And that’s why they call them the blues

Shakura – even the name conjures up visions of deep wells of passion for what is the beauty and the beast of the human condition.

Beauty – in the resilience of the mind, heart and soul to bear the unbearable pain of loss and depravation and move on to the next chapter and verse of life – living and loving – unafraid that loss may once again be just around the corner.

Beast – in the loss of innocence that every man, woman and child suffers with every moment of pain that life serves up on a daily basis in all corners of the planet.

This and much more is what Shakura said from the heart at a recent concert at la Maison des arts de Laval, in an intimate setting of a one-on-one musical experience shared with an appreciative audience of all ages, most of whom knew why they had come to hear her sing, no, not just sing but reflect onto each person the light of communion and the universal truth that “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

Lamenting for a multitude of damaged hearts oppressed by the trials and tribulations of exploitation through deceit, and manipulation through empty promises, Shakura took the worst of what human beings can do to other human beings and turned into an evening of hymns to the upside of the human condition, the best that life has to offer - faith, hope and love – from the well of goodness that all are capable of.

Never quit on forgiveness, she said, just as she was about to leave her lover – saying to him “Give me one reason to stay and I’ll turn right back around.”

And never quit on the indomitable capacity of the human spirit to cope with disaster, she said, in a poignant tribute to anyone who had ever felt the sting of nature’s fury, in a soulful reprise of “Rain Down Rain” a 1940 blues hymn originally offered so eloquently by Big Mama Maybelle to soothe the pain of anyone who has ever felt the rain. (She added the number to her repertoire in 2006, after Hurricane Katrina had devastated New Orleans and wreaked havoc on so many lives.)

It was this, and much more by the award-winning performer ... in dazzling dress, in a subtle tapestry of mood defining lighting, and through sounds rich in diversity of human emotion and multi-textured in the affirmation that despite the pain and suffering of living and loving, it is still, as Satchmo said so purely, A Wonderful World

-<@Ri>Janice Parnell<@$>

Special to Courrier Laval