Hosted by Rev. A.R.Bernard and Soledad O' Brien(CNN), and under the direction of Ray Chew, last night's Night of Inspiration gospel concert electrified a jam packed Carnegie Hall. My fears of being disappointed by the "bigger is better" glitz and glamor approach so often used by musical concert promoters quickly vanished under a seemingly relentess stream of superb vocal and spoken word performances. Vivan and Ray Chew (Chew Entertainment) deserve high marks for orchestrating and managing such a resoundingly successful, star-studded line up at Carnegie Hall.
A gifted musical director, Ray Chew has a dignified, commanding presence. His confident yet sensitive approach showed in his seamless handling of the performances that evening. It didn't matter if was an individual performer, member of the choir, or the symphonic orchestra, Chew was always "in the moment" or one step ahead in meeting their needs. His expert arrangement and innovative leadership were evident in how this night unfloded.
The concert opened with a group of teenagers dressed in black and white, shirts fashionably out of the pants, marching out in dramatic fashion. Some stood in the aisles, others positioned themselves directly in front of the orchestra. In unsion, they put on an energentic a capella, adrenanlin pumping step show. And the concert skyrocketed from this point on, with one mega star immediately following another, culminating in a "we-are-the-world" all-star gospel chorus finale.
At different times during certain performaces, I had the distinct feeling that Carnegie Hall was literally rocking in response to the explosive combination of crescendo-ing music, roaring crowd, and deafening applause. I wondered if this was some ingenious architectural-sound-engineeering wizadry unique to Carnegie Hall to accomodate for the reverberations of large bands and audiences located on so many tiers within the building. Upon mentioning my observation to some folks at the after party, I was chided for not recognizing that the building had in fact "caught the Holy Spirit" (LOL).
The souful baritione sound of Michael McDonald, the very first artist to perform, certanly soothed my sprit that evening...the lyrics of his song, "taking it to the Streets seemed fitting.... (MORE TO COME)
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