her 20 minutes. Hmmm, you think?
Joe Bataan was up after Deniece Williams. Yes, I said he was AFTER Deniece. Each succeeding act gets more time than the last artist. Do you see why I was scratching my head? I do not know about anyone else, but I would rather see and hear Deniece Williams than Joe Bataan. Their order in the lineup should have been reversed. I am sure I am not the only one who thought so since more than a few folks took a break while he was on. Heaven forbid we sit through him and are forced to take a break while Brenton Wood or Betty Wright was on, or risk having an accident. Although for me Joe Bataan was the weakest link, I cannot say he was awful, because he was not. I can say I was more than waiting for his set to end. “Under the Streetlamp” and “Gypsy Woman” were pretty good, but all in all, I am thinking ten of his 30 minutes should have been given to Deniece Williams.
There was a brief intermission. The DJ was off the chain, hook and hinges with the old school beats. The audience was up, dancing and did not experience a lull waiting for the next artist. We had music and our drinks to keep us occupied; and between the DJ and local singer, Rocky Padilla, who can sing his rear off, occupied we were. When the MC announced Betty Wright was still to come, the audience gave a thunderous roar. When the MC mentioned Brenton Wood was also coming up, the applause was even louder.
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Brenton Wood took the stage next, sans his band, to screams that are commonplace at his performances, which are predominantly attended by the Latino community…and they were heavily in attendance. He sang “I’m the One Who Knows” and people went nuts. “Me and You” had the crowd screaming. Mr. Wood had smooth down to a science.
The voice, the moves, the zootsuit…all screamed Smooth Daddy. His performances of “I Love You for Sentimental Reasons” and “You Send Me” were crowd-pleasers, but of course, performing his signature songs, “Oogum Boogum” and “Gimme Little Sign” were the highlights of the set and had everyone on their feet. Brenton Wood is deep into his 70s and still knows how to work a crowd. It was very heartwarming to see how much the audience loved and appreciated him. They seem to love him as much as I do, but I am supposed to because he is my dad and I could not be more proud of him. Daddy did not disappoint; he rarely does.
Betty Wright was the headliner and rounded out the evening as only she can. She started with, “Girls Can’t Do What the Boys Do” and then went into “After the Pain,” which had women swaying, perhaps recalling their pain and/or after the pain days. Betty can still sing her backside off and apparently, she passed the talent on to at least three of her five children, because three daughters and her Goddaughter were her background singers. Betty is a true entertainer.
Not only did the 65-year-old show how low she could go, squatting liking someone decades younger, but she also had solid audience participation, with a singalong. Betty performed a medley of “I Only Think of You on Two Occasions’ and “Superwoman,” which would have done the original artists proud.
“Tonight is the Night” had everyone up with their cameras, as Betty did a gyrating dance, mixed in a snippet of Dream Lover and played the drums, with a Latin flair.
The set also had a social consciousness component, as she performed a short song about the killing of black males needing to be as important as the killings of white males. Clean Up Woman was up next, which included a mix of “Sex Machine,” “Walking Stick,” “I’m Black and I’m Proud” and “Pass the Peas.”
Betty’s sets concluded with “No Pain, No Gain,” which included “I Don’t Want to Wait in Vain” was done with a heavy calypso slant. I really enjoyed Betty Wright’s performance and based on the audience’s reaction, I am not alone. If you ever have a chance to see Ms. B in concert, jump at it.
Marilyn Smith is a Los Angeles based writer/reviewer. Contact her via [email protected]
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