Jacksonville Beach, FL

There are times when the pieces all fall into place, and you get a glimpse of what this music really is all about, the audience it can pull, and just how much flat out fun it can be.  Euge Groove always brings it on in concert. Put him in front of a crowd that is a cross section of the folks that hang out on the beach on any given Sunday afternoon, and everyone on both sides of the stage gets fired up and starts to feed off each other. What you get is one big party by the ocean with smooth jazz front and center.

Euge Groove has presence. When he walks onstage, that's where your eyes get stuck till the music stops. He doesn't pose, pout, or strut the stage like it’s a catwalk. He just puts himself in the center of the music he's making and plays his you-know-what off. He hit the stage stylin' just enough in a jacket, tie, and jeans and tore into a big, funky, loud version of "Get 'em Goin' “ that set the mood for the evening by doing just that. The people who were already there started staking out dancing space between the chairs, beach blankets, kids, and dogs. Others wandered up from off the beach and out of the adjacent bars to see where the slammin’ music was coming from, and packed the sidewalks and beach ramps beside the park. The band - Michael Egizi/keyboard, Derek Organ/drums, Stan Sargent/bass, and Tory Ruffin/guitar - has that same big, full, clean sound that has been the trademark of Boney’s band and the Guitars & Saxes tours. It's like being hit with a wall of pure funk. The next 3 songs, "Livin' Large," "Sneak A Peek" and "Slam Dunk," all high energy blasts, had Groove urging the crowd to get into it. "Are ya Living Large?" he'd shout, then take it up a notch. "Chillaxin" took it down to midtempo and got everyone into an arm waving sway. It's the setup for one of the highlights in Euge's set; his one- man soul revue take on "Just My Imagination," that features one of the most original, fun, and entertaining audience participation bits I've ever seen. To reveal it would spoil the surprise factor though. Let's just say he knows his Motown and he can read your mind. This spikes some conversation with the crowd about his Just Feels Right CD and the classic soul music from one favorite year, 1976, that inspired it. He did a human jukebox thing, singing snippets from a bunch of songs from that year that launched 12:08 AM, a slow burner that had Egizi throwing down retro Rhodes and B-3 effects, and Groove sounding like Sanborn at his peak then breaks the fever with a quietly impassioned solo sax version of "God Bless America" that hushed the crowd and left them cheering for the performance and the meaning of the song. Keeping the spirit of classic soul hooks alive, he pulled the chorus of "Take Me To The River" into the center of "Straight Up" and "This Must Be For Real" then flipped it in a different direction during "XXL"s' dueling sax-guitar break where Tory Ruffin played some sizzling Ernie Isley flavored guitar licks and Groove responded by delivering a flawless segment of an etude from the great classical saxophonist Marcel Mule. Played really fast. We are appropriately in awe.

It’s impossible to verbalize the energy coming off that stage during “T.O.P.” Just when you think they couldn’t take it higher they go into overdrive with a raucous tribute to Tower of Power. Groove and Egizi were face to face looking like they were having the time of their life getting larger and louder by the minute while people filled up the space in front of the stage. Egizi is amazing. Like Euge, he has that intangible “thing.”  Style, presence, chops, and through the whole set he looked like he was having so much fun it’s contagious. The crowd in the front row got it. By the end of the set the crowd was the front row. It didn’t matter where you were sitting or standing, everybody in the place felt like they were front and center.

The encore, “Truly Emotional” was the perfect wind-down. A pure Euge Groove  - the obvious play on words but when it fits, it fits! – Then as sweaty as you get from leaving it all onstage on a summer night in Florida, he headed for the signing booth to hang out with the fans for another hour. Walking through the crowd I heard that free concert mantra that sounds so fine: “I’ve never heard anything like this before and I want to hear more!” 

- Shannon West