July 20, 2008. Friday night. Following an earthy lamb shanks and sweet corn ravioli supper at an excellent Italian trattoria in Potrero Hill, Tracy Barrantes-Allio and I made our way to the Fillmore district for our inaugural visit to the new San Francisco branch of the esteemed Yoshi's jazz nightclub, also famous for their sushi and other Japanese savories. We were immediately struck by the sophistication and glamour of the club, all recessed, ultra-flattering lighting, deep browns and reds, warm lemon glow and not a bad seat in the house.
R&B/jazz/neosoul genius Rahsaan Patterson was the headliner, and he owned the crowd from the moment he took the stage with his finely tuned crack band and superb male-female backing duo, despite ongoing sound problems. Patterson may not have been able to hear correctly through his monitors, but the audience didn't share his difficulty. We were amazed and astonished as he rocked the house with a tour-de-force vocal performance that took us on a sonic and emotional journey during his cruelly brief set. Tracy's only conscious exposure to the songwriter and vocalist extraordinaire had been the day after I invited her to attend by sampling some songs on iTunes, and she was as blown away as I was, grinning ear to ear. With his fluid and loose manner, it is very easy to picture Rahsaan Patterson as he must have been as a child singer. He maintains much of a child's freedom and unconscious grace.
I have all four of his CDs and love them all - they reveal more complexity and layers as time goes on, and "The Best," his collaboration with Van Hunt, suspended time in a jawdropping revelation of the song that night. The Sade cover was a genuine crowd pleaser, as was his youthful hit, "Wanna Be Where You Are," which closed the show with a dazzling splash of vocal pyrotechnics. Rahsaan Patterson definitely left us wanting more.
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