Originally Published: 2007-07-15

MAVIS STAPLES: The Toronto Jazz Festival made a great call in having this soul/gospel legend close out its main-stage concert series. A full house showed up, and it was guaranteed that by the end of the night the magnetic Mavis would have them out of their seats, clapping and singing along. She did just that, via the immortal “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” while the 75-minute set prior to that was a similar triumph. She mixed in tunes from a great new CD, We’ll Never Turn Back, covers of classics like “The Weight” and “For What It’s Worth,” and hits from THE STAPLES SINGERS like “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There.” Now in her late 60s, Mavis has as powerful and rousing a voice as ever, and as a performer she’s as compelling as a gospel preacher, thumping her chest, flinging her arms around, punching the sky.
Having a sparse band (guitar, drums, bass, trio of backing singers) meant the focus was where it belonged, on that gorgeous voice, though ace blues guitarist RICK HOLMSTROM often shone. Just one great gig. Opening act was New Orleans’ famed
REBIRTH BRASS BAND, but they proved disappointing. Seems like they spent half their set shouting out their own name and congratulating themselves, though their cover of BOBBY WOMACK’s “It’s All Over Now” was a crowd pleaser.
JAMES BRYAN: To go from playing for a crowd of 50 people in a Toronto club to 70,000 people at Wembley Stadium in London in the space of a few days might be a head-scratching experience for some artists, but this fine local guitarist/songwriter/producer (PHILOSOPHER KINGS) takes it in smooth stride. He’s touring as NELLY FURTADO’s guitarist, which explains his appearance at the PRINCESS DIANA tribute concert. A couple of nights prior to that, James and his band had their own Jazz Festival-affiliated show at Lula Lounge. The small audience thoroughly enjoyed the melodic jazz meets pop meets world music fusion sound of tunes from his 2005 solo CD, Beautiful World. Bryan’s fluent guitar work shone on “Bounce,” and he then introduced guest vocalist ALESSA, whose sweet breezy vocals enlivened “Beautiful World” and the catchy “Left My Heart In Brooklyn.” Nice stuff.

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