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TORONTO - It's been 15 years since Solomon Burke last played a show in Toronto, but he made up for it royally on Saturday night with one for the ages -- all ages. It's not often that you see middle-aged Torontonians shaking their hips and kicking up their heels with reckless abandon, but there was no resisting the charismatic King Of Rock And Soul as he urged his followers to clap, sing along and get up on stage with him to dance to Proud Mary -- and several dozen of them did just that.
It was the climax of a non-stop, two-hour extravaganza packed with R&B, soul and rock-'n'-roll hits, played by a magnificent eight-piece band and sung by the still surprisingly lithe and powerful voice of one of the great soul singers.
Burke made his entrance in the dark, suddenly appearing when the lights came up in his massive splendour, clad in a sparkly purple suit, cape and pearls and sitting on a throne flanked by vases of red roses, which he handed out one by one to female audience members.
He only stood up a couple of times, but that didn't keep him from rocking just as hard as if he were jumping up and down all night.
Whether softly crooning or belting at full blast, Burke made every song his own -- from the ones he wrote, like Got To Get You Off My Mind and Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, to other singers' signature tunes like Georgia On My Mind, What A Wonderful World and Dock Of The Bay to Tom Waits' Diamond In Your Mind and the country classic Just Out Of Reach Of My Two Open Arms, his first hit.
When he sang Van Morrison's At The Crossroads, it was clear just how much Morrison has learned from him. When he sang Don't Give Up On Me -- the title track from his Grammy-winning 2002 collaboration with producer Joe Henry -- he caused tears to fall and couples to embrace while the crowd on stage sat down and listened like rapt children.
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In between handing out roses and singing verses, he allowed fans to take photos on their camera phones, and even spoke to one man's wife at home. All the while the band -- including longtime collaborators like guitarist Sam Mayfield and keyboardist Rudy Copeland as well as his youngest daughter, Candy -- kept up a relentlessly danceable backdrop.
But it was Burke who held the audience in the palm of his hand, and sent them home happy.