Review of Dream Concert
Monday, September 24th, 2007The new york times has posted this review of Joss’s performance at the MLK Dream Concert. The concert is scheduled to air on tv in January.
MOST musical variety shows are disorganized nightmares, but the Dream Concert - to raise funds for a Martin Luther King memorial in Washington - didn’t disappoint. It completely lived up to its name.
In a moment of concert surrealism, the ever-shrinking TV meteorologist Al Roker stepped onto the big Radio City Music Hall stage and reported “I have a weather flash . . . it’s hot in here!”
Uncle Al was right.
Killer performances by Aretha Franklin, Garth Brooks and Joss Stone topped the 14-act lineup, which also featured Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana and opera great Jessye Norman.
The show was smart on many levels; there were top acts and a fast pace that never lost momentum. The brilliant theme celebrated the words and philosophy of Dr. King, and it connected the performance, from the rise of the curtain to final bow. This accomplishment was remarkable, given that Radio City is a difficult hall in which to create intimacy.
Hip-hop refugee Wyclef Jean was the best and first to really engage the audience. When Jean wasn’t getting a big enough rise from the audience, he took his act off the stage and into the crowd, rousing the sedate fans from their pricey, $1,000 seats.
While the Queen of Soul stayed on the stage, she also unglued the people from their seats with her classic Motown spelling lesson, “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”
Among the other standout songs in the three-hour event were the Joss Stone duet with newcomer Ryan Shaw on the Sam Cooke classic “A Change is Gonna Come,” Brooks’ white-Stetson cover of “Abraham, Martin and John,” and Stevie Wonder’s famously funky “Superstition.”
