Dionne,Whitney and Ms Natalie Cole together in concert last night
It´s the morning after the concert in Oberhausen that ran about 4 hours last night and ended shortly before midnight with Dionne, Whitney and Natalie performing That´s What Friends Are For as an encore to an extremely, friendly and supportive sellout crowd of 15000 (mostly gay men, it seemed
) that also included Ms. Cissy Houston. I want to give you a quick report on what went on now and might return to give you some extra details later.
All in all it was musically a very mixed bag but emotionally and as human drama it certainly was a night to remember. Based on the reviews from the Hamburg and Munich shows earlier in the week the performances must have varied extremely from night to night. Dionne got glowing notices in Hamburg and Munich and was vocally painfully strained and hoarse last night, the worst I´ve ever seen her. While Whitney who had triumphed in Hamburg and was described as unable to really get through any song in Munich because of a constant shortness of breath, hitting the wrong notes, forgetting the words etc. gave a performance that was vocally solid and musically more interesting and more Houston/Drinkard in some parts than when I last saw her in concert 7 or 8 years ago.
Dionne opened the set with a decent Close To You and then went into an interestingly "deconstructed" version of Walk On By that had hints of Isaac Hayes´ take of the song and was sung in a higher key again than what we heard from Dionne recently. Maybe the changes in tempo and phrasing made it easier for Dionne to do it in a higher key again, I dont´t know. From Walk On By on what followed was stiched together in a medley that was ok for the occasion but totally lacked the spectacle of the past medleys .There was none of the "one second she is still doing one song and the next she´s already in the middle of the next" grandezza we know from the past. The medley also included AWHAH, This Girl...,ISALP that generated the biggest response from the audience (it very much seemed to me that in this country people consider it totally a DW song and not an Aretha song) and a terrible take on WTWNN where she actually tried to have the audience do some of the singing for her, but when that turned out lackluster she didn´t do much herself either, it sort of just died...After that came I Never Love This Way Again and it was a first time for me to see her struggle on that one and after that she closed with Heartbreaker on which she was greatly aided by a tumultous response from the audience that clapped and cheered and sang along so loud that Dionne just had to make it through to finish her set.
After her came Natalie Cole who looked and moved like she was a robot on remote control with a strange empty gaze that made my neighbor turn to me and say: "Oh god, Whitney got the other two ladies to do drugs with her". The set was ok, but I hadn´t really thought about how little of a catalogue of her own she really has and while she has a pleasant, jazzy instrument she is no patti who can make up for her limited own material by instantly making other people´s songs her own.
And then came a Whitney that looked pleasantly middle-aged with a little bid of extra weight, a very obvious wig, a slightly tacky sequinned gown and all in all the mannerisms of Dame Shirley Bassey. But also with totally the vocal power and the control of such a diva. Giving very safe but self-assured readings of You Give Good Love, The Greatest Love Of All, Saving All My Love etc...Material that was always a bit MOR, seemed now totally devoid of any soul but was performed with a still powerful voice.
And then, and at that point totally unexpected for me, two stunning and brilliant things happened, that I will never forget:
Dionne returned to the stage and Whitney suddenly unexpectably seemed very human and very real and very young again and full of obvious love and admiration for her first cousin when they then performed two duets together. As a real treat "Wishin´and Hopin´", a song Whitney said she had loved since she was a little girl and one Dionne claimed she hated, which they performed with wonderful humor making fun of the slightly naive lyrics and a Dionne that sounded, if you closed your eyes, like 63 - 1963. I don´t know what happened in that moment that made it so different from the rest of the evening, but she did.
And then came Alfie, where they battled it out, and you got a glimpse of how Whitney as a musician has somewhere deep down actually matured - not just aged - and how the difficulties of the last years have improved her ability to interpret brilliant music and brilliant lyrics...Just wonderful, with Dionne still coming out on top...I´m pretty sure we are going to hear this one on record pretty soon.
And the second brilliant thing that then happpened, after Dionne had left the stage again, was Whitney performing a bit of gospel music for a couple of minutes. But not in a I turn every song I sing into a Whitney Houston song regardless of where the material comes from sort of way, like it was on The Preacher´s Wife soundtrack or on the awful Christmas album, but very, very much as Cissy´s daughter. Genuine, mature, musically brilliant...as an obvious heir to Aretha, Mavis, Cissy, everybody...Just incredible...
And that was that. And I think I actually now told you everything you might want to know...and maybe more.
Greetings from Düsseldorf,
Andreas
