Sade equals pure perfection

Three times.

That’s the approximate number of times I've seen Sade in concert.

And I remember each one.

The first instance, I was a concert newbie. It was 1990 something and I was still in high school. I vaguely recall the opening acts (Digable Planets and, according to my sister who attended with me, Boyz II Men). The main thing I recollect about that show? It was the best concert ever!

Up until that point, I think the only other concert I had attended was New Edition (that was 1989 and I only know this because I still have the program). Between Sade and New Edition, I don’t know who I loved more.

As a child of the 80s, Sade was one artist on constant play in my cassette player. As I reminisce, I wonder what I knew about love being a crime in the fifth grade, but back then you could catch me belting out Is It A Crime like the boy in my social studies class had mistreated my poor 10-year-old heart.

But back to the second time I attended a Sade show. It was Sept. 18, 2001 – The Lover’s Rock Tour (at this stage of my life, I kept concert stubs. Maybe I knew one day I would need to refer to it because blogging would be an important aspect of my life).

Seven days prior, hijackers changed America forever, so the mood was somber.

India.Arie, who was a relatively newcomer, opened the show. I was already in love with her, so to see both women on the same stage had me in heaven.

There was only one problem – I was on the lawn at the Chronicle Pavilion. Afterwards, I realized that I will never, EVER again sit on the lawn. Sade looked like an ant and jumbo screens weren’t that effective in translating what was really happening on stage.

You know what I remember most about this show? It was, again, the BEST concert I had ever been to! Sade's stage presence was mesmerizing; the show just left you speechless. There isn’t an artist out then (or now) that can put on a concert like Sade. Absolutely, positively NO ONE!

(Well, maybe Michael Jackson, but I’ll never know because, well, I didn’t get a chance to see him in action before he, well, you know.)

Ten years later, I still stand by that statement. Sade doesn’t need back up dancers; she doesn’t have to fly through the air or dance from one end of the stage to the other in four-inch stilettos.

She is pure entertainment just standing on stage, holding a microphone and singing from her gut. Sade has a stage presence that simply captivates you. Her moves are simple, yet fluid.

But they are enough.

Ten years is a long time for an artist to be away. Would Sade still have it? Could she still put on a performance that I had previously proclaimed to be the best shows I had ever witnessed?

Aug. 27, 2011 was I received the answer to those questions.

As I sit here listening to the playlist I created in iTunes of Sade’s setlist from her Solider of Love Tour, I feel chills running through my body once again – all these months later.

From the first beat of Solider of Love to the encore, Sade kept the crowd mesmerized and on our feet.

The best way to describe her vocals is to say they are pure perfection. She sounds exactly like the CD – and I do mean exactly – only 100 times better. The same can be said for the rest of the band. While Sade is the front woman, the band deserves as much credit as she does for creating such timeless music.

Besides the music, what makes this show so incredible are the stage transformations. I can’t even begin to depict what takes place in the background, so I won’t even make an attempt. I will say, Sade becomes one with the stage at a certain point and you’re left wondering how it’s even possible.

The setlist (see below) was a great mix from all albums. Lover’s Rock was the only song missing that I really wanted to hear. She blew the roof off the house with Is It A Crime (which just happens to be my all-time favorite Sade song. Remember the fifth grade?). When she hit that last note – whew is all I can say!

You know a concert is beyond anything you’ve ever experienced when you are conversing with a fellow concertgoer and neither one of you can put into words exactly what you saw, but you know you experienced something that was truly amazing and will never be forgotten.

So, it’s official. I still have yet to experience anything like a Sade concert (and I say this having seen A LOT of artists). She still has it and I just hope it’s not another 10 years before I get to have these warm, glowing feelings again.

One last thing, Sade looked absolutely stunning! At age 52, she blows a lot of these young girls out the water!

Favorite moment: Sade’s introductions of the band were cute and very personal.

Concert setlist: Soldier of Love, Your Love is King, Skin, Kiss of Life, Love Is Found, In Another Time, Smooth Operator, Jezebel, Bring Me Home, Is It a Crime, Love Is Stronger Than Pride, After All This Time, Paradise, Nothing Can Come Between Us, Morning Bird, King of Sorrow, Sweetest Taboo, The Moon and the Sky, Pearls, No Ordinary Love, By Your Side, Cherish the Day

 

Side note: While working on this blog, I did a search for some of the lyrics to her songs.

In that search, I came across the words on her own Web site and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that! Knowing the “right” words to songs is so important to me, so to have an artist post the words on their official site is fabulous!

Erykah Badu & The Cannabinoids journey out of this world

It’s no secret singer Erykah Badu marches to her own theme music. From 1997, when her debut album Baduizm was released, to last year when the filming of her video for the song Window Seat, generated tons of controversy, Erykah has proven time and again she is not afraid to march to her own drum beat.

She has said in the past she doesn’t subscribe to “groupthink,” defined by Wikipedia.com as, “a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative ideas or viewpoints. The primary socially negative cost of groupthink is the loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking.”

If she cares what other people think about her as a person, her style of dress or her music, it doesn’t show in her actions.

Erykah will never be labeled a pop star; she doesn’t use her body or looks to sell her music – and she doesn’t have to because her voice is enough.

While some may consider her weird, I have always defended her as just being different – in a good way. And that’s one of the many reasons why I absolutely love her. Out of all of the artists I listen to, embrace and admire, Erykah has been at the top of my all-time favorite list for quite awhile. She is someone I can relate to, respect and appreciate for not only being her own woman, but individual as well.

Which brings me to her “Welcome to the Human Brain and Science of Addiction” show Dec. 9, 2011 at The Warfield Theatre in San Francisco. Featuring her group The Cannabinoids, Erkyah took the crowd on a journey some may have found difficult to follow. Others, myself included, found the show to be typically Erykah – unexpected, eclectic and far ahead of anything we could have imagined.

According to Erykah, this group of individuals, “her brothers” as she called them, go way back to 1992 AD when Erkyah Badu was in a group called Erykah Free while also working in a coffee shop.

Erykah continued her story with a tidbit about the time when she was matriculating through college (Grambling State University), where her cousin sent her a cassette tape (remember those?) containing music that inspired her to write Appletree. Another band member supplied her with another beat, and she wrote On & On, the first release of Baduizm.

Consisting of all men (seven total), and Erykah, The Cannabinoids is a live band whose musical instruments consisted of laptops, turn tables, several keyboards and drums. There weren't clearly defined background singers, albeit some band members lent their voices to songs here and there. Just thinking about the lack of real musical instruments (and the model brain on display in front of the stage), I should have realized then the show was going to a new frontier.

Each song performance started out as the track you knew from the album, however, it then quickly evolved into the new Lowdown Loretta Brown, (Erykah’s DJ alias) remix. Sometimes challenging to follow, it still worked beautifully because the new arrangement gave the old some a fresh appeal.

The chopped and screwed Appletree flowed into … & On, where Erykah repeated the lyric “what good do your words do if they can’t understand you,” several times. I could be wrong, but I think she was sending a message.

Recognizing the “superstars” in the house (that would be the audience), she dropped Umm Hmm to a really slow beat, and mellowed out Didn’tCha Know, which had an almost gospel feel. Stating this was one of her favorite songs, Erkyah went on to say, “There will be a brighter day if you believe in brighter days. Believe it not because I told you; believe in yourself as I believe in you.”

Although she mixed A Tribe Called Quest’s Bonita Applebum into Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip Hop), Erykah pretty much stayed true to the original version. Same goes for Danger.

When it was time for Window Seat, she toyed with our emotions by playing a few notes, stopping the song and then moving on to something else. The audience clearly thought she wasn’t going to sing Window Seat, but she eventually came back around to it.

Someone in the audience must have screamed something about Tyrone because she looked down, pointed and said, “No, you call Tyrone!” Erykah turned around to her band and they then launched into the track.

After a new song (several of which were performed throughout the entire show) from the forthcoming Cannabinoids album, and a funky version of Bag Lady, the night came to a close with the lyrics from the performance of NextLifetime, on her Live album.

There also were some comedic moments in the show with Erykah throwing out one liners such as “Money can’t buy me love, but it can keep me in some fresh shit.” When introducing Delta 9, the baby of the group as well as the drummer, the audience went wild when she said it was her son Seven. “I know ya’ll want that to be really bad,” she said through laughter.

Erykah then went on to say Delta 9 was age 17. Turning to him, she said, “That should get you a lot of pussy. You owe me.”

I think the best way to sum up this show is futuristic with a psychedelic feel. There may be a day when live shows don’t have actual guitar players, bassists or saxophonists, but laptops as substitutes. Let’s hope that future never happens because I rather like the sounds of live instruments and the voices of backup singers.

Footnote: It’s fitting that one of the definitions of Cannabinoids is “any of the chemical compounds that are the active principles of marijuana.” Causing feelings of relaxation, there were enough individuals enjoying the drug featuring Cannabinoids that I’m sure those that weren’t partaking couldn’t help but become relaxed. The air was so thick with marijuana smoke that I left with a headache, while Erykah jokingly (or not) asked if she could get some.

Lalah takes it back to 'Where It All Begins'

Lalah Hathaway creates music that you anxiously wait to hear performed live. And you know the performance is going to live up to your expectations because she’s been blessed with a voice that’s mellow, soothing and smooth.

While Lalah released her first album in 1990, I’m a relatively new fan. (I was introduced to her after my sister created a mixed CD a few years ago which contained several songs from 2008’s Self Portrait.)

I’ve come to develop a deep appreciation for her music. There isn’t another artist around who sounds like Lalah Hathaway, and with the music business mostly focused on the visual and appealing to a younger crowd, listening to a truly talented and grown artist is refreshing.

When talent such as Lalah continues to provide a sound that’s real and uniquely hers, you know all is not lost in music.

Where It All Begins, her latest release, is composed of many faster songs than I’m used to hearing from her. At first listen, they didn’t really grab my attention – perhaps because it’s such a departure from her previous work. But the beauty of hearing an artist perform live is that it allows you to hear the songs differently. Now, I realize Lalah is just providing listeners with a wider range of her music.

Lalah performing at Yoshi’s Oakland is a perfect combination. A frequent guest at the intimate venue, Lalah, with her signature locks flowing freely over her shoulders, opened her on Dec. 2, 2011 set with If You Want To, a song from Where It All Begins. Up-tempo and energetic, If You Want To, inspires listeners to get up and shake a leg on the dance floor. If Yoshi’s was that kind of space, I would have been up two-stepping.

The band transitioned right into one of my absolute favorite songs from Self Portrait, Breathe.  I was slow grooving in my chair as I was reminded “that this ain’t the end of the road. It’s all a bad dream until you believe.”

The hour-long show was a good mixture of material sung by other artists, as well as her own. That can sometimes be a disappointment if you expect to hear an artist perform only their songs. But because Lalah is known for covering other singers (and doing a fantastic job in the process), I didn’t mind at all.

She definitely put a smile on her father, Donny Hathaway’s face with her rendition of his song A Song for You. While listening to Lalah sing with such beauty and depth, my mind actually paused in realization that her voice envelops you with a feeling of love and a sense of peace. Utterly amazing.

I also suspect singer Anita Baker (Angel) and the members of Earth, Wind and Fire (Love’s Holiday) would have nothing but praise for her renditions as well.

And I trust Luther Vandross (Forever, For Always, For Love) is delighted that his song is performed with the love and joy Lalah radiates as she sings about "remembering the love we once had," forgetting about the past and making love last this time around. Lalah covered this hit on her 2004 album, Outrun The Sky, and it has since become a favorite of Oakland's audience.

The individual performances by background singers Jason Morales and Toni Scruggs deserved their own standing ovations. Both vocalists held their own while performing their interpretation of the Ella Fitzgerald classic Summertime. Their vocal range had such depth and feeling that it raised the hair on the back of my neck and had the audience hooting and hollering.

I appreciate when an artist gives stage time to other band members, providing them with their own spotlight to shine. From the first notes of If You Want To, to the encore of This Christmas, the audience was engrossed with Lalah at every turn. When she went left, they moved with her. When she strayed from the song and improvised, they shouted and cheered. Several times, many in the audience stood and applauded.

During the show, Hathaway encouraged show attendees to support Where It All Begins and push it to platinum status. There’s no reason her album shouldn’t sell millions of copies.

Here’s to hoping that those reading this will go out and support an artist whose music needs and deserves to be on top of the charts.

Upcoming shows: Erykah Badu at the Warfield, Dec. 10 and Watch theThrone: Jay Z & Kanye West at the HP Pavilion at San Jose Dec. 14.