Prince of the divine sexiness

By ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN

Monday, June 17, 2002 – Page R3


Prince

At Massey Hall in Toronto

on Saturday

He introduced one of his sidemen as The Teacher, invited the ushers on-stage to dance, and played his hits after solemnly promising he wouldn't. Prince was feeling generous on Saturday, during a marathon three-hour stop on his One Nite Alone tour.

{{{It was all we've come to expect from Prince, whose musical abilities and showmanship seem capable of absorbing everything, except humour. He sang about the new and sexy theocratic order, boiled up a juicy blend of jazz-funk, and repeatedly pulled off the most seductive of show-biz illusions: the one that looks like spontaneity.}}}

The show began with a big entrance, but it wasn't the Purple One who made it. Saxophonist Maceo Parker (The Teacher) stepped down a spotlit aisle like a coy bride, while the slender groom, his boss, strolled on stage in half-shadow.

Parker played several skin-tight solos, in his muscular bebop-flavoured style, and even launched a rendition of Pass the Peas, a standard from his days with James Brown's The J.B.s. But Prince held the edge on everyone, and not just because he was the star. His guitar solos were like vast parabolas that arched outside the ample lines drawn for the rest of the band. His perfection of rhythm made even ace drummer John Blackwell seem relatively mechanical.

But Prince's main instrument is himself, or the self constructed to lead his increasingly hermetic kingdom. He ruled the stage with casual but absolute sovereignty, moving from microphone to keyboards to guitar as smoothly as a cat padding to its cream. He flirted from a great height with the capacity audience, offering intimacy while making sure everyone felt how unequal the relationship had to be. He gestured and danced with the remote glamour of a man whose best moves seemed to have been polished in a mirror.

Much of the show proper was devoted to music from The Rainbow Children, the didactic fable-album he released on his own NPG Records label last year. In Prince's theology, grace and the divine are entirely compatible with sexy talk and sexier music, which gave a camp randiness to the Sunday school lessons of numbers such as Muse 2 The Pharaoh.

"Welcome to the power of surrender," he said, presumably referring to the attitude one must take toward one's God. But surrender was also the only posture available to the fans, who were repeatedly invited, instructed and coaxed into giving themselves up to the man in charge.

In return, he finally delivered the hits he said he wouldn't play. The show was apparently over, the band had left, and it was just Prince sitting at a big keyboard, fronted inexplicably with a grill from a Mercedes sedan. He allowed us to think that we had seduced him into playing tunes like Diamonds and Pearls and Purple Rain, though he had performed the same gesture of reluctant surrender at all previous One Nite Alone shows. What seemed like a spontaneous 80-minute encore set was, in fact, a scripted part of the show.

So too was the sermon he said he wouldn't give, but gave anyway. But so what? The reception of show-biz illusion is at least as complex as the illusion itself. No one turns away from a great actor because he does not, in his own life, murder like Macbeth or love like Romeo.

Musically, this exceptionally strong show proved that all doors are still open to Prince, though he has conspicuously shut a few that were ajar a few years ago. The hip-hop elements that appeared on some of his albums in the early nineties have disappeared. He has dropped samples and rapping in favour of a tighter rapprochement with his roots in live R&B and jazz. That was the underlying message of Parker's presence, and of cameos by former Sly and the Family Stone guitarist Larry Graham, and by Toronto's old-school soul crooner Glenn Lewis.

The local irony of this show was that it probably featured some of the hottest jazz improvisations of the year, but had no relationship to either of the jazz festivals in Toronto this month. As always, Prince travels best when he travels alone.
Prince plays Montreal's Molson Centre on June 18.

what a weird article.
i can't work out whether its all good or not?

It's definately good.

I like the article. It's not the usual mundane writing of concert reviewers.

i agree good review