Dionne Warwick surmounted her pain with music Thursday night at the Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center.
“I stubbed my toe in a hotel bathroom,” Warwick said, as she took the stage, walking with a slow gait and wearing thick, white slippers. “You have no idea I am in so much pain.”
Then she tried to laugh it off.
“I was going to do a couple of backflips tonight, but now I can’t,” Warwick, 77, said with a grin.
The big hurt wasn’t enough to dull the power of Warwick’s music. Her remarkable career stretches from the early 1960s to the present.
At times, this concert was like a Dionne Warwick jukebox as she sang hit, after hit, after hit. She spent much of the show, sitting on a chair at center stage, surrounded by her four-piece band.
Warwick’s voice no longer possesses its youthful luster but this singer still has the pipes to sell a song and deliver a powerful performance.
She hit all the right notes – including the high ones — on one of her classics, “I’ll Never Love This Way Again.” There was more emotion on “What the World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love.”
Early in the show, Warwick – with closely cropped chalk-white hair and wearing black sequined slacks with a multi-colored jacket tied at the waist – took the audience on a retrospective trip of her career.
It started with one of her first big hits from 1964, “Walk On By.” That song came out in the year the Beatles conquered America, but Warwick held her own on the record charts during the English invasion.
There was something comforting, watching Warwick sitting in a chair and singing those familiar hits all these years later. They included: “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “You Never Get to Heaven If You Break My Heart,” “This Girl’s In Love With You” and “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.”
Next, it was time for something special for the song “I Say A Little Prayer”
“We wanted to bring this song into the 21st Century, so we re-recorded it as a duet,” Warwick said. “And the person I recorded it with is on this stage tonight.”
David Elliott, Dionne Warwick’s son, just happened to be playing drums. Elliott had worked as a police officer.
“Now that was a real job,” his mother said.
On this night, however, Elliott was back in as Dionne described, “the business called show.” Elliott teamed with his mother on an updated, jazzy and soulful version of “Say A Little Prayer.” Elliott gave the song a Marvin Gaye vibe.
Afterwards, Elliott noted he hasn’t been singing while playing the drums in years.
“It’s hard to sing while moving your arms and legs playing the drums,” he said.
“You did good, baby,” Mama Warwick replied.
So did the rest of Warwick’s band: John Rob Shrock, who is conductor and plays piano; William Hunter, keyboards and Danny Demorales on bass.
Warwick went into an irate diva mode when the audience responded with lukewarm support when she first introduced band members.
“Let me tell about a story that happened to me when I played Las Vegas,” Warwick said. “I introduced the band and the audience didn’t respond the way they should.
After the show, Sammy Davis Jr. came up to me and said, ‘Girl, you didn’t seem happy.’
“He told me sometimes the audience appreciates musicians but they don’t know what the protocol is to show that appreciation. Sammy then told me to always remember: applause is the stuff that nourishes an entertainer.”
Warwick then re-introduced the band to wild cheers and loud applause.
Much of Warwick’s career has been defined by the music of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. She sang their big hits but a highlight came near the end with a couple of lesser-known numbers. Bacharach wrote “The Windows of the World” in 1967, and Warwick gave the soft, tender number just the right vocal.
She then did a Hal David number, “99 Miles From LA,” with bittersweet emotion.
Such is the talent of Dionne Warwick– the ability to take any song and make it her own.
“I feel like I’ve known Dionne Warwick all my life; her music has always been with me,” said Villages singer Billie Thatcher. “I remember when ‘Walk On By’ came out. I always thought that was one of her best songs.
“She has tremendous range and can sing anything. She was blessed with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, but she took their songs and made them work. She’s very special.”
Villager Carolou Russell agreed.
“I’ve got all of Dionne Warwick’s CDs and I play them all the time,” she said. “I’m so glad I’m finally getting a chance to see her in The Villages.”
