The Beauty of Live Music
I have had the privilege of enjoying live music a couple of times in my music journey. Any music lover ought to experience the profundity of live musicking. It is second to none!
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Live music can be accessed during tours, concerts, live sessions, award ceremonies, galas, private parties, government functions, etc.
Live music embodies the propensity of audience retention in the present moment. A live band displaces absent-mindedness and guarantees a disconnect from life’s burdens and challenges. The warm and electrifying ambience coupled with a unified audience transports a chill down one’s spine.
Live music fosters audience participation and engagement with the artist on stage. Audience participation is mostly utilized by artistes as a yardstick to measure “whether they are meeting the aesthetic expectation of the audience” (Maultsby 48). As R&B singer, Toni Braxton posits, the audience participation is also a strategy employed by entertainers in moments of emotional and mental incapacitation. She notes, “Sometimes I would forget a few of the lyrics to my own songs!...When you go brain dead, just ask the audience to sing along with you - fans often know the lyrics better than I do!” (257).
Were I an artist, I sure would be delighted to hear fans sing my songs, word for word. That would be the pinnacle of my career, the realization that my songs have touched lives and have been retained in the hearts of listeners.
Furthermore, live music also serves as a filter for the demarcation of authentic singers from the impostors. It is common knowledge that many artistes have utilized the lip-syncing mechanism during live performances. Real singing requires practice, commitment and discipline. It is tasking and energy consuming. Lip-syncing requires a dress rehearsal and minuscule effort. You may call it musical fraudulence, but keep in mind, that music is a capitalist enterprise aimed at revenue generation and profit maximization. With lip-syncing at work, an artist can sing every other night for a whole year. With real singing, an artist would need a break, in-between. And that ain’t good for the money, no sir!
Live performance functions as a window for the ascertainment of an artist’s true essence and true expression. Studio recordings often constrict and deconstruct artistic authenticity. Oftentimes, an artist’s sonic quality becomes distinctively dissimilar during a live performance. Few artistes managed to maintain sonic harmony and uniformity between their live performances and studio recordings, one of such was Luther Vandross. Few artists like Vandross enjoy the privilege of exercising creative control over their works. In the music world, some artists are more powerful than others. In any case, live performances allow a bridge building between the artist and audience. The audience can thereafter, decidedly conclude if they would further patronize an artist.
Live music is beautiful and flows on the tide of spontaneity while enabling creativity, experimentation, fun, brilliance and dynamism. One can detect an artist’s musical intelligence and ability to express musical liberalism which pushes one out of the delimiting box of the studio environment. And the artist’s synergy with the background singers and instrumentalist factors immensely in the equation, for they too, are equally significant to the success of the show.
What follows is a list of some of the most incredible live performances for your viewing pleasure. Kindly note, that none of the music content on this page belongs to me. They serve the purpose of entertainment and awareness creation.
Aretha Franklin - "Nessun Dorma" (Franklin stood in for a sick Luciano Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammy Awards. This performance marked the birth of opera-soul, if ever there was one. She stepped out of her comfort zone, and left the audience completely enthralled and mesmerized).
Barry White - "Let The Music Play" (White is PHENOMENAL).
Chaka Khan - "Ain't Nobody" (The fiery Ms Khan performs her signature song with the Metropole Orchestra in Utrecht, Holland. In my humble view, this outshines the studio recording).
Cynthia Erivo - " Stand Up" (Erivo sings with amazing clarity and precision at the Oscar’s 2020. She shines, so brightly!).
Donnie McClurkin (feat Marvin Winans). "Who Would've Thought" (Two of Gospel music’s most prominent male vocalists in their best form. The song is contained in McClurkin’s Live In London album (2000).
Earth Wind and Fire - "That's The Way Of The World" (When the elements come calling, you are left astounded and speechless!).
“Fantastic” Fantasia Barrino - "Lady Marmalade" (Barrino’s deserved victory at the third edition of American Idol in 2004 is further validated by this performance. She pays tribute to one of the icons of R&B/ Soul music, Ms Patti LaBelle).
Joe - "I'd Rather Have Love" (Well, after hearing this, I think I’d rather have Joe. He is one of R&B’s finest music-makers, pretty under-rated).
Michael Kiwanuka - "Love and Hate" ( Kiwanuka, British artist of Ugandan descent, performs one of the most sublime songs ever written, in Hamburg, Germany).
Prince - "Purple Rain" (At the Super Bowl XLI, 2007, the beautiful one performs unrehearsed in the rain. When the rain pours while singing a song about the rain itself, the heavens are signalling their divine endorsement. It doesn’t get more profound and legendary than that!).
Ron Kenoly. "Winna Mon" (The master of gospel music’s performance embodies the audience participation dynamic of live music in his album Welcome Home,1996)
Tina Turner - "Better Be Good To Me" (Ms Turner is known for energetic, dynamic, mesmerizing and contagious live performances. She brings her equally legendary legs to duty at one of the most captivating performances of her enduring career).
Yanni - "Renegade" (The composer and instrumentalist, Yiannis Chryssomallis fondly called “Yanni” defies categorization in this multi-instrumental ensemble with Karen Briggs’ violin and Pedro Eustache’s clarinet leading the musical dialogue. Fantabulous!).
Yanni - "Love Is All" ( Yanni pays tribute to the Taj Mahal, an Indian architectural masterpiece inspired by love. The vocalization is rendered by the lovely Vann Johnson, whose memory would forever remain dear in our hearts).
REFERENCES:
Braxton, Toni. Unbreak My Heart: A Memoir. It Books, 2014.
Maultsby, Portia K. “The Politics of Race Erasure in Defining Black Popular Origins”. Issues In African American Music, edited by Maultsby, Portia K and Mellonee V.Burnim. New York: Routledge, 2017, pp 47-65.
