Nostalgia, the old joke goes, is a thing of the past. But how much will it be a thing of the future? The music of Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Sam Cooke and Sam and Dave breezed into Oxford last week at the start of a nationwide tour. It's a well-trodden path; the team behind it came to the New Theatre three years ago with their tribute to Motown. Dancing in the Streets is now enjoying its third year in London's West End. So is Sweet Soul Music destined for similar success?
The music of Memphis and Muscle Shoals sounds as good today as it did in the sixties when Stax and Atlantic were enjoying their heyday. To hear the hits like Dock of the Bay, Soul Man, Respect and In the Midnight Hour with the vibrancy and energy of the originals is a real treat in 2007. It's an entirely British troop working hard to capture those golden years. And, by and large, they succeeded. Ray Ellington and Del Blake were exhausting to watch as they recreated the magic of Sam and Dave. Linda John-Pierre's tribute to the Queen of Soul was powerful and Tim Frater captured the raw energy of the recently departed James Brown.
So is the show set for three years in London? Perhaps, while the brass section, tenor and baritone sax and trumpet, were excellent the band as a whole was following the music rather than feeling it. Soul music doesn't come from the 'dots' on the manuscript; it comes from within. And two of the singers didn't reach the levels of their livelier colleagues. Otis Redding was and still is unique, with a voice backed up by an amazing stage presence. Sadly, Howard Dean Johnson had neither the voice nor the stage presence to do justice to the great man's memory and Jenessa Qua's version of Fontella Bass's classic Rescue Me lacked the richness it needed.
But if you like good music, sweet soul music, this was a show to enjoy. If you could sit through it without clapping your hands or stamping your feet you should see your GP without delay!
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