Concert review: Vikki Carr does a little musical healing at Plaza

First the A/C was too cold. Then she complained of having hot flashes. "Is there a doctor in the house," Vikki Carr cracked early into her performance Saturday at the Plaza Theatre, her first in the place of her birth 11.5 years.

Of course, there were lots of doctors in the house, not to mention bigwigs from refining magnate and philanthropist Paul Foster, who's got so much money he got a medical school named after him, to State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, not to mention the heads of a few local hospitals.

The occasion was the first of what organizers hope will become an annual benefit concert for the Southwest Association of Hispanic American Physicians (SWAHAP). The non-profit group not only celebrated its 30th anniversary with the concert, but plans to use proceeds from it to set up an endowment that will fund scholarships for medical students from the area. 

And, they hope, encourage some of those students to settle here when they're done with school because of a shortage of specialists in the area.

Carr did her part.

Teresita Gonzalez-Corral, wife of cardiosurgeon Dr. Carlos Corral and one half of the newly created Wise Latina Entertainment group that promoted the show, said attendance was about 1,800, just a couple hundred shy of a sellout. They won't know how much money they raised until the settlement is done Monday, but she did say the concert grossed $100,000.

Not exactly chump change.

Then again, the name Vikki Carr long has been a draw here. When she invited questions from the audience midway through the show, one fan asked why she took so long to come back, and suggested the singer return annually.

"I know I don't need an invitation to come back every year," said Carr, pointing out that she's been doing a benefit in her adoptive hometown of San Antonio for more than 20 years.

A man asked her to sing more songs in Spanish, but Carr instead, backed tastefully by a seven-piece band, struck a balance between the soft pop and Vegas-style standards typical of her biggest period of mainstream success in the 1960s and early '70s and the Spanish-language songs that resurrected her career in the '80s and '90s.

She chatted often, including a short conversation with her godmother Librada M. Payan, 94 years young, reminisced about trying to find the house where she spent the first part of her life (it's an empty lot) and implored those in attendance to do what they could to open more doors for young Hispanics who want to become doctors. 

The theme was also trumpeted in a nicely produced but overly long 30-minute preamble that included co-promoter Liz Chavez's video montage of Carr appearing on TV and joking around with likes of Jack Benny and Anthony Quinn. 

"You gotta do it all year long," she said of the crowd's charity. "We need doctors who care about our patients in every way, shape or form."

But Carr, who's married to a physician, did most of her healing with her voice, her friendly demeanor and her humor. She opened with a story about how Nat "King" Cole encouraged a young Vikki Carr to keep singing, but she struggled vocally with a medley of his hits.

"I'm so nervous," she said later. "I'm so happy to be in El Paso. I want it to be wonderful for you, especially my la familia.'"

The vocal problems didn't last long — Carr finished off a key-to-the-city ceremony that morning to take a vocal lesson — and soon the power and purity of the voice that helped make her a star nearly 50 years ago began to shine through.

That was especially true on "Mala Suerte," one of more than a half dozen of her Spanish-language hits included in a 90-minute performance. The saucy "Hay otro en tu lugar" was among the standouts.

She also drew on old standbys 1966 breakthrough hit "It Must Be Him," the melodramatic love song that put her on the map, and her crowd-pleasing cover of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" and less obvious songs like the unheralded Burt Bacharach-Hal David classic, "Anyone Who Had a Heart." 

The 68-year-old had to be in good voice for that one.

I cut out with about 20 minutes left in the show to catch the last set by Sister Morales Saturday night at the El Paso Symphony's Garden Party at the El Paso Country Club (that's the subject of another blog post to come). 

Ana Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the benefit, said the concert wrapped on a triumphant note as Carr was presented with an oil portrait by 26-year-old El Paso artist Adriana Corral, the promoter's niece, who spent a year recovering from a car accident before taking on the task.

The VIP party atop the Alcantar Sky Garden was still going strong at midnight, Gonzalez said, with Carr complying with demands for pictures and autographs only after she got off her tired feet and sat down. Chalk that scenario up to her confidence as a veteran entertainer who's doing what she wants, not what's expected of her.

A 10-year hiatus probably didn't hurt her resolve. "Nobody was gonna tell me what to do," she said of the promoters asking for all-Spanish or all-English shows after her return to the stage last year. "I'm gonna do what I want."

She did just that Saturday night. It suited her well after such a long layoff, hot flashes or not.

    

Comments

[Vito Cifaldi]

Wonderful review of the show..thanks Doug!

[Peggy Judy-Moore]

Thank you for the great concert review for Vikki Carr. It is an honor to be her fan and such a joy to see her appreciated!

[Jewell Howlett]

Mr Pullen,

Thank you for the great review of VIKKI CARR! I know too that it was a great show even tho I couldn't be there in person. I've seen her many times in the past and I look forward to seeing her many, many more times in the future. I know that helping students is a passion of hers as she has had the Vikki Carr Scholarship Foundation for many years now and has helped a lot of young people into college who otherwise could not have gone.

[Patty Weidling]

WOW!! you go Mr. Pullen. What a wonderful story. Other newspapers should take a lesson from El Paso on how to write.
That Vikki Carr...she just keeps getting better and better.

[Cookie Wimer]

Thanks for the great review!

[Annette Lea - Visalia, CA]

Thank you Mr. Pullen for the wonderful review on legendary performer Vikki Carr. She gives cheerfully to so many and inspires others to do the same. Looking forward to reading more articles in the future from you on the beautiful and talented Vikki Carr.

[Gregory]

Hello Doug,
Just wanted to thank you for the outstanding coverage of Vikki in El Paso.
You must have impressed our webmaster as I cannot remember anyone else being featured in a solo photo on the front page other than Vikki herself.
I sure will be keeping tabs on your upcoming blogs.
Gregory

[Doug Pullen]

I must say I've gotten a ton of positive feedback for the coverage, which has been a nice surprise. Usually, you only hear from readers when they hate you! The thing is, you have to go into these things with an open mind, do your homework and review what you see on stage. She had some vocal problems at the start and I was concerned that her voice was out of shape. But she hit one of those big notes and the power returned.
I guess I'll have to check out the site. Haven't been on there since before the concert!

[Ruth Judy]

Thanks so much for your wonderful story and review of Vikki Carr! I saw Vikki in San Jacinto a couple of months ago. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I had been waiting for years to see her. She did not disappoint, she was even better in person. Of course I had to come from Kentucky, but it was well worth it. Thanks again for your review and story!