★★★★☆
Few singers cut quite as imposing a dash as Mica Paris. A statuesque, thigh-booted figure under an explosion of afro, she dominated her band, physically and sonically. For a good half-hour at the start of her second night at the Jazz Cafe, Paris seemed to have only two volume settings on her soulful roar — 10 and 11. A skilled backing trio sweetened the sound, adding a little nuance to the boogie-strut of Like Dreamers Do, the soupy imprecations of Where Is the Love and the urgent groove of Breathe Life into Me. Songs from the long-ago days when Paris was destined to be the next big R&B thing scrubbed up well.
A four-piece band were kept firmly in their place — no instrumental breaks, just Paris scatting or commanding the audience to sing along. In particular young Kenny on guitar (we were never formally introduced) was a hip but mostly inaudible presence. A well-refreshed pre-Christmas, pre-Plan B audience loved it all.
Paris has enjoyed/endured a career of lofty highs — a platinum album by the age of 19 — and a good few slings and arrows too — bankruptcy, emotional crises. After the hits stalled, she reinvented herself as an all-purpose TV personality, travelling from Celebrity MasterChef and Strictly to Albert Square and onwards to Windsor Castle for an MBE.
Now 52 and billed as “the UK queen of soul”, here was a return to the Londoner’s first love. With the pace slowing fractionally, the mood turned mid-show towards gospel with Mama Said and Something Inside So Strong. Paris implored the audience to love one another despite the world looking “pretty shit right now”. Her further advice was to turn off the news and watch the Disney Channel — “That’s why I’m happy.”
But soon the congregation was led back to the dancefloor via the singer’s debut hit, My One Temptation, Contribution from 1990, and a curfew-challenging Funkin’ for Jamaica. Her career had been a 33-year journey, she told us, and it’s not over yet. Let’s hope we’ll always have Paris.
Warwick Arts Centre, Dec 11; Concorde Club, Southampton, Dec 12; micaparis.com
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