by S. Rotan Hale
All things considered, it was one of those crazy-special nights Thursday, Jan. 28 at Roanoke’s Jefferson Center in Fitzpatrick Hall.
On stage was former Roanoker Rene` Marie, an amazing vocalist with a most unusual style who had the audience spellbound from the first line of her opening tune “Peel Me A Grape.” The song is one of several featured on Marie’s latest album, “I Wanna Be Evil: With Love to Eartha Kitt.” The Grammy nominated CD pays tribute to Kitt as one of the worlds most compelling jazz artists and an activist as well.
The show was well attended and the audience was solidly locked into a performance filled with Marie’s sassy and provocative compositions backed by tight and colorful progressions from a trio of master musicians.
The love and respect she has for her band: John Chin (piano), Elias Bailey (upright bass) and drummer Quinton Baxter, was obvious. Together they created a most intense and unifying musical force. Both Chin and Baxter have solo releases of their own.
Early in the show Marie expressed what a treat it was to come home and with charming wit, kept things upbeat and humorous between songs.
When not singing, she delicately danced to the music that perfectly accentuates her outside-of-the-box style and lures the listener into her world of lyrical charisma.
The first set featured songs that highlighted the greatness of Eartha Kitt as “C’est Si Bon,” (it is so good), “Oh John” and two popular favorites “Santa Baby” and “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” Marie really showed her dynamic theatrical skills closing the set with the CD’s title tune “I Wanna Be Evil.”
During the second set the group performed tunes from her new CD of all originals, to be released May 13. They opened with the title tune “Sound of Red,” a smoke-filled room kind of bluesy tune accented with several impressive solos that highlighted Bailey’s chops as a superb bassist–well-balanced and fluid.
Part of Marie’s style involves the use of stories that set the sage to many of her songs. With Chin in the background softly tickling the ivories, she recounted experiences of living in Hollins at the age of 30 with her two young sons and her childhood in Warrenton, VA from which her family hailed. The visual was the perfect prelude to “Many Years Ago,” a soft and beautiful song reminiscent of those times that “were not always the happiest.”
Marie gingerly tipped through an extremely revealing and touching account of her falling in love with a married man. She said her mother, Daisy, was a major source of support through it all…“no moralizing or expressions of disappointment.” The story was the opener to the tear-jerker “Go Home.”
One selection “Lost” was inspired by “a lot of women I know including my own damn self,” she said. It was a choppy high-paced tune with several movements infused with chaotic elements bordering on avant-garde on which Chin dominated with dynamic piano progressions.
During one movement in the song, Marie performed some extremely innovative scat–tactfully interacting with the band’s rapid-fire pace with remarkable results.
As an artist, Marie doesn’t just sing songs. Her thoughtful and penetrating compositions address many of the very issues and life experiences we all face as humans.
In response to her mother’s request to dedicate a song to “all of you hear,” she performed “Blessings,” a prophetic ballad praising the many blessings that are generally taken for granted. She ad-libbed through the ending transforming the tune into what became an incredible sermon-song with an enlightening truth that rang throughout the hall.
Roanoke’s own Rene Marie is truly a world-class artist that explodes with character and depth beyond measure. Her shear brilliance as an entertainer and bearer of truth, etches her place firmly among the greatest divas of modern artistic expression.
