Jazz group serves up pure energy

Rene Marie's concert at the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium lived up to high pre-show expectations Friday as the vocalist and her band turned in a tasty jazz performance that simply delighted the nearly 2,100 fans.

Working with her was her longtime band, pianist Kevin Bales, bassist Rodney Jordan and percussionist Quentin Baxter, a Charlestonian who was probably as much of a draw as Marie, given his local rock star status.

Actually, the instrumentalists are her bandmates, soulmates if you will. Together, they are a real ensemble, a seamless whole that pulsed along with musicality that much of the time was transformed into pure energy.

The force field created by the energy was palpable.

The first song was a soul-stirring version of the traditional American chestnut, "Oh Shenandoah," done simply and movingly, morphing into a kind of jazz aria with her treatment. Simply gorgeous.

The tour de force, the last song, was her suite, Voice of My Beautiful Country, a musical amalgamation of "America the Beautiful," "My Country Tis of Thee," "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing." It's a patriotic homage making use of Native American chants and rhythms, blues, gospel and jazz. The kicker was the last movement, a radical mash-up applying the lyrics of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" to the tune of the national anthem.

All night — two and a half hours of non-stop music — she was eloquent and articulate, seemingly becoming the music. She sang the songs from the inside out, propelling the lyrics with an exacting rhythmic feel and sweet, heart-felt phrasing.

Her colleagues were in rare form, too. Jordan was spare but poignant on the bass fiddle while Bales used every key on the piano, including strumming the strings inside at times. Baxter set the grooves from soft shuffles to in-the-pocket swing. In the second movement of the Voice suite, his solo drum work conjured up Native American spirit dances while Marie earlier in the piece chanted like she was calling up the ancestors.