THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506230555
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY RICKEY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
The Hampton Jazz Festival's continued use of agreeable R&B-based pop music to draw crowds in the '90s paid off artistically Thursday night with a powerful set by torch singer Anita Baker.
Baker, the evening's star, opted to open the first concert of the festival's 28th year - thereby bumping nominal support act Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly's scheduled spot to show's end. Fortunately for her fans, the sold-out room was full when she took the stage.
For all the dramatic declarations of love in her songs, Baker was an impressively unpretentious, un-divalike performer. While she shunned cliched ``seductive'' moves, Baker's self-assurance - and even more, her nearly palpable belief in romance - made her seem sexy and together.
``Caught Up in the Rapture,'' one of the older songs in her set, pegged it. Baker perfectly filled the role of a sensible woman involved in something bigger than herself; the way she kept her flights of melisma in check reinforced the impression. And the mother of two also affirmed the virtues of other forms of love by expanding upon the lyrics of ``You Bring Me Joy'' to include parents and children, brothers and sisters.
Baker acknowledged another side of the traditionalist coin with her rendition of ``My Funny Valentine.'' Although more a jazz-informed singer than a jazz singer, her vocal made a fine case for the song as part of her own music - not the mere indulgence it would have been for many a lesser artist.
Baker also improved upon at least one of the recorded versions of her hits.
``Giving You the Best That I Got'' built from its familiar melody into a meditation on love's rigors, with the singer even adding an extra, unaccompanied line after her band had finished playing. It was the kind of moment that fit the spirit, and the letter, of the law of jazz: First, tell the truth. by CNB