(Photo by Allison Jean Eaton)Chaka Khan - 2006 August 19Summer Soul JamCompton Golf Course Par Three - Compton, CA01: I Feel for You (intro emcee: Paul Mooney)02: What Cha’ Gonna Do For Me03: Ain't Nobody04: Everlasting Love05: Pack’d My Bags06: Hollywood07: Stop On By (with Rahsaan Patterson and Lalah Hathaway)08: Through The Fire09: You Got the Love10: Tell Me Something Good11: Sweet Thing
See below to downloadNow, it's been at least a decade since I any more than overheard
Chaka Khan. And I can't say I have an extensive collection of soul, R&B or gospel either. But when a friend with
The Compton Bulletin asked if I'd like to go to the Summer Soul Jam featurning Chaka
and Roberta Flack (among others), how could I not?We arrived to the festival just moments before Flack took the stage, which suprised me as I had expected her to headline. I won't dwell, but suffice it to say that Flack's performance was not what I had hoped it would be. Rather, she seemed to have abandoned the raw emotion that characterized her 1969 premier
First Take for more of an easy listenting / smooth jazz vibe.After her set, emcee
Paul Mooney from
Chappelle's Show joked around for a bit then introduced a crooner by the name of
Rahsaan Patterson (who was actually quite a treat). Then, following some more Mooney hilarity,
Melle Mel's famous rap pumped from the PAs as Chaka Khan took the stage, opening with her hallmark cover of
Prince's "I Feel For You."At 53, she sounded as fresh as she did when I was wee, and looked great to boot (maybe
this stuff works after all). The gems of the show were "I Feel for You" and "Through the Fire" of course, but also "Stop On By" (featuring
Donny Hathaway's daughter,
Lalah) and "Sweet Thing," which has some fun solos at the end.The audience was poppin' (you'll notice a fan in the background endlessly encouraging Chaka to "sing that shit!") and I'm bummed to have missed the single-song encore. Lots of fun just the same ...
Download the gig:
mp3 format at multiply.com (personal listening only)
lossless shn format at Dimeadozen (
for trading / seeding)
Buy Chaka Khan recordings:
iTunes |
AmazonPS, a
friendly bloke on Dimeadozen created CD
liner notes and a
tray insert for this recording. Muchas gracias, TitoPuente!
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