Stone Throw Records artist Aloe Blacc was headlining the Silverlake Jubilee on Sunday night, and if you thought (like me) that old school soul-R&B cannot be freshened up, you might be wrong. Aloe Blacc, with his large music ensemble of horn, sax, guitar, organ keyboard, drums, bass and congas, arrived on stage with some Sinatra hat and was acclaimed like a big star.
During his whole set, he moved with the agility of a cat, danced with the ease of Michael Jackson – yeah, I dare to say so as he could really do his own homage to the Motown-Moonwalk – and sang his soul revival with a smooth smoky voice that didn’t carry very far, but can reach the highs, and I say this as a relief, as bulky-hefty voices get on my nerves very fast.
Blacc had so much charm and charisma, it was difficult to not like him, he was communicating constantly with his audience, was constantly moving with the same grace and ease, and was taking the pause, arms spread apart, athletic body slightly bent.
He made people clap over his songs off his most recent release ‘Good Things’, played ‘Simon Says’ with his keyboardist and the crowd, did more moonwalking on stage, effortlessly playing the incarnation of coolness. The multi-ethnic LA audience equally loved each of his moves, singing along, and somehow, Blacc was able to combine his old school classic soul with some hip-hop-tingled delivery… but I read he began his career as a rapper and he married one, Mexican-Australian rapper Maya Jupiter, who joined him on stage during a song – she actually was playing before him on the same stage, and Aloe joined her for a song too, awww!
The horn assaults were responding to his voice, while he had this same expressive coolness, even doing the whole funky-Isaac-Hayes- groove, making everyone happy, really happy.
'I want to see you groove and dance!’ he yelled to everyone, then he made the crowd split like Moses did with the red sea, in order to let the place for a dance party floor, which turned to be more a mosh pit than anything else.
Before coming back for an encore with ‘Loving you is killing me’, while declaring a few ‘Peace love and soul until next time’, he finally sang his biggest hit, that everyone was expecting, ‘I need a dollar’, a song used as the theme for the HBO series ‘How to Make It in America’. If nothing else he sang was that catchy, the stage persona was inspired enough to convince us he has effectively made it in America.