Soulful melodies fill the air at Potpourri of Arts

The African American Arts Institute Potpourri of Arts performance would make any person, regardless of color or musical taste, clap their hands and do a little boogie. \nThe event, which took place Saturday at the IU Auditorium, featured performances by all three groups in the AAAI. The IU Soul Revue brought down the house; the African American Choral Ensemble sang melodic spirituals; and the African American Dance Company performed Afro-Latin dances with grace and rhythm.\nThe AAAI directors founded the annual affair of the arts in 1993. It was established to showcase the wide range of talent within the AAAI. This year the event was part of the Association for Black Culture Centers Conference and simultaneously honored the AAAI's 30th anniversary. \nIU Soul Revue kicked off the concert with an energetic performance. Tyron Cooper, IU Soul Revue director and guitarist, faced his fellow band members and got the crowd going. Shortly after Cooper's introduction, mist filled the stage as the vocalists were lifted up on the movable front of the stage. As they reached the level of the band members, the entire Soul Revue commenced singing with high voltage rhythm and blues melodies. \nBy this point, nearly everybody was standing in their seats and most were dancing with the music. The band continued to play, slowing down the tempo and lowering the volume as the music eased into romantic ballads. Even though the crowd sat back down, the stories of mischief and love within the music thoroughly entertained them.\nThe songs included funk by the 1970s band "Con Funk Shun," along with tunes from Rhythm and Blues greats Patti LaBelle, Teddy Pendergrass, The Spinners and Friends of Distinction. As the vocalists changed outfits between songs and showed a wide range of singing and dancing, the horns and rhythm section kept a constant flow, led by trumpet and saxophone solos and Terrance Dennie's powerful back-beat on the drum set.\nAfter intermission, the African American Dance Company followed with a calmer, but thought-provoking, performance. Ivory Coast native and guest performer Modeste Douoning choreographed the first dance. The performance took the audience into an African setting. A handful of musicians played on stage, providing the background for a tribal ritual which invaders disrupted. \nThe outfits and stage background gave an authentic effect to the story being told. The dancers did not sing but provided vocals to help tell the story of the terrorizing loss and heroic fight for one of the villagers. Most importantly, the dancing provided a realistic account of an African tale. It was very loose with body movements, yet had a ritualistic flow. \nI was impressed at such togetherness amongst the dancers and their imprecise movements. The second piece, choreographed by AADC director Iris Rosa, reflected Western dance traditions with more ballet movements, which fed directly off the accents and syncopation of the moody music. The serpentine line of dancers repeated the movement of the dancer before them, which slowly but constantly changed, successfully creating an notion of metamorphosis. The concepts of the music also progressed in time, moving from moody sounds to happy pop music by the end.\nThe African American Choral Ensemble opened up with director James Mumford and several of his students narrating his story "Life of a Martyr." Each gave a powerful speech of various biblical and historic heros, including Moses, Jesus, Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. They followed the calm and artsy mood of the dance with their first two pieces: "This is the One" and "Ain'ta That Good News," which Mumford described as being written by black university-trained composers. \nThey both were nice, contemplative pieces, but especially during the second piece, it was hard to concentrate based upon an embarrassing costume failure that left Mumford with his pants down. With a lack of self-deprecating humor or apology, Dr. Mumford ignored the issue as he introduced Soul-ACE, the first of three smaller ensembles. The all-male vocal group was followed by God's Progress, and finally the all-female group Sojourner. All three groups played contemporary popular music. \nThe vocals were excellent, but the instruments were lackluster. The only thing that I could discern was a constant off-beat and out-of-tune tom-tom strike on the drum set. I assume the problems came from poor acoustic management. The choral ensemble concluded with an up-beat, soulful piece that left the crowd energized for the conclusion.\nUnfortunately, the winner of Friday night's "Step Show" was not able to perform. Without an intermission break, all three ensembles got together for a celebration of the AAAI working together. The cover of R. Kelly's "You Saved Me" was not incredibly artistic but was bombastic entertainment to conclude the evening.