Brenda Russell

Saw Brenda Russell at the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA on my birthday on January 14, 2014. Ms. Russell was absolutely amazing!! Her band was phenomenal. It was one of the best birthdays I have ever had and definitely one of the best concerts I have attended. The Birchmere is a great venue - every seat is a perfect seat. The food was fantastic and I met some very beautiful ladies sitting at the table with my husband and I. Great conversation, great food and most importantly great music and a very beautiful, and classy artist. Definitely a night and concert to remember.

I was and am absolutely STUNNED that a Valentine's Day evening that started out so perfectly with the amazing Jonathan Butler -- for whom the sound was absolutely perfect, mind you -- was so completely and utterly destroyed by HEINOUS sound mixing, reverberating feedback and a couple of eyebrow raising performances (completely NOT sound-related) in the acts that followed. Wow. After an incredible show opening set by the incredible and consistent Mr. Butler, the rest of the evening was completely marred by the afore-mentioned BAD sound. Norman Brown came out with great intentions but the only people that could hear his wondrous guitar virtuosity were the people on the stage via their sound monitors. Either that OR they were simply being 'professional' and assuming that their sound people would quickly find the source of the myriad of problems. They did not. Still, 'bad' sound was not the sole reason for this audience member's displeasure. The legendary Brenda Russel seemed to be having an 'off' night vocally AND timing-wise and the ever-gyrating Jesse J -- whose extremely distracting physical movements completely overshadowed and contradicted her sax playing -- were noticeably disappointing even amongst the obvious sound disaster. An extremely beautiful young lady, Jesse J should be able to play her horn without trying to simultaneously imitate a spastic stripper -- and I like beautiful ladies AND the occasional stripper! But she was, as they say, doing WAY too much. Yes, we know that 'sex' sells... but subtlety is far sexier in this type of setting than what we were offered. The lone shining moments in the second set belonged to the one and only Mr. Phil Perry. For two lone songs which he performed the angry 'sound gods' rested and allowed the brilliance to shine through. Personable, passionate and pitch-perfect, Phil Perry demonstrated world-class talent and the ability to communicate WITH the audience in an awe-inspiring performance. And then the bad sound returned.

Miss Russell was very good and such a delight to see live in concert !! VThe backup back was very good and energetic .. I would pat to see Miss Russell live again . She's very , talented, beautiful , and humble . A class act !!

Brenda Russell's performance was simply flawless. She is such an amazing and talented artist..she has mellowed with time. I would go to see her again.

Not everyone knows this marvelous song writer and songstress but she is by far one our greatest performers. She has a sprituality that exudes in her music. Her lyrics are gay and lighthearted while being very though provoking at the same time. I just wish the concert had lasted long enough for us to hear every song she's written and performed. She did not get an opportunity to sing "Ideal World", "Catch On" or "The Message" but if you get a chance, listen and learn.

the show was amazing, my lady and I has a wonderful time

I enjoyed the concert. It was a wonderful evening.

I did't like going to church at a jazz concert, it was OK for the artis to paly gospel.

We thought all the Artist were great the only problem the air conditioner were turned off at one point and it got really hot in there. The bass players were too loud. I also feel this was a Jazz event why serve liquor if we could not take it inside the theatre.

This concert was excellent. All the entertainers were at the "TOP' of their game. However, Mr. Perry shut it down, he took this experience to another level.

The first half of the evening was Johnathan Butler and he put on an outstanding performance. The second half was Norman Brown, Phil Perry, Brenda Russell, and Jesse J, all together. The sound effects were off and the stage hand kept coming onstage during the performance trying to correct the situation. This went on all during the performance and was never resolved. It seemed as though this group of performers didn't practice together long enough. Jesse J didn't come back on stage when she was supposed to, and there was a long pause waiting for Phil to come out when he was queued. The finale song was a tribute to Michael Jackson which should have been left alone. All-in-all, Johnathan Butler should have been the headline of this concert.

The sound was horrible. I wonder if they ever had a sound check. Norman Brown played five songs before someone from his crew realized that Norman Brown's guitar could not be heard by the audience. Even after that, at times you still could not hear the guitar. I don"t know about most people, but when I hear that an artist is going to be in concert I assume that he is going to play his new songs mixed in with some old songs. Norman Brown may have played five of his songs. The rest of the selections were for his guests or covers of other artist"s songs. I've been to real Norman Brown concerts and they are very good. Maybe there is a business reason why he could not play more of his own songs, but he should not ask customers to pay money for performances like that. At the end day, the performance just seemed to lack professionalism.

This was a big night for me and my husband it was my valentine gift to him, we have been big fans of Phil Perry and have fallowed his career for years, I was looking forward to a wonderful concert , but was soon disappointed, the concert was very unprofessionally done it had some great names on the venue but the sound system was one of the worse that I have had ever heard, I am a professional singer, and believe me when I tell you that the sound system very one of the worse that I have ever heard, the instruments were so loud that you could hardly hear the singing over the music, and the buzzing sound coming from Norman Brown guitar was a bit much, it took the sound technician some time to figure it out. I think the show would have been great had they worked all this out before the show, not while the show was going on, Phil Perry has one of the greatest voices that I have ever heard, but it sounded like he was screaming to be heard over the music, it was that way for the whole night. I was not unsatisfied with the Entertainment; I was very disappointed with the sound system. I have been to the Terrace theater in the past to see the greats Nancy Wilson, and was pleased, but last night I just thought that not enough was done technically to make this a memorable Valentine s night.

Jonathan Butler was Outstanding I would definitely go and see him again. The rest of the show was ok. The acoustics (sound system) was really bad there was constant static/ hum until the very end of the show. The entertainers seemed to be doing their own thing, I felt no real connection between them and a lack of connection with the audience. there were bright spots in the show. when norman brown did Wes Montgomery and George Benson. Actually if it had not been for Jonathan Butler I may have left disapointed.. I've attended Jazz concerts at a number or venues so my expectations are for excellence out side of JB the show fell short for me. It wasn't a bad outing but I have doubts about attending another concert at this venue.

This concert featured two of my favorite jazz artist...Jonathan Butler and Norman Brown. Jonathan Butler delivered a passionate presentation of his hits from yesterday and the future. His band mates were extremely competent, especially the keyboard player whose solos were riveting yet complimentary to the context of the songs. On the other hand, Norman Brown's performance was average, benign and weak. Too much time was allotted to has-been artists like Phil Perry and Brenda Russell, and not enough attention was given to Mr. Brown's repertoire of hits.

The concert was very nice. I had VIP w/dinner and all. Food was decent, would have been nice to have a choice or menu. I love Norman Brown, BUT...the audio was terrible for a while. Also would have liked to hear more of Norman's music. Jazzy J sounded great, Phil Perry was excellent. Just had a problem with the audio at the start of NB's set.

This concert was wonderful. I normally see the artist at jazz concert events. However, this concert in Long Beach was awesome. Jonathan Butler was terrific as always.

i would have asked for my money back. Jonathan Butler brought the energy for all the other performers. When Butler performed "falling in love with Jesus" i was waiting for them to pass the offering bucket after. CHUURCH Also this was a valentines show not the Jazz fest from the day before. I wanted to hear love songs to cuddle up with my honey. Brenda Russell- She needed help vocally last night. She sang her two hits, but the band did there best to support her. If they had Just one more rehearsal. Jessy J- songs are great, but would someone please tell that Latina if she is going to salsa and play the sax, she should be able to fluidly salsa not look like she is taking a beginning salsa class. You can definitely tell her influence is Boney James...but if i wanted Boney i would have gone and seen him. Phil Perry- WE WANT PHIL PERRY (MORE MORE MORE). He got short changed. Two songs (off the da chain) I knew what he was whistling about. Incredible. They could have given him more time and made up for the sound problem with Norman Brown. Norman Brown- The sound system nor the sounds staff couldn't get it right until it was too late. Great performer but a disappointing performance. TO HAVE YOUR GUEST READING THE LYRICS TO "REMEMBER THE TIME" TO SING????......PLEASE

Great performers Terrible sound system, problems all night. Will think twice about going to the Long Beach Performing Arts. Unbelieveable crowd, concert started 30 minutes late and still half the people were not there. Over 50% of the crowd was gone before the last song. I guess they were there for some other reason then to listen to the music.

The concert was very nice. I definitely enjoyed all the artists who participated. Jonathan Butler was the headliner as far as I was concerned. His music and showmanship were exciting. Norman Brown and his company were also good. But Jonathan was the man of the night as far as I was concerned. As usual the venue was nice, crowd was refined and mellow.

I must admit, my real reason for going was to see Norman Brown, whom I have admired for a while..but Jonathan Butler stole the show! .Norman's group sounded as if they had not rehearsed together, and to be professional and reading the words to the song on stage ...that was very unprofessional....I have always enjoyed Phil Perry, and Brenda Russell but they just were not that great! tune and pitch seemed slightly off.. I would have loved for Norman to do more of his own music, and make sure the back up singers are in sync....one was not singing( white pants) ... I enjoyed JessyJ and hope to hear more from her in the future!!!