Keys was simply stunning at AVA
By Gerald M. Gay
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.30.2008
Alicia Keys shimmered under the stage lights at Casino del Sol's AVA Sunday night.
The butterfly imprint on her charcoal black shirt sparkled with silver sequins. So did her block heels, her drape earrings and the suspenders holding up her skin-tight pants.
The extra flash looked fetching on the 27-year-old New York native but was completely unnecessary.
Keys' vocals are unparalleled, her songs have won multiple Grammy awards, and she looked absolutely stunning Sunday, with her hair straightened and pulled back into a ponytail. She didn't need to wear an elaborate ensemble in order to shine.
"I've met a lot of really good people today already," the young singer said with seeming sincerity to the packed venue at the beginning of her show. "I feel we are in the right spot tonight."
Keys spent the rest of her two-hour set dividing her time between a grand piano on a rotating platform center stage and strutting back and forth, belting out hit after hit, accompanied by a 10-piece band that included sax and trumpet players, a drummer and three backup vocalists.
Many of the evening's melodies came from her latest release, "As I Am," including "Teenage Love Affair," the defiant show opener "Go Ahead" and the encore megahit, "No One."
But some of the best moments arose from Keys' twists on older songs.
Keys surprised the crowd with a salsa/Latin jazz rendition of her popular hit "Karma" from her 2003 sophomore release, "The Diary of Alicia Keys."
"Tonight I'm going to take you to a place called Spanish Harlem," she said before tearing into Latin percussion-backed piano work akin to that of Eddie Palmieri or Chucho Valdés.
She followed "Karma" with an extended rendition of "How Come You Don't Call Me" from her 2001 debut, "Songs in A Minor." Keys let members of her band work through elaborate solos on "Call Me" as she smiled and watched from her black piano bench.
It's rare to find a neo-soul artist like Keys playing Tucson, and even rarer to find such an artist playing a large venue like the AVA.
This fact was not lost on an extremely appreciative crowd of mostly women.
They cheered through the opening sets of the talented Atlanta-based singer Novel and Keys' own backup vocalist Jermaine Paul.
And the whistles, hollers and screeching became downright deafening during Keys' set. More often than not, the audience enthusiasm drowned out what Keys had to say on stage between songs.
Many fans tried to keep up with Keys' incredible vocal range, failing miserably while singing along.
Keys didn't seem to mind the off-key vocals. She encouraged them to sing and made each one feel like a million bucks.
"No matter who you are and who you love, it's very important they know exactly how much you're worth," Keys said before breaking into "A Woman's Worth," another track from "Songs in A Minor."
â— Contact reporter Gerald M. Gay at 573-4137 or ggay@azstarnet.com.
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