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Musician Jody Raffoul performs with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra during the fundraising event at the St. Clair Centre for the arts on Saturday.
Photograph by: Jason Kryk, The Windsor Star
Gifted, yes, but Raffoul stage presence needs work
BY TED SHAW, THE WINDSOR STAR
October 19, 2009
It had the potential for so much more, but Saturday's union of blue-collar rocker Jody Raffoul and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra was less than the sum of its parts.
The fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities drew about 1,000 to the Chrysler Theatre, most of them ready for a special and unprecedented joint performance. It was a benefit concert organized by St. Clair College's Centre for the Arts, Southland Insurance and the McDonald's charity.
Things got off to a rocky start when Raffoul and his band kept the audience waiting for a good half-hour after the starting time of 8 p.m. Restless patrons started to cheer and clap to urge the group on stage.
When they finally arrived, it was without the orchestra. The opening 45 minutes featured just Raffoul and the band, plus a trio of backup singers on a couple of songs.
That was OK. We got to hear some of Raffoul's best songs, including Light of Day, Learn From Me, and Chasing Paper in a Hurricane, as well as a handsome cover of Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed.
Backed by longtime associate Charlie Lambrick on keyboards and guitar and guitarist-vocalist Wes Buckley, Raffoul delivered a competent set.
But it wasn't anything you can't hear at the band's regular gigs at local drinking holes like Windsor's The Whiskey or Belle River's Sandbar.
Patrons had forked out up to $30 to hear more than that.
Following the performance of Learn From Me, which Raffoul dedicated to Leamington's St. Louis School, there was a cheque presentation of $20,000 from St. Clair College to the McDonald House Charities.
The audience's patience was rewarded by the arrival of conductor John Morris Russell and members of the WSO. It wasn't the whole orchestra, as billed, just the string section, but it was enough to add the special touch the concert lacked to that point.
Curiously, Raffoul didn't even introduce the orchestra - Russell had to do that himself. It was a snub, although Raffoul probably didn't intend it that way.
The orchestral portion opened with Raffoul's autobiographical tribute to Leamington and Essex County, Grabtime. He performed on piano accompanied by a gorgeous string quartet, which was arranged for this concert by WSO assistant conductor Peter Wiebe.
Again, it was up to Russell to acknowledge Wiebe's contribution.
There were some truly inspired moments to follow. Rebecca Pellett's string arrangements provided a dramatic context for Love Is The Answer and World of Temptation.
Concertmaster Lillian Scheirich performed a shimmering solo during Little Black Car, while the performances of And It Shines and It's Grand, with string accompaniments, recalled early Elton John or the Procol Harum album made with the Edmonton Symphony.
Raffoul is a gifted songwriter and has more talent in his pinkie than most of the cardboard cutouts on American Idol. But his stage presence needs work. Maybe Russell can give him a few pointers.
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