The upscale Malibu environs of Pepperdine University were turned into a low ceilinged jumping juke joint by the hands of Robert Cray and his soulful stew of blues, jazz and soul on Saturday night. In this day of cacophonic musical naval gazing and angst, Cray and his bandmates blew in a fresh breeze of sounds that took the best of American music back to its Southern roots.
Cray and his bandmates Les Falconer/dr, Dover Weinberg/key and Richard Cousins/b made the audience feel like they were simmering in a Memphis stew, as the team swung out an instrumental like “Hip Tight Onions” that grooved like the second coming of Booker T and the Mgs. Calling out to the audience to “make it funky tonight”, Cray delivered tasty and well chosen guitar pickings, and sang with a husky mix of Joe Tex and Eddie Floyd on the blue glide of “Poor Johnny” and the percolating “Anything You Want”. Weinberg’s smoky organ hummed out a series of cigar smoke rings as the band got low down on the slinky “You Can’t Make Me Change,” while Cray delivered howls and shrieks on the foot stomping “Move A Mountain”. Cousins and Falconer provided a rollicking back beat to the charging shuffle boogie of tunes such as “Hot” as Cray’s guitar cried like a grounded teenager here an don the white hot “You Move Me”.
Cray took the band to a quick side trip to Chicago with an unrushed and sweaty “Sitting On Top Of The World” with some full fisted support by Weinberg before Cray and the band brought the audience to a hush as the song softly and mystically faded away with each chorus agonizingly closing out more quietly than the previous, ending with a librarian’s silence. Cray and company then created murky waters on the haunting “To Be With You” and preached to the choir in both tenor and falsetto on the relentless “Right Next Door” and with his teeth chattering on the frigid “I Shiver”, as Cousins supplied some tasty bass lines, before he closed out with earthy red clay reads of “My Baby Likes to Boogaloo” and “Time Makes Two”.
Like the best of chefs, Cray has learned that the best meals are served up when the cook trusts his basic ingredients, not adding too many herbs and spices. Cray delivers a blue plate that allows all of the flavors to simmer and sit well in one’s palate, and on Saturday night, everyone left full and contented.
It was also a pleasure to be at Pepperdine’s Center because of their more science-driven policy of not checking for vaccines or negative COVID testing, but simply trusting that people are wise enough to stay home if not feeling well, and having people wear masks once inside. What a concept!
Upcoming shows at The Lisa Wengler Center for the Arts include 12/15 Take Six.