Our Review of The MAJIC 102 Juneteenth Summer Jam – 2009 feat. Najee, Atlantic Starr & Tone, Toni, Tony | by Marvin D.

THE MAJIC 102 JUNETEENTH SUMMER JAM | 2009

(Our cat Marvin D. was on the traveling scheme of things near Houston, TX for this special event! Here’s his take for the T.U.M.S. readers out there!!)

It was a hot day, temp was about 105 degrees and The Majic 102 Juneteenth Summer Jam was about to happen with guest artists Najee, Atlantic Starr and Tone, Toni, Tony.

I arrived in style with local singer, actress and drama teacher Andrea. B, who was equally excited to be going to this festive occasion. When we arrived, Najee was on stage and man, I’m trying to get backstage! But since I didn’t have a VIP wristband, I didn’t have access. That’s ok though, Najee was the opening act & he THREW DOWN! About that time, a beautiful breeze was coming through and it felt good. And yes…the crowd was grooving to the sounds of Najee!

(Photos courtesy of Andrea B.)

Najee had a lot of crowd participation going on with “Betcha Don’t Know” and his freestyle sax playing. He also had put on an excellent and exciting show! I was able to catch up with him after the show and take this memorable picture…

(left to right) C. Wilson, Najee, & Marv D. of The Urban Music Scene
(Photo Courtesy of Andrea B.)

In between set changes, the local radio station personalities introduced themselves to the crowd and held contests etc..etc…etc. They played old school music too! The crowd was relaxed and the anticipation was building for the illustrious R&B group Atlantic Starr.

(Photos courtesy of Andrea B.) 

I’ve always been a fan of Atlantic Starr from their first album with the slow jam “With You Love I Come Alive”, to their last album “Legacy” and with Sharon Bryant, Wayne and David Lewis, as lead vocalist, nothing was to follow was a string of hits.

When Atlantic Starr hit the stage,I think everybody was expecting either Sharon Bryant, or Barbara Weathers, and David Lewis. It was Wayne Lewis and Jonathan Lewis (the only originals left) on the keyboards. The young lady singing was named Aisha and to my surprise she sounded almost like Sharon Bryant. They started off with the classic, “Silver Shadows”. After that, they went right into “When Love Calls”. Atlantic Starr slowed the pace down a little bit and taking David’s place was Timothy a.k.a. Scribby. Andrea pointed out to me that this must have been his first concert, cause he was kind of nervous & didn’t know the steps too well. He did a good job though! After the classic slow jams, they hit it off with “Circles” & “Touch A Four Leaf Clover”.… then slow edit down with “Send For Me”, and “Always”. A lot of people were wondering what happened to David Lewis when Wayne said he is no longer with us (or maybe we mis-understood what he was saying). Atlantic Starr did great! I caught up with Wayne Lewis later on and asked him if a new Atlantic Starr cd was coming out. He said, “Yes, sometime this fall.”

Can’t wait to hear it!  For those fans wondering what happened to David Lewis, please check out the link  http://web.mac.com/davidmarianlewis/Site/Who_We_Are.html.

(left to right) Timothy, Aisha, Wayne Lewis, Jonathan Lewis far left not pictured.
(Photo courtesy of Andrea B.)

The radio personalities came out once again and introduced themselves, but this time they had a special Majic 102 old school mix that was off the chain!! It had everybody dancing in the aisles, up on the hill….just about everywhere.

The temperature had gone down from 105 to 97 degrees and we had a wonderful breeze, but it was about to get heated up again as soon as T.T.T (Tone, Toni, Tony) came on stage. T.T.T came out and rocked the house for at least two hours and did all their songs except “Little Walter” & “If I Had No Loot”. If that wasn’t good enough, this is where the concert got turned out. Dwayne Wiggins introduced his 12 year old son Dillon on keyboards, and 13 year old god-son (forgot his name) on drums. For 5 minutes, just those two kids tore it up! Dillon played like he has been playing for years (more than 12). He went from jazz straight into classical and back. The young drummer tore it up too, though he was playing playing drums along side Timothy Riley all night and did not miss a beat. (I tried to get pictures but the stage lights were too bright). Raphael’s voice was strong and clear as ever before. I applaud Raphael! I thought he might do some solo stuff, but he didn’t. It was all about T.T.T. that night. Dwayne said it has been over 10 years since T.T.T had released a cd, but gave no indication if one was in the making. T.T.T did their thing and the future of music was onstage last night. Look out for these two young artists.

                                                               
All and all this was a very good concert series! I had a good time even though it was kind of hot. But the breeze took care of that.

I would like to thank Terrill Hanna of www.theurbanmusicscene.com, Najee and Andrea. B for hanging out with me.

Marv D

The Urban Music Scene.