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MASTERS AT WORK - RUMSEY PLAYFIELD - 6/2/00
so this was my first weekend summerstage show. i learned a lesson: get their early. people who have no remote interest in the band will go there and put out their blanket and soak up the sun (and hopefully get skin cancer) because it's a very open area, and hey, maybe they'll listen to some tunes too. FUCK them.

anyhow, the show was pretty good. we got there at the tail end of louie vega's dj set. if the whole thing was as good as the bit i caught, then he truly earns the nickname, "the minister of house music." the peak was dan hartman's "relight my fire," and i dare you to pick a better tune for a climax. the music was LOUD and grooving and fun even if i didn't recognize a lot of it.

the actual concert turned out to be a slight disappointment for me. jody watley (?) was the first singer out -- she'd just done a track with louie and kenny which shows their absolute arranging mastery, but also their difficulties with a tune. she did one of her hits and then aided on "everybody loves the sunshine" with...

...roy ayers, whose set should've been better than it was given the classics he had at his disposal. "sunshine" was a let-down: without the clinky piano and the cool synth effects, it seemed oddly lifeless. even "runnin' away" just barely got over by dint of roy's enthusiasm. thankfully, things would pick up in a big way when...

dj jazzy jeff took control. as some of you will undoubtedly recall, he was will smith's ex-partner in rhyme. i now understand why they broke up: jeff probably couldn't stand will's lack of talent any longer. jeff, even before he hooked up with smith, was renown as one of the innovators of scratching -- he allegedy was the first to do the backward scratch. his set was mind-blowing, showing a good ear for the music and an equally adept hand for the mixer. even knowing that he was talented, i was shocked at just how good he was. a real crowd-pleaser, and he would've been the afternoon's highlight, but then...

...jocelyn brown took the stage. jocelyn, if you don't know her, has one of those love/hate voices. she sounds like tina turner, only grittier. i like her far too much to say that she sounds like she's constipated, so forget that you read that. her set kicked off with a storming version of "ain't no mountain high enough," which she had done while a member of seminal dance outfit, inner life. when the largely a capella intro of "somebody else's guy" began, the crowd lost it and it only got more frenzied once the beat dropped. this was the absolute highlight of the day. one of the best feelings you can have is being at a big concert, especially a dance concert, where everyone is getting down and singing along with every word.

on the other hand, when people are unfamiliar with the songs, particularly when they're ones you love, it brings the proceedings back down to earth. the next two she performed were "nights over egypt," a jones girls classic, and the towering "always there" (maw remix). both are undeniable gems but no one seemed to know them, so you saw some half-hearted dancing, but neither took off the way earlier songs had, which was frustrating to me. on top of that, "always there" was underwhelming: it didn't really translate well to the live setting.

after that, many people seemed to scatter and the mood died down as most seemed to think the show was over. not so, as jocelyn and all of the day's performers ripped into "it's alright, i feel it," one of maw's anthems. again, the sense of excitement wasn't there and what was a great version of the song seemed unappreciated. as i said earlier, this is the problem when you get a lot of people who are just coming to the show to get some sun or are just casual listeners. as much as you'd like to see the crowd come alive again, you just know it's not going to happen -- and it didn't.

i left feeling pretty good, after all, it was a free show. i was disappointed that "runaway," one of my favorite singles of the last decade and arguably their biggest hit, was not played. i know india wasn't there to do it, but i'm sure they could've brought in someone to sing it. other than that, it was a good day of music and a beautiful day. it's hard to complain too much (though i'll be damned if i didn't try, eh?).