KANSAS CITY SINGER BELTS OUT JAZZ, BLUES (REVIEW)

The 80 people or so who turned out in the rain Thursday night for Queen Bey & Her Trio heard a Missouri treasure, a Kansas City jazz singer with a 76-trombone voice and more charm than most of the divas currently on the charts.

A vision in blue satin pants and a jacket of many colors, Queen Bey came out of the chute with "Lover Come Back to Me" and never looked back. Her concert was a mix of jazz standards and rhythm and blues classics along with pleasing renditions of show tunes like "Days of Wine and Roses."

She sang a thrilling version of "God Bless the Child," sang it and preached it to those beat-keeping children down front. They got lots of attention and messages from her during the night. Messages such as: Go to school, like her gifted pianist, Everett Freeman, a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, or bassist James Ward, who teaches school himself in Kansas City.

Or the message "We can all live together if we try," which followed her introduction of white friends who'd driven from Eureka Springs, Ark., just to see her.

Sometimes Queen Bey stampeded notes and a few got lost, but she can be forgiven most any sin. Though traces of Nancy Wilson might be heard in her voice, Queen Bey's an original. Her phrasings don't sound derivative of anybody except maybe Bessie Smith, and what 20th century singer doesn't owe her the rent?

The concert at Southeast's Rose Theatre was not without distractions, including an uneven sound mix corrected for the second set and the unaccountably harsh stage lights. But Queen Bey triumphed over it all. The audience, a good mix of young and old, loved her.

Her trio, which turned out to be a quartet composed of piano, bass, drums and trumpet, was first-rate. Especially fine was the inventive playing of pianist Freeman and trumpet and fluegelhorn player Al Pearson, her musical director.

Marcellus Lee, a snappy drummer, rounded out the group.

Queen Bey's second set was as strong and varied as the first, starting off with "Green Dolphin Street," "If They Ask Me" and "Stormy Monday."

Southeast Missouri State University is to be applauded for bringing musicians of this caliber to Cape Girardeau.

The concert was sponsored by the university, My-T-Sharp II, St. James AME Church, with support from the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest National Jazz Network, the Missouri Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.