Think of it as the appetizer. A scrumptious two-serving app at that.
The days of Purple Celebration unofficially kicked off Wednesday night at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis with separate performances by Prince associates – LP Music and Shelby J.
LP Music, which played the early show, is a jazzy combo featuring ex-Prince tenor saxophonist Eric Leeds (hence L) and bassist Paul Peterson (hence P), who played in the Time and the Family. However, as Leeds said, they have an open marriage and Peterson was gigging in Australia as St. Paul and the Minneapolis All-Stars with guitarist Mike Scott, keyboardist Ricky Peterson and others.
Leeds turned to bassist Tony Axtell, longtime sound man for Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion." And Axtell fit right in with a simpatico group of players that found the groove as Leeds and keyboardists Peter Schimke and Brian Z were featured as lead musicians.
As a soloist, Leeds came across like a storyteller, spinning yarns with his expressive passages filled with twists and turns in the plot. The uptempo pieces like the funky "The Perfect 10" and the sometimes frantic, multi-ethnic-flavored "Pacemaker" were crowd favorites in the winning 100-minute set.
The audience left and a new crowd, filled with purple-clad and Prince glyph-wearing fans from all over the world, found their seats for the Shelby J show. For 10 years, she was a singer in Prince's NPG. Prince told her never to refer to herself as a backup singer but as a vocalist.
The 44-year-old North Carolinian certainly proved her bona fides as a vocalist in her 85-minute set.
Shelby is an exuberant personality who kept a positive message in her patter and her songs. She even gave a shout-out to Prince as if he were sitting at his regular table in the Dakota balcony. (Actually, Prince's brother Omarr Baker was there.) As for the music, she performed material from debut solo album, "10," which is being released this week.
