The 10th Annual Miami Jazz In The Gardens music festival was held on the weekend of March 21st and 22nd 2015 at Sun Life Stadium in the City of Miami Gardens. Hosted by radio personalities and comedians D.L. Hughley and Ricky Smiley. The Saturday show was sold out, thousands came from out of town and locally to see all the acts but certainly R. Kelly fans came out. Saturday night exceeded the 68,000 attendees of the previous year. The Saturday lineup included local artists Karina Iglesias and John Erinosho, Sheila E., Men of Soul (Jeffrey Osborne, Peabo Bryson and Freddie Jackson), Toni Braxton and R. Kelly.
Sheila E. comes from a family of musicians, she is a master drummer, a guitar player and singer, she gave a wonderful performance and gave the crowd the encore they asked for.
Men of Soul consists of three very soulful singers presently on tour. First up was Freddie Jackson, singing favorites such as Tasty Love, the 57 year old sounded as good as ever, he looked slim but told the crowd he was celebrating 30 years in the business and had lost 107 lbs and was healthy. (DL Hughley joked that Freddie needed to eat some chicken). He sang ‘You are my Lady‘, which he said was in the charts for 26 weeks. Howard Hewitt, who was not slated on the show, shared the stage with him and gave a rendition of ‘Back in Love Again’. Next up was Jeffrey Osbourne who acknowledged George Duke who produced his solo albums. He reminisced about touring with the Commodores, Confunction and others, The audience appreciated hits like ‘What we have is much more’, ‘On the Wings of Love’ and ‘Whoo Whoo Whoo‘, then Peabo Bryson sang favorites ‘Can you stop the Rain‘, ‘I am so into you’ and ‘Feel the Fire’. Peobo also broke out his guitar and gave the audience a real treat!
Toni Braxton gave a great set! Toni sang with her Braxton Family Values co-stars (aka her sisters minus Tamar of course!) as her background singers. She brought on stage couples who were celebrating wedding anniversaries and romantically serenaded them. Your RCS correspondent spoke with a few patrons who said the sound system was not great and since they were in the back, could not hear her very well. Also, if you’re wondering why I don’t have any good pictures of Ms. Braxton (or Rrah Kelly! LOL), its because we weren’t allowed to…
This RCS correspondent had never seen R. Kelly and was excited to see him (I don’t care for his personal idiosyncrasies, but I love his music). He was promoting his latest album ‘Black Panties’. His assistant brought three Victoria Secret bags with small, medium and triple X black panties on stage where R. Kelly proceeded to distribute them into the crowd. I enjoyed his performance, my one critique would be that he did not sing enough of his material although we watched videos of his various hits on the big screens. He sang Fiesta, Flirt, Get Jiggy in the club, my ride, just to name a few.
The Sunday Line up began with Valerie Tyson, a local artist who has been singing for over 20 years. Just imagine being in South Florida on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the 85 degree sunshine listening to Jazz and Rhythm and Blues — let me tell you its heaven.
Of course, there must be jazz at a jazz music festival! This was handily provided by the All Star Jazz Band, Vibrophonist Roy Ayers, together with Johhny Liston Smith, Ronnie Laws and Tom Brown who gave a great jazz set. Next up was Brian Culbertson, a jazz arranger, singer, producer, keyboard and trombone player. He penned the smooth jazz hit ‘In my Garden‘. His set was so lively and funky, that when he said he organizes a jazz festival in the Napa valley where there’s wine and jazz, I was ready to pack my bags and head to Cali!
Next was the iconic rap group Run DMC. All the 80’s babies remembered their rhymes and rapped along. I distinctly remember how I became familiar with Run DMC.
I was in a choir at St Luke’s Episcopal Church in the Bronx in the 80’s and we went to Washington DC to sing. Upon arrival at the hotel, people on the bus started to scream and I remember thinking something was wrong. I asked what was all the commotion about and was told they had just seen members of Run DMC enter the same hotel. All of the choir girls ran through that hotel screaming like young groupies!
The inimitable Erykah Badu graced the stage and as always had the audience in the palm of her hands. Everyone knows the words to Call Tyrone and we sang with her.
Maxwell’s sensual falsetto ended the night.
I attend many music festivals all over the world and one needs stamina especially for a two day festival that starts at 4pm and ends at 1 in the morning but as usual it was well worth the efforts! Enjoy the pics!
RCS Sidebar: There were also a few surprise guests during the event including reality show queen Omarosa, star of Empire Bryshere Gray and Travon Martin’s mother Sybrina Martin amongst others.
