There's always a certain feeling out period that happens anytime an artist and an audience meet for the first time. He wants to know if they're into him and his music. They want to know if he's worth the $40 they shelled out.
It was kind of like that Thursday at the Plaza Theatre when sax man Boney James made his first El Paso appearance. The crowd of 750 people wasn't exactly huge — the place seats 2,000 — but you could tell by the way they reacted, polite at first, a little more enthusiastic as the night wore on, that the artist and the audience had worked their way past the cordial handshake to high-fives and encouraging backslaps by the end.
James told the El Paso Times in a story that ran last week that he wanted to come here because of the success his buddy Dave Koz has had in EP. Koz sells the place out almost automatically these days — five of his last six shows there have packed out the joint, and it looks like the one coming July 26 will, too.
Koz told his friend that the historic movie palace is beautiful and the audiences are appreciative. And, I might add, hungry. We don't get a lot of smooth jazz around here. It's a niche market and Koz has had it all to himself.
But judging from the kind of reaction James got over the course of his two-hour set, the little market just got a little bigger. You gotta believe he'll be back in a couple of years and between the word of mouth and, hopefully, an improved economy, he'll draw a bigger crowd.
"All Night Long," the second song in the set, gave a hint of what was to come, with its slinky R&B groove and Sam Sims' slap-picked bass solo got things moving. A seductive cover of Stevie Wonder's "Send One Your Love," the title track from James' new album, and the splashy funk of James oldie "Nothin' But Love," highlighted by Mark Stephens' liquid keyboard work, kicked things up a notch.
New song "Butter," just as creamy as the name implies, pretty much slipped things into another gear. James, who alternated between tenor, soprano and alto sax, used the seductive power of his horn to get one woman in the front to dance as he held her hand and played the sax with the other during a lyrical take on the Stylistics' "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)."
James took it a step further, actually many steps further, during "See What I'm Sayin'?" when he ventured into the crowd, dropped to his knees as a woman danced for him, then worked his way up the left aisle to the right aisle, stopping to climb a chair in row I, before returning to the stage, playing the whole time.
That kind of showmanship is guaranteed to win over a crowd, but the always-in-motion James and his laid back four-piece band — guitarist Jairrus Mozee and drummer Omari Williams got their licks in too — backed it up with some pretty solid musicianship over the 14-song set.
James isn't as flashy as Koz, but he's a little more versatile and on those occasions when he reached back and dug out some big notes, he tapped into that daring improvisational quality that sets jazz, pop or hardcore, apart from the rest of the music world.
I suspect he'll be welcome back in this part of the world again.
I was at the Boney James concert and it was fantastic. You are right about Dave Koz and he is kind of getting old, sort of like Kenny G, they are old stuff.
Boney James was awesome. It is a shame that jazz is not supported in El Paso as other cities. It's a shame that 99.9 promotes the jazz artists, yet they won't play their songs. It's a shame that we are so closed minded about music that unless is Mexican music, jazz music is not played. It's a shame that our children are not exposed to it unless they are in some jazz band in school. Thank God for our local jazz musicians/artist here who are teachers and have exposed our children to jazz music. I for one was fortunate to be exposed to all different types of music besides mexican music. It's a shame we have to go out of town to see and hear a better calibur or musicians. Thank God that Michael Buble visited us and hope James Taylor is a good concert too. we are so backward when it comes to good music.
Posted by: Patsy | July 14, 2009 at 02:39 PM