Porretta Soul Festival day 2

Day two at Porretta proved to be a superb one, with a stand out performance by John Ellison, once of the Soul Brothers Six, taking top honours. But first it was the turn of J P Bimeni, a Burundian refugee now living in London, to take the stage with his Spanish band the Black Belts. He featured tracks from his two albums, 'Free Me' and 'Give Me Hope', including the two title tracks which allowed him to explore themes of racism and freedom. One number - 'James Stern' - told the story of a black activist in the US while another, 'I Miss You' was a story of lost love. He also included one cover, 'Keep On Running.' J P has an engaging personality and a reasonable voice and provided a lively start to the evening. After a short break the main backing band for the evening, and now a regular at Porretta the Anthony Paule Soul Orchestra set up and kicked off with 'Memphis Train' and 'Town Without Pity' , both exemplary. Boogie woogie and R and B keyboardist Mitch Woods followed with some lively jump blues which brought some variety to things. His excellently performed numbers included 'Solid Gold Cadillac' , 'Mojo Mambo' (a tribute to Professor Longhair), 'Stomping At Savoy' and 'House Of Blue Lights'. Next it was the turn of Anthony Paule's three backing singers to sing two solo numbers each. Omega Rae sang 'Its Love That Makes A Woman'. Then Larry Batiste performed 'Drowning In A Sea Of Love' and 'Real Good Lies' which he co-wrote for the late Wee Willie Walker. Finally Nona Brown included 'I'm Just A Prisoner' before all three sang 'Just One Look' together. Good stuff and an improvement I thought on some previous backing singers. Final act before the break was Selassie Burke, one of Solomon's many offspring who showed that he has inherited his fathers singing ability. His set included two Otis Redding numbers 'Dock Of The Bay' and 'Try A Little Tenderness' and three of his dad's, 'Don't Give Up On Me', 'Cry To Me' and 'Everybody Needs Somebody'. Selassie seems quite a talented lad and could go far. Things really took off after the second break with the emergence on stage of John Ellison wearing white flowing robes, a white jump suit and shades. It was quite an entrance and he launched into 'Let's Get This Party Started' only for the power to fail, meaning there was no amplification and limited lighting. Fortunately it was quite quickly fixed and John was able to continue, with outstanding performances of 'I'll Be Loving You', the Soul Brothers Six song 'I Wanna Thank You Baby', 'If I Had One Wish' with quite effective audience input, an acapella version of 'Unchained Melody' and the upbeat 'Getting The Love Line' from his soon to be released album. It was a super set but the best was yet to come. John said he had met up earlier with a young girl who was a fan and who knew all the words to his 60s hit 'Some Kind Of Wonderful'. He invited her onstage and her parents brought up a young girl who appeared to be partially sighted. The resulting duet was excellent and really rather touching as the girl clearly did know the song and contributed well (pictured above). A bit of a spine tingling moment I reckon. Finally it was the turn of Chick Rodgers who must now be considered the new Queen of Porretta. Looking good with blonde hair she stuck mostly to Aretha Franklin numbers which suit her voice perfectly. These included 'Don't Play That Song', 'Ain't No Way', 'Natural Woman' and, as an encore 'Chain Of Fools'. Other songs included Ray Charles' 'Let The Good Times Roll' and B B King's 'To Know You Is To Love You'. All covers of course but well executed and a good finish to what had been another great Porretta night.