Concert review: Raphael Saadiq at Park West
Raphael Saadiq’s love affair with the soul music of his parents’ generation became explicit in the first moments of his concert Friday at a packed Park West.
Over a drum beat that sounded like vintage Motown knocking at the door, Saadiq sang, “I told her I had a girl/That meant the world to me/She just looked me up and down/Was her name R&B?”
It put all those love songs that Saadiq writes in a fresh context: Is he writing about a girl, or is he writing about his muse, the music that stole his heart as a kid and never gave it back?
Saadiq, 45, has been recording and producing hits in various guises for two decades, as a solo artist, band leader (most notably with hitmakers Tony! Toni! Tone!) and collaborator with artists such as D’Angelo, Mary J. Blige and Erykah Badu. He’s always had a boyish enthusiasm for performing, and a flexible, naturally joyous voice that suggests a young Stevie Wonder. But with his latest album, “Stone Rollin’ ” (Columbia), Saadiq finds a new gear. The album and his current tour demonstrate that there’s a big difference between retro and classic, and the artist consistently finds himself on the right side of that divide.
In horn-rimmed glasses and dapper suit, Saadiq affirmed that the richest music of the past can continually be mined for emotional currency. With a seven-piece backing band, the first section of the concert was as sharp as the crease in James Brown’s bellbottoms, one song surging into the next.
With drums and bass approximating the relentless backing beat on Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” Saadiq was part of a triple-guitar attack that busted out of the gate with “Falling in Love,” the aptly titled “Heart Attack” and “Radio.” There was no let-up for nearly an hour, an exhilarating ride in which Saadiq soon stripped off his suit jacket the better to bob, weave and hand-clap while exchanging shouts with his backing singers. At one point, he mouthed the words to “Sure Hope You Mean It” off the microphone, his head thrust backward, eyes closed, arms spread wide.
Though saturated in classic soul signifiers – call-and-response vocals, tambourines and handclaps augmenting slinky bass lines, guitars that played accents and clipped grooves more than long lead lines – Saadiq took some detours. He injected the sensual “Be Here” with heavy rock chords worthy of Living Colour, and the title track from “Stone Rollin’ ” boasted a grinding blues groove in keeping with its lusty subject matter.
As the first set wound down, Saadiq let things relax to revisit his ‘90s past, linking together a handful of smooth Tony! Toni! Tone! bedroom-ballads and reprising some tracks from his short-lived all-star project Lucy Pearl. It was the weakest portion of the concert, a loose after-hours party dedicated to the fans, who sang enthusiastically to Tony! hits “Anniversary” and “(Lay Your Head on My) Pillow.”
For the encore, Saadiq pushed into the future. “Over You” and “Go to Hell” deconstructed soul in the way David Bowie or LCD Soundsystem might have, stripping back the arrangements with roaming bass, drums circling the beat with orchestral flourishes, and keyboards hovering.
He then brought the show back to where it began. “Falling in love is easy,” he sang. “Staying in love is too tricky.”
Saadiq’s soul serenade shows no signs of growing stale. At Park West, he made the music feel like he was still falling in love with it.
greg@gregkot.com
In a spare moment....
I retain that
everything shines
while an eminent
sadness invents
an idea, so
nostalgic and
tender like
a luminous care....
Francesco Sinibaldi
Posted by: Francesco Sinibaldi | June 04, 2011 at 07:43 AM