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Front Row, Center by Lynn Olson - Brenda Russell
 Sunday, September 19, 2010
Spaghettini, Seal Beach, CA
Brenda Russell Event
Vocals: Brenda Russell
Special Guests:
Keyboard player and Vocalist: Bill Cantos
Saxophone: Michael Paulo
Guitar: Glenn Alexander
Bass: Melvin Davis (Lee Ritenour Band)
Drums: Paul Peress
Brenda and the band were on stage when I arrived. The sound check went like this:
Brenda Russell~
“Can we try a little of this again? The sound is much better.”
Wow, talk about vocals, this girl’s got it goin’ on! Talk about pipes and class, Brenda Russell wrote the book! Tiny-framed, down-to-earth Brenda stood center stage in casual pre-show flip flops and took the tune to the moon.
Anonymous band member~
“Take it from the top.”
Bill Cantos hit the keys and vocals. What a falsetto! Brenda and Bill sang Who are you? Russell belted it out as if she were six-foot tall! A wow moment already! Her aura commanded respect immediately. The simplicity that is her is beautiful. Watching the band member’s interaction with her from my bird’s-eye view was priceless. The adoration and camaraderie was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. I sat back, soaking it up like a jazzy sponge, in awe, of course.
Bill~
“Can you hear me alright?”
Brenda~
“Can we do that ending?”
They hit it again.
Brenda turned to drummer Paul Peress~
“What do you want to do?”
Brenda leaned over the rail for a sunglass exchange, stage to assistant (her daughter perhaps?).
The beautiful young woman looked at keyboard player & vocalist Bill ~
“He’s such a good singer!”
Brenda exclaimed~
“He’s fantastic!”
The woman replied~
“Do you want your little black towel?”
(Sound check cont.)
Michael Paulo started warming up She Walks This Earth, Brenda’s, perfect tone and pitch left me breathless. Sax man Michael Paulo was blowin’ it up while Brenda was in the zone singing her lungs out. And oh what a place to be!
Keyboard player & vocalist Bill Cantos to saxophonist Michael Paulo~
“A flat major, the two bars later, the same thing. It was sort of a test and you passed!”
Michael Paulo~
“That’s the only change though, right? Lemme do She Walks This Earth.”
Brenda left the stage.
Guitarist Glenn Alexander~
“Q, can I have a little guitar?” (for those not familiar with Spaghettini, Q is one of the most awesome sound directors on the planet!)
From there, the boys started kickin’ it. Bill carried the vocals to heaven while Michael blew, Melvin thumped and Paul kept the steady beat while New-York-based Guitarist Glenn’s Golub-laced vibe twanged the sweet melody. Collectively, their groove was stellar! It’s confirmed. This is gonna be one great night of music! An ‘E’ ticket ride awaits, I guarantee it!
Glenn~
“It should just be an open band, cue it, then just bang it. Yeah, yeah, double it! If you know it, just play it!”
Melvin Davis joked~
“Q said, you can have all the fun you want, but at nine PM, you’re done!” I was hoping against hope this would not be the case!
Sound director Q walked on stage for his final sound-check spruce. Paul’s sister, Anika Paris (recent Facebook friend), strolled by. Nice surprise and her resemblance to Paul was uncanny. We chatted briefly. I no more than picked up my pen and Paul’s mom walked in.
Paul Peress~
“Hey, mom!”
‘Mom’~
“I’m good! How are you?!” They took their seat.
Q~
“Did you guys decide if you’re gonna do on long set?”
Saxophonist Michael Paulo~
“No, we’re gonna take a break, a short break.”
After the final stage set up, they disbanded. About fifteen minutes later, clad in a crisp white shirt, Paul Peress walked back in and approached me for a follow-up hello.
He concluded our brief discussion with a jazzy twinkle in his eye~
“It’s gonna be fun!”
The lights were up and it was hit-it-boys time!
Paul Peress echoed from behind his drum set~
“How’s everybody doin’ tonight? I’m Paul Peress from New York City! We’ve got a power-packed evening tonight! We’re gonna bring out Brenda Russell in a little bit. ” Paul introduced the band, then shared details of keyboard player and vocalist Bill Canto’s recent work on Phil Collin’s tour. “I don’t think there’s anyone here who hasn’t heard of him!” He mentioned fellow band member guitarist Glenn Alexander was also from New York. Saxophonist Michael Paulo commented about his previous night’s Spaghettini East Bay Soul performance.
Paulo~
“I slept here last night!”
Paul~
“We’re gonna do a couple of well-known tunes. This one was written by one of the most well-known bands that ever crossed the Atlantic. It’s a Beatle tune called A Day in the Life.”
Saxophonist Michael Paulo squeezed his mini-sax like a ripe piece of fruit. Jazzy notes dripped down his elbows, flooding the stage. Bill Cantos kicked the keys upside down. Paul’s drumbeat clicked with bassist Melvin’s deep thump. Their off-the-hook cohesion did the tune proud. Center stage, sax man Paulo’s arch-backed wail built the energy level to boiling, then blew the top off the pressure cooker! The bow of his body took the side-to-side sway, tipping the venue on its side. The expertly-synced band carried it to the zone. When Paulo again picked up the beat and ran away with it, the crowd went completely nuts! Guitarist Glenn snagged the love light and addressed it with style. Digging deep, he added a soulful touch to the cut. Seamlessly, he passed it to bassist Melvin Davis.
Michael Paulo~
“Take it, Mel! It’s all yours!”
Suddenly, keyboard player & vocalist Bill Cantos went key crazy! Mel was still thumpin’ and bumpin’ his too-cool-for-words groove when Cantos took over on a scattin’ vocal that was out of this world. His falsetto finale was positively amazing! Back to bassist Davis for a little more chill. There wasn’t a person in the place that wasn’t sporting some form of Beatle mania! The audience frenzy was sheer insanity!
Paul Peress muttered~
“You got it fixed? You all know Jeff Golub, right?! He’s a good friend of mine and I get to work with him a lot. This is an Eddie Harris tune of his called, Cold Duck.”
Paul’s drumming said a Jeff Golub party is on the way! From there, ‘the boys’ kicked it into next week! Wow! It was just, plain fun! Michael twitched to tenor sax and exploded like a champagne cork.
Sax man Paulo~
“Eeh, eeh, Wooh!” Paulo’s overhead clap signaled guitarist Glenn Alexander’s icy-white guitar. His sound on his solo was as pure as the driven snow, crisp and clean. The guys goofed around until Golub-style cut-the-cake mania broke out. Their slap-happy Cold Duck party frothed free-flowing, bubbles of jazz!
Anonymous audience member~
“Alright!”
Michael snagged center stage and owned it! He blew his socks off and ours too! Chair dancing ran rampant. Everyone was foot stompin’ and head boppin’ while Michael crouched down, then up, then repeated. He revved the crowd like a V-8 Mustang. Energizer Bunny Bill thwacked the ‘ivories’ again. He was unable to sit still! His crazy fingers earned the off-the-hook award! Wow times three for his guy again and straight to superstar status he went!
Saxophonist Paulo~
“Hey!” Michael pointed to bassist Melvin Davis. The crowd went bonkers over Mel’s solo! The band cut back in for an assist when sax man Michael Paulo began a duel center stage. In the end Michael hopped a one-legged finale blow. They concluded with a rather large high five.
Michael joked~
“Thank you and goodnight!”
Paul Peress~
“Okay, we’re gonna bring it up now! This tune came to me in a dream and I’m glad I got up to hit the keys! This song will feature Glenn Alexander on guitar and Bill Cantos on vocals. Beautiful, beautiful!”
I Just Can’t Let Go was up next. Bill outdid himself on vocals once again. Sax man Paulo took over briefly, then smoothly slipped it back to Cantos’ final touches on the hip-sway.
Paul Peress~
“Those were some vocals! If I could take the sax, I’d say it like that! There’s something about sax licks. I don’t know!”
Michael tagged him with one more blow.
Paul~
“Now if that doesn’t say ‘baby’, I don’t know what does!”
Bill knocked the vocals out the door and the crowd came unglued.
Multiple anonymous crowd members~
“Alright! Alright! Alright!”
Michael Paulo~
“Yeah! Bill Cantos! Alright, Bill Cantos, everybody!”
Paul Peress~
“This song off my second CD originally featured Gabriela Anders (Argentinian jazz vocalist).” He apologized for being redundant with his announcement of another Beatle’s song. “This is an original of mine called Norwegian Wood.”
Michael muttered~
“Brenda.”
Paul~
“Here’s one for the island! Here we go with Sugar City off the Can’t Let Go CD!”
Guitarist, Glenn Alexander lit this one up! Alexander moved to the front of the classroom for this one with four shiny gold stars. The man outdid himself!
Paulo~
“Yeah!”
Paul Peress~
“And now, for the moment we’ve all be waiting for! Brenda Russell is in the house!” The crowd roared as she sauntered on stage dressed in all black, hat cocked just so. She sparkled.
Brenda~
“I’ve brought some stuff for y’all. Thank you, to Paul for inviting me here to sing with him.” She talked about keyboard player & vocalist Bill Cantos, what an honor it was to be on the stage with him, then elaborated about the Love Wins CD and their powerful friendship. “I heard this song we’re gonna sing and I love it Who Are You? It’s the first song I ever recorded that I didn’t write. It’s just beautiful! I love it and I love him!”
Brenda and Bill were magic from the moment the song opened. Brenda’s vocals left me breathless and without words. Bill’s stellar accompaniment took the aura of her stage presence and enveloped every inch of the venue. We wallowed in their music. There was not an eye, heart or soul there what was not wholly theirs. The Brenda-Bill vibe was out of this world. My pen went dry as I sat in awe of what was before me.
Russell~
“Thank you! Bill Cantos! This is a song I had the pleasure of writing for ‘the Sting Man’!” She reminisced about her two favorite artists, Sting and Yvonne. “I was very privileged to write these lyrics, and in two days! He won a Grammy for it! Maybe you’ve heard it?!”
Talk about moments being frozen in time, this song stopped time. Brenda Russell’s soul is the real deal and she puts it out there for her audience. Joined by Sting and Yvonne’s spirit, she locked into the jazz zone and threw away the key! Speechless, again, me?! Triple wows were understatements as our collective group of jazzy moths were drawn to the flood of charisma surrounding her.
Brenda~
“Thank you!
Paul Peress~
“We’re teasing y’all. We’re gonna take a little New York break. We’re gonna play a little Piano in the Dark.” He reintroduced the band.
Set II (I typically do not write second set, but this ‘writer in the dark’ made an exception for a little Piano in the Dark!)
Paul Peress~
“We’re ba-a-a-ck!!! Thanks, everybody for hangin’! Tonight’s a special night for two people in the house, Bill Cantos and Mary Sharpp. This is for them.” The band played a Happy Birthday snippet. Paul clowned around with Bill. “I think the person having the most fun tonight is me! Happy birthday to Bill and happy birthday to Mary, you’re lookin’ smart!” He reintroduced the band. They played a medley of songs leading to the moment we’d been waiting for.
Paul Peress~
“Miss Brenda Russell!” She took the stage.
Brenda~
“That was good! Alright y’all! Hi! Is everybody feeling good, all warm and toasty?! This is a three-Grammy nomination song. I wanna hold one of those babies and I haven’t gotten to do that yet! I wanna share with you who I am. How many of you have seen the Color Purple?” She humbly spoke of meeting Oprah and the President. “This is my biggest hit, one of those little gems that God gives you and I’m very grateful for all of them!”
Anonymous~
“You go, girl!”
Brenda Russell’s performance of Piano in the Dark sent shivers up my spine. Amazing sight, sound, soul…she’s honed the ‘it’ factor and all stops in between. Indescribably delicious notes drifted through the air. Bill, his million-dollar smile and sheer musical bliss tore it up on keys. Perfection shrouded Brenda’s mindboggling scattin’ finale.
Anonymous~
“Hey, girl!”
Another voice~
“O-o-o-h-h-h! Oh, yeah!”
Brenda~
“One more time!” A slow-and-easy audience clap filled the backdrop to the lingering Piano in the Dark vibe. A silent groove enveloped us.
Brenda~
“Thank you!”
Crowd member~
“Brenda!”
Brenda turned to Bill~
“Is it really your birthday? I wrote this next one when I was in Stockholm, Sweden. I was in pain. I wrote it in an hour and a half and it goes like this!”
She slipped her shoes off. The moment she started singing I, again, fell deeply in love with one of my favorite songs, Get Here. Chill bumps scampered across the fine hairs on my arms.
Anonymous crowd member~
“Get it, girl!”
Tears welled up in my eyes and I was breathless, once again. Guitarist Glenn Alexander shared a phenomenal duet as Michael Paulo’s emotion-packed sax led a band with the intensity of a full orchestra.
Another voice rang~
“Sing it, girl!” Her bone-chilling finale received a standing ovation. She leaned over, picked up her sandals and walked offstage. Everyone remained standing with the simultaneous simplicity and grandeur the legendary Brenda Russell left on the stage of Spaghettini.
In unison, the crowd hollered~
“You guys were awesome!”
I simply can’t leave this narrative without mentioning Mr. Paul Peress and his set-II-off-the-chain solo. Everyone went crazy while he whacked, thwacked and reinvented drumming. Here you go Paul, a beautiful triple wow, well earned! How can I ever thank Paul Peress and his band for an unforgettable night with Brenda Russell?! I hope these words will serve that purpose!
© September 2010 Lynn M. Olson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED http://lynnjazz.wordpress.com/
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May 17, 2013 - After only four weeks Andy Snitzer is sitting pretty at the top spot of the Smooth Jazz Now Top 50 Countdown. "Andy's done well," says John Beaudin Operations Manager at the AirCom Jazz Network, "he dethroned Boney James from the #1 spot," adds Beaudin. 
May 3, 2013 - Things keep looking better for Boney James. The popular sax-man has the biggest hit of the year so far on Smooth Jazz Now with 'Batucada.' It's now been #1 for five weeks. "It's always special when a song stands out that much," says John Beaudin Program Director of Smooth Jazz Now. 
April 30, 2013 – Good Morning America has announced a huge line up for its 5th Annual Summer Concert Series. 
April 25, 2013 – Three gifted smooth Jazz musicians; Rick Braun, Kirk Whalum and Norman Brown came together 11 years ago with their group BWB. These guys put their name on the map with the famous album Groovin’ and are back in full swing with an upcoming release ‘Human Nature’ set for release June 18th. 
April 19, 2013 - Boney James is again the most talked about artist on Smooth Jazz Now. His hit 'Batucada' was the most requested tune on our station for the last two weeks. "You have to love a song with this type of staying power," says John Beaudin, Program Director of Smooth Jazz Now. 
April 10, 2013 – The hottest new song on the Smooth Jazz Now TOP 50 chart last week was Andy Snitzer's 'Candy' entering at an impressive #5. The tune comes from, 'The Rhythm,' Snitzer's 3rd Native Language album and his 8th overall. The label calls the single “sweet funk/pop” which it is indeed. “I just love this song,” says John Beaudin Program Director of Smooth Jazz Now. 
March 27, 2013 – They say “everything is perception” and from the start our image of Rob Tardik has been hard working and positive. With the release of his fourth album LIMITLESS, later this year, we thought we would catch up with Tardik and ask about the sound of the new project. 
March 27, 2013 - With the release of Jim Samuel's new album 'Smooth Covers, Smooth Dance' last week and our 90-minute radio special on his career we thought we would delve a little deeper into what makes Samuel tick. 
March 26, 2013 - Boney James had the most requested tune on Smooth Jazz Now for the second week in a row. His new single 'Batucada' has only been on the chart four weeks and two of those have been at #1. "Anytime we get a Boney single we know our audience will get it to #1," says John Beaudin, Program Director of Smooth Jazz Now. 
March 26, 2013 - Mike MacArthur has an impressive resume. Playing with Diane Schuur and the late great Maynard Ferguson creates great cache for an artist.
March 22, 2012 – Dave Koz will be joined by several of his old pals as he kicks off A Summer Horns Tour 2013.
March 13, 2013 - Boney James doesn't fool around! The famous sax-man has reached the #1 spot on the Smooth Jazz Now Top 50 Countdown and it only took him three weeks. "Ok, really - this is Freakin' Boney James," says John Beaudin, Program Director of Smooth Jazz Now. "Boney is not just known as a superstar, he proves it with every song and every album." 
March 9, 2013 – Natalie Cole has found her muse again! The 'Unforgettable' singer told fans on Twitter that she's coming back. The nine time Grammy winner should have a new album out this year. 
March 5, 2013 - Canadian singer, Michael Buble is getting ready for his upcoming album “To Be Loved’ hitting stores April 23rd. 
March 2, 2013 – I think the reputation of a music reviewer is that of a bitter and jaded curmudgeon living in a van down by the river. Years ago after writing a blistering review of a project that sounded half finished the artist approached me at a club and screamed, “You must spend a lot of time looking for things to hate?” “Actually it's the opposite, I answered, “I use my hours looking for the good stuff, 3/4 of the trip, however, is filled cliched blah!” 
March 1, 2013 - For the second week in a row Euge Groove had the most requested song on SmoothJazzNow. As a result his 'House of Groove' easily made it to #1 on the TOP 50 chart. "Euge is like Boney James, Dave Koz or Peter White," says John Beaudin, Program Director of SmoothJazzNow, "They all consistently release music that sticks with listeners." 
December 13, 2012 – SmoothJazzNow has a new artist/interview feature called One-On-One. It’s 20 questions for your favorite Smooth Jazz artists. Most acts will be asked the same questions but we will also change it up on some weeks. 
December 13, 2012 – Greg Adams has been out there. Even though many fans know him from his days with Tower of Power that stint seemed to be just an opening act for what was to come. 
December 11, 2012 - It's been a great year for Pete Giltin. The guitarist reached #1 on the SmoothJazzNow.com chart and there's no sign of him slowing down. We asked Pete to give us some rare facts - things you might not know about him. Check out the list. 
November 18, 2012 - Christmas music is a unique animal. A challenging one. Imagine explaining the concept to an alien, "So we celebrate this holiday and musicians, at least once in their careers, get to record the same 30-40 songs and hope that their versions sticks," MORE
May 1, 2012 - We live in a world where most instrumental music sounds like it was made for a 5x5 vertically moving room and that includes some Smooth Jazz. Interestingly, most Smooth Jazz musicians are technically some of the best players on the planet but many have fallen into this big vacuous hole, an amnesic state, where channelling Bert Kaempfert is common place. 
April 4, 2012 – Esperanza Spalding is a groovy chick. I mean, really, when she’s in the room, everyone else disappears and I’m talkin’ more than that big “love-sculpture” hair. She’s the type of musician you might walk up to at a party, ask about her music, and walk away three hours later regretting the question. This lady has a vision so you better have a seat. 
October 20, 2011 – This is no ordinary album. In fact, there is nothing normal about this album and that’s what makes this one of the most perfect projects that’s ever come across my desk. 
– On her third album Colbie Caillat has decided to strategically give us an uptempo summer-vibe. It still sounds like her smash debut “Coco” but this time it’s Colbie with caffeine and it’s positive and fun
– There are not too many things in life as deliciously lazy as Michael Franks voice. The guy could chill out someone on deaths door. Seriously, angst has no place on a Michael Franks record – he’s good at one great thing..making you feel good! 
November 5, 2004 - Health comes first for Brenda Russell. The singer who was just diagnosed with diabetes has decided to cancel her dates on the Dave Koz "Smooth Jazz Christmas Tour." Patti Austin will be her replacement for the 22 city gigs. Russell also had to cancel her dates on the same tour last year to concentrate on the musical "The Color Purple." On her official site www.brendarussell.com her publicist offered this statement. "Brenda was looking forward to the tour this year to connect with the loyal fans of A Smooth Jazz Christmas. She's disappointed but felt that getting healthy was the best choice for her right now so she will be able to get back on the road soon." Russel is best known for the hit 'Piano In The Dark.'
