I went to see the one and only Miss Jody Watley last night.
A night I will never forget.

After opening act Jeff Kashiwa,(jazz sax), a great performer in his own right, left the stage I was on the edge of my seat. For one of my absolute favourite performers was about to be within feet of me, performing!

It started with a slide show of her Soul Train appearances, Shalamar performances, classic Jody videos, Grammy acceptance speech, interviews, and so on... Then sitting in the darkness we heard her voice reciting the words to "Another Chapter" from her 1999 album "Saturday Night Experience Volume 1". Immediately after, she kicked things off with the dance track "Whenever". Then going into "Midnight Lounge". The stage was set with yellow lava lamps, flowers, candles, and too extremely large Jody Watley posters on each side (see picture below). Which I was strongly contemplating snatching down after the show.

Anyway... She was amazing to say the least. Doing classics such as "Real Love", "Still A Thrill" and "I'm The One You Need", to newer songs like "Skin Deep", "Saturday Night Experience", and the #1 club hit "I Love To Love". Even Shalamar's signature track "A Night to Remember". The crowd appeared to be mostly conservative, but could not sit still during the show. Cheering her on, dancing, and yelling out "I Love You, Go ahead Jody!, Saaang it girl!!" And she did! Covering jazz, r&b, trance, trip hop, lounge, dance and house music in the course of about an hour and a half. A true performer in every sense of the word.

About 3/4s of the way into the show, her more "dance based" fans rushed up to the stage. It was Soul Train 2003. Dancing right along with the crowd, shaking hands,allowing pictures to be taken, serenating men swooning over her, and even signing autographs in mid song. I was hesitant at first to hand her my cd. But she didn't seem to mind. Eventhough a girl standing next to me snatched it out of my hands and handed it to her for me. I thanked her for it as well. At one point during the show a fan came up to her and kissed her feet. She giggled, blushed, and continued. But no one was expecting what he did next. As she loked back down at him, he was licking and sucking her toes. She was shocked. She appeared to be flattered yet disgusted at the same time. Even her backup vocalist gave her that look like: Girl..I KNOW he didn't just suck your toes! The crowed cheered him on as she recovered the song a few lines later. Patting herself off with a towel and exclaiming "Oh my God!"

Vocally, she blew us all away! One of the few women in music that actually deserve the title of "DIVA". Without the primadonna attitude to go along with it. After coming back out in a new outfit and doing a powerhouse encore that left the crowd wanting more...it was over...for now.

After we were graciously told to leave..lol; My friends and I walked around to the back of the building. :NOD: My three friends, (God bless their patient hearts), and another fan waited faithfully for about 20-30 mins. Then it happened.
My friend had a big grin on his face and said.. "There she iiis." As I turned my face went from to to In 1 second flat! Trying not to sound or act like a screaming banshee, I practiced self restraint harder than I ever imagined I could.

1ST let me say this. Jody Watley is one of the most beautiful women in the entire universe. A smile that could light up the western hemisphere without eve trying. My God, that woman is beauuutiful! DAYUM!!
Not to mention her cleavage was calling my name.
We all thanked her for an amazing show. I however, was not going to miss an opportunity to cop a feel..I mean, give her a hug. And get a second autograph.

As I started telling her how I admired, respected, and loved her, she shocked me again. She started tearing up. I amost did too. But I'm a man and we don't do that kind of stuff. She was suprised that I also had her "Flower" cd with me. She said.. "Wow! This is rare. Where did you get it?" "Europe." I told her. "Yeah. It was never released here." She stated. So she signed it, gave me a hug, an thanked me for my kind words. Then I told her if she ever needed a dancer/choreographer that I'd be more than honoured to do it. Her response... "Really? Well why don't you just email me then?" WHAT!?!?! Exactly. Then she gave me her email. That's right. Chico got game.

So whether or not it will happen.. you know I'm going to email her about 500 times right? :LOL: I left with a smile on my face, a warmth in my heart, and a night that will last me the rest of my life. So Jody comes to your town..be sure to see her. You will be glad you did. Who knows..maybe I'll be there too. :LOL: I'll try to see if I can post some pics for you. If I can figure out how. :LOL:
Thanks for reading. I just wanted to share my story with you. I'll close with something she repeated a couple times during one of her numbers:

"Ask for what you want! But notice what you get!"


"Hasta la vista...baby"

Heard of her but never heard a single one of her solo songs. Did she have ANY hits outside the USA?

Cloudbuster said:

Damn you! Jealous???

I love Jody as well, homegirl is the baddest of the bad fa sho you're one lucku mofo Chico.

I saw her the other day in BET talking about her life and what not, I didn't know that she was the goddaughter of Jackie Wilson.

She's coming 2 Harlem next week so you bet I'm going to check that moutha out

Tight review btw!

Chico319 said:

Ellie said:

I think a couple of her singles like "Looking for a New Love" and "Don't you want me" were hits over in the UK. My friends over there have heard them but I'm not sure. She also did a duet with Goerge Michael, and was a part of the Band Aid special in te 80's.

Harlepolis said:

Thanks Harlepolis! Hope you enjoy the show. Make sure to post your review as well.I had no idea about the Jackie Wilson relationship either. Thanks for that.


Ok.. It does mention her godfather is Jackie Wilson in the liner notes of her "Greatest Hits" cd.



[This message was edited Sun Aug 24 10:37:54 PDT 2003 by Chico319]

Chico319 said:

I like her sister...

BlackandRing said:

I bet you do! I wonder if she does too? Like that is.

I am almost as happy as you are reading your review, Chico. That was excellent!!! She is fine as hell!! She teared up? Wow!!

Wow,that sounds like a killer performance! I really like Jody and it's great to see that she's still around,doing her thang.Did she do any other Shalamar songs besides "A Night To Remember"?

DavidEye said:

Unfortunately she didn't. Even "A Night To Remember" wasn't a full song. About half as long as the original, if not shorter. But I don't blame her. She tried to get every song on her resumé in there. And did a brilliant job of it as well. :WOOT:

BlackandRising said:[quote]

Chico319 said:

Me too.

stymie said:

Yeah. I saw the tears in her eyes, but though she's just a bit sweaty and tired. :LOL: Until she told me, "You're gonna make me cry"
Thanks Stymie! I'm still floating on cloud nine!




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[This message was edited Sat Aug 23 16:12:11 PDT 2003 by Chico319]

youre right, she is incredibly beautiful. i met her once, and its quite amazing that she still looks so good. best of luck with the emailing - youre a lucky man if you get the gig. make her do lots of splits, haha.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks!

chico i was reading your post and i was so excited for you that i screamed. screamed so loud, i scared the birds outside in the tree. i swear they fell out. i still rock out to jody--even though my friends make fun of me. i was just thinking of her, like what is she up to. glad to see she is still out there. hope to see her, maybe meet her too. still a thrill, always and forever

chico remind me to tell you about my night with -Bobby Brown and whitney-.

Christopher said:

Were you in the middle?

iwishyouheaven said:

:LOL: Thanks!

Christopher said:

Scared to ask!

Cloudbuster said:

Christopher said:

Sure.

Chico319 said:[quote]

Christopher said:

yeh well you know it got kinda crazy esp when bobby and whitney wanted to break into the zoo and steal some monkeys...that crack

Cloudbuster said:

you were there to!

Christopher said:

oh btw...

AWESOME! She rules!

Chico...good for you, darlin'!!

I loved reading your review,Chico,
that was really cool!!!
I have´nt really heard that much of her music
but I remember the album "Intimacy" that
André Cymone produced & played on.She did the
Stevie Wonder song "Too shy to say" on that.
/peace Manki