THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 27, 1994 TAG: 9406270126
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940627 LENGTH: Medium
Not even the shoe-throwing rafter raising of Patti LaBelle, who was scheduled to follow Richard in a festival-closing set, could have beat him at his game. Backed by a tight, well-rehearsed band at odds with the pickup crews too often used by touring '50s stars, the 61-year-old star pumped out his hits - ``Keep A-Knockin','' ``Jenny Jenny,'' ``Slippin' and Slidin' '' - and others that fit his gospel- and blues-saturated vocal and piano styles.
{REST} Even the dreaded ``Old Time Rock 'n' Roll'' couldn't slow the show. In fact, Little Richard invited a couple of dozen audience members to shake it on down onstage. (``Y'all help her up! She's too heavy for me to pull! Shut up!'') Flamboyant is too lightweight a word to describe the superfine Richard Wayne Penniman.
He was preceded by Norfolk's Connie Parker Trio. Singer/pianist Parker warmed up the keyboard with a mostly quiet set packed with standards such as ``Our Love is Here to Stay'' and ``On Green Dolphin Street.'' Her final number, ``Bridge Over Troubled Water,'' however, was capped by a Kenny G-like soprano sax cameo by Vince Priester - a misstep that spoiled the mellow flow of what had come before.
Saturday night's concert was also highlighted by a real veteran. About two-thirds of the way through a saucy set by the Count Basie Orchestra, vocalist Joe Williams sauntered on. While Williams, 75, strained slightly to carry the melody of ``Here's to Life,'' a pop ballad that served as title track of his most recent album, up-tempo classics like ``Everyday I Have the Blues'' and ``Smack Dab in the Middle'' got full stick from the sly, limber belter. Finally, he elicited one of the weekend's greatest roars with the risque blues ``Who'd She Do?'' (``She's yours, she's mine, she's somebody else's, too.'')
The Basie organization, though a ghost band now led by saxophonist Frank Foster, earned the dramatic surges of its music much more honestly than did the pop-oriented instrumentalists who shared the bill. Earl Klugh, a tasteful if uninteresting guitarist with a likably laconic presence, indulged his band in empty, show-offy solos of the sort that happy-jazz fans accept with glee.
Just as they did the R&B-lite of the Jazz Explosion, featuring keyboardist George Duke, sax man George Howard and singers Will Downing and Rachelle Ferrell.
Ramsey Lewis, who appeared between Klugh and the Basie group, saw fit to fatten up his agreeably lean piano jazz with cheesy synthesizer parts. Still, the electronics didn't detract from a witty version of his '60s hit ``The In Crowd.''
by CNB