Jeffrey Osborne had the ladies screaming the first night of the 'Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues' festival, which took place at the Cinnamon Hill Ocean Course at the Wyndham Rose Hall Resort in Montego Bay. JEFFREY OSBORNE brought the first night of the sixth staging of the 'Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues' festival to a resoundingly successful close.
The three-day festival is produced by the jazz channel, BET JAZZ and took place at the Cinnamon Hill Ocean Course at the Wyndham Rose Hall Resort in Montego Bay.
The golf course provided a rather relaxed setting for the festival and saw most of the patrons lounging about on the mounds until later on in the show.
Osborne's fantastic closing performance followed very good performances from Soneros de Verdad, Toots Hibbert and The Spinners. The minute he first appeared, Osborne began to win the crowd over, crooning the first of many favourites. He told the audience that a part of what he appreciated about his many appearances in Jamaica was that they also loved some songs that had not been popular in the United States.
With that, he launched into Shine On, Yesterday and never looked back. Whether that song had been a hit in the rest of the world or not, it was certainly a hit with those who had turned out for Thursday's offering.
After that ballad, he upped the tempo with Stay With Me Tonight. He then decided to perform a re-mix version of Doing the Butt, and actually did the protruding-wiggling-bottom motion at least once. He tried to get his female back-up singer to join him but she protested that she could not dance 'like Jamaican girls'.
Osborne's jump from fast to slow, one decade to the other, would actually be the pattern throughout the set. Rather than having any particular segment, he mixed in the slow and the fast, jumping into the 1970s and then hurrying back to the 1980s.
By this time, the audience at the very front of the stage had abandoned their earlier relaxed mode and formed a standing-room-only crowd. Although some of those atop the knolls remained seated, there were far more people standing and rocking than was previously the case.
It was then time to take the audience On The Wings Of Love, a flight which they quite enjoyed. The performance of this song was quite a 'screamfest' and Osborne played it for all it was worth. He brought it to a fantastic close stretching out almost every word, to the backing of a thunderous (though not overwhelming) drum roll.
He then took the audience back to the days when he was the lead singer for the group LTD. Osborne had started as the group's drummer but later became its lead singer.
"I used to have hair back then in the '70s," he told the audience, poking fun at the fact that he is now almost completely bald.
For his trip back to his youth, Osborne discarded his jacket, as his performance became even more energetic. He performed tunes such as Back In Love Again and It's Much More Than This.
His performance was brought to a very extended close when he declared, "It's time for a little 'woo'!"
The mentioned 'Woo' came from You Should Be Mine, which contains the line, Can you woo-woo-woo?. This song did not end like the others. Stating that he needed to find out how many people can 'woo-woo-woo', Osborne made his way through the audience. This sent some persons skittering out of the way, although several volunteered to have their "woo-ability" tested.
This segment was a tremendous success since some very good vocals were found in the audience. Additionally, showing their own showmanship, each person tried to differentiate their performance from the last.
Osborne's performance had also benefited from that of The Spinners'. The group had earlier dazzled the audience with their fancy footwork and string of hits. Additionally, as the band change between their performance and Osborne's was significantly shorter than the previous ones (which tended to run for at least a half hour), the audience was clearly already in the mood.
The Spinners performed favourites such as Sadie, A Mighty Love, Ain't It Funny and Could It Be I'm Falling In Love. Their performance had the audience rocking and clapping to their songs and giving rousing round of applause when their set ended.
