Dunlevy: Mavis Staples kicks off 45th Montreal jazz fest with a whole lotta soul
It was a cool night for a hot start to the 45th Montreal International Jazz Festival as Chicago soul legend Mavis Staples showed tens of thousands of music fans how it's done in the opening night free outdoor blowout.
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Temperatures hovered just under the 20-degree mark, which wasn't so bad, but coming off an oppressive early-summer heat wave, it felt almost like fall. That wasn't enough to stop the throngs from taking in the sights and sounds on the free stages early in the evening. Or to prevent everyone from gathering in front of the main TD stage just after sunset.
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Staples made her entrance just after 9:30 p.m., bringing along a lifetime of soul singing that started with her siblings when she was just a little girl. Her dad was pals with Martin Luther King, Jr., leading the family band The Staple Singers (of which she is the last surviving member) to become closely associated with the civil rights movement.
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'Montreal!' Staples shouted a few songs in, to enthusiastic cheers and an impromptu call and response. 'Yeah!' she called out. 'Yeah!' the audience called back.
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'Oh my,' Staples continued. 'We're so happy to be with you, so happy to see all these smiling faces. Yes indeed. I tell you, we've been trying to get here; we finally made it. Well now, we bring you greetings from the Windy City — Chicago, Ill. We've come this evening to bring you some joy, some happiness, inspiration and some positive vibrations.'
She did all that and then some. It was two weeks before her 87th birthday and Staples was in fine form, and fine voice. Her trademark rasp hasn't lost any of its depth, and she let it rip on such songs as her 1996 Gospel number I'll Fly Away From Here, love jam I'm Just Another Soldier and an appropriately rugged rendition of Tom Waits's Chicago.
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She sounded righteous in delivering her old band's 1984 cover of Talking Heads' 1983 hit Slippery People, bringing out the song's Gospel influences without omitting its new wave edge.
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And she took us back to the '60s while performing the Staple Singers' downright funky 1967 version of Buffalo Springfield's 1966 peace anthem For What It's Worth. Far from mere nostalgia, Staples delivered her lines like she was belting them out for the first time — with passion and feeling.
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She unleashed another heartfelt 'Yeah!' at song's end. 'Y'all feel alright? Do you feel alright? OK, I feel pretty good myself.'
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Montreal Gazette
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