"They don't make men like that anymore," a woman was overheard saying to her man at the intermission of Leonard Cohen's concert Sunday at the Orpheum Theatre. "He's such a gentleman."

Courtly would have been the word to describe the 74-year-old Canadian's demeanor onstage. So would romantic, sexy, spiritual, political, poetic, profound and ageless.

The Mick Jagger-thin man in the sharp black suit, bolo tie and fedora trotted onstage and skipped off during a two-set, three-hour, four-encore performance. This was deeply satisfying, tantric concertizing by the Jewish Buddhist monk. And the worshipful sellout audience responded as if it were having a religious experience at the House of Cohen.

In his first Twin Cities appearance since 1993, the revered songwriter and rumbling singer dressed his poems of hope, love and despair in a rich tapestry of smooth jazz, gospel and gypsy-tinged world music. Like a jazz concert, the approach allowed each of the six musicians and three backup singers to shine. Javier Mas, from Barcelona, was especially outstanding on bandurria, laud, archilaud and 12-string acoustic guitar, and the Webb Sisters, Hattie and Charley, did some lovely Irish vocalizing on the prayer-like "If It Be Your Will" and eye-popping cartwheels during "The Future," following Cohen's own little soft-shoe routine.

Seeming more like a performance artist than a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Cohen was lost in his own world, head bent down, eyes closed, right hand clutching the microphone, left hand clenched around the microphone cord. He often dropped to one knee and once to both (during "Chelsea Hotel #2" about his fling with Janis Joplin), but this routine began to seem like an affectation. He plucked a guitar on a few tunes and plunked a couple of notes on an electric piano on "Tower of Song" in a way that was so slight that fans applauded and he joked about their applause.

Making his first U.S. tour in 15 years in order to replenish his retirement fund, which was squandered by an ex-manager, Cohen is finding many new converts, who may have discovered him in the lyrics of a Nirvana song or via versions of his "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley, "American Idol" finalist Jason Castro or in the movie "Shrek."

Not surprisingly, the increasingly famous "Hallelujah," done with hymn-like restraint by Cohen, received a standing ovation on Sunday. The brightest of the other highlights included the hauntingly spare "Chelsea Hotel #2" (with the great line: "we are ugly but we have the music"); the spoken-word poem about wanting the relationship to go 1,000 kisses deep; "First We Take Manhattan" with its soulful groove; "I Tried to Leave You" as a fittingly false finale, and the gypsy soul strut "I'm Your Man," a perfect combination of the playful and the profound, just like the gentleman himself.

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Jon Bream • 612-673-1719