Oleta Adams at the South Orange Performing Arts Center
March 31st, 2014 by Mr. C
I can picture it now – 1990 – on heavy playback rotation for me when I wanted to take a day off from the boom-bap high energy filled rap & hip hop, I pinch hitted my playlist with dance, soul, new jack swing, & R&B tunes. The usual must have suspects on my cassette mixtape were Lisa Stansfield (Affection), Soul II Soul’s (Back to Life), Joyce Sims (All in All/Come into my life), and Sybil’s (Don’t Make me over). On the flipside of that EP mixtape would be Oleta Adams’ Circle of One album! Amongst my favorite songs of hers include Get Here, Rhythm of Life, and Circle of One.
So when I found out that Miss Adam’s was performing at the South Orange Performing Arts Center, it was a done deal! I have never seen her perform live and off I went! Oleta Adams has a mesmorizing low and hypnotic, smooth and powerful voice that she can take up to the high registers as well. She’s very talented on the piano and writes the lyrics to her own songs ranging from topics of love and despair, inspirational & uplifting pieces to songs of prayer as well as having the ear to rearrange her songs into a fun and funky-soul rendition of the original version.
At her show in South Orange, NJ – she was accompanied by a guitarist, bass player, and her husband of twenty years on drums, John Cushon! Oleta kept it real fun and light with her banter about how she snatched up her drummer husband to save money as well as making fun of herself turning 61 this year and being on AARP’s hit list! She kept it relevant about how kids nowadays need to learn the real meaning of the word sacrifice instead of mistaking it for the word – entitlement. She then segued into her song “Power of Sacrifice”. She played 4 of my favorite tunes from Circle of One and blew it completely out of the park with all four especially with the funky jungle-latin version of “Rhythm of Life” and “Everything must change”. When Oleta played “Get Here” on the piano, goosebumps made an appearance as her rich voice echoed throughout the arts center! Her romantic, “Hold me for a while” got the lovers in the audience heated up! Of course there’s always the classic hear me out songs like “My heart won’t lie” and “Picture you the way that I do” that gets a few sniffles with the reflective outlook in relationships. The 1st half of Oleta’s setlist was an all out jam with her band and her on the Yamaha piano while the 2nd half of the program was more of the unplugged organic version w/ the acoustic guitar, bass, & light percussions. Things got back to amplify mode when the band went big along with Oleta’s voice even getting bigger as they finished the night with the inspirational “Everything Must Change”. The guitar player shredded up the strings as the gee-tar started talking back dirty! I was hoping that the Tears For Fears song featuring Oleta Adams “Woman in Chains” would of made it to the setlist but no luck tonight. The setlist from that nights performance is below. I’m glad I finally got to see Oleta play live and encourage y’all to do the same if she’s playing near you. Now, Lisa Stansfield is next on my must see live hit-list cause she’s “All Woman”!
Setlist
Circle of One
I hope you dance (Lee ann Womack)
Hold me for awhile
No secrets
My heart won’t lie
funky blues instrumental John Cushon
All the love
2nd half of program- unplugged
Picture you the way that I do
Safe and Sound
Rhythm of Life
deaf, dumb, and exposed (cover)
The Power of Sacrifice
Get here
Everything must change (Benard Ighner/Quincy Jones cover)
South Orange Performing Arts Center
1 SOPAC Way
South Orange, NJ 07079
Tags: gospel, oleta adams, r&b, soul, south orange performing arts center
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