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 |