March 21, 2007 Music » Hit & Run Reviews

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Live Music Review: Keite Young 

Saturday, March 2, at Jazz Café

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The Deal: Keite Young's eclectic circus.

The Good: Every now and then an artist comes along and bridges the gap between the "Get Crunk" generation and the "Purple Haze" generation; Joss Stone, John Legend, Nikka Costa and now Keite Young. With his eclectic fusion of funk and R&B, Young resurrected the sounds of rock 'n' roll's past and injected them with a dose of feel-good soul during his March 2 performance at the Jazz Café. He stood out on tracks like "Pray," with its old-school-Sunday-morning-mama- frying-bacon-in-the-kitchen-vibe and "Thinkuboutmi," which best displays the breadth of his musical style and proves why rock and soul fans can jam side by side to his music. On "Hurt" and "Hey Joy," Young took a detour from his soul/rock sound and went for a more subdued alt-rock feel, but as with much of his set he still kept it funky.

The Bad: Young wears his musical influences on his sleeve like a dusty jacket that needs to be dry-cleaned. The majority of his set sounded like a homage to his predecessors of the '70s and '80s, especially the Prince-inspired "Come Together" and James Brown-ish "Pressure," which was accompanied by Brown's signature squeal and dance. The only problem is Young is not in a cover band, but with him I feel like I've heard it all before.

The Verdict: Overall, Young put on a solid performance with its strength coming from his strong, soul-stirring vocals and a hard-hitting band. He may not be an originator of funk and soul, but right now he's the closest we got.

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