Sheila E. Brings Her Prince Tribute To My Home State

Sheila E. chose Ohio, my home state, to perform her first official, public tribute to Prince since  her amazing performance on the BET Awards telecast in June. "Purple Rain: A Tribute," featuring Sheila E. and Morris Day and The Time, came to Cleveland's I-X Center on Oct. 15.

 

Morris Day also performed at the Official Prince Tribute concert held in Prince's hometown of Minneapolis/St. Paul on Oct. 13. I didn't make it out to that show, and neither did Sheila. So in this blog post, I'll focus on Sheila's moving tribute to Prince in Cleveland.

 

Clad in an all white with Prince's iconic symbol emblazoned on her blouse, Sheila opened with "When Doves Cry," then took to the drums for "Housequake" and segued into "Erotic City."

 

"Thank you for coming out and celebrating someone we all loved," she told the multiracial, multigenerational audience - many of whom wore purple (myself included).

Similar to her performance at the BET Awards, Sheila performed a sample from the chorus of "Let's Work," followed by "A Love Bizarre." In concert, she gave "A Love Bizarre" the full treatment, which makes sense, since Prince provided distinctive vocals on the '85 hit. She then took to the timbales for a low-key, jazzy instrumental.

 

Sheila E. brought her Prince tribute to Cleveland on Oct. 15.

- "Music is a gift from God, and it feeds my soul every day." - Sheila E.

As Sheila and her band grooved and scatted their way through the instrumental number, she asked, "Do you mind if we take our time?" The audience responded with hoots of approval. The segment also included a jazzy rendition of "One Nation Under a Groove," sung by Sheila's manager and collaborator Lynn Mabry, a former background singer for George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic.

 

At one point during the jazz segment, Sheila stepped away from the timbales and delivered a slowed-down version of her famous "transmississippi" rap from Prince's "Its Gonna Be a Beautiful Night" (the"Sign o' the Times" album).

The great thing about Sheila's Prince tribute is that in addition to providing an opportunity for his fans to witness one of his closest confidantes performing his hits, it also gave Sheila's fans an opportunity to see her perform songs from her most recent studio album, 2014's stellar "Icon."

 

"This is the last song Prince and I wrote together," Sheila announced before launching into the salsa-flavored "Leader of the Band" from "Icon."

 

Sheila also tackled Prince's popular B-side "17 Days," sang "Alphabet Street" and led the crowd in a sing-along of the chorus of "Raspberry Beret."

Showing her versatility, Sheila returned to the timbales for the Latin dance track "Mona Lisa" from "Icon" and brought audience members onstage to dance to her upbeat new single, "Bailar."

At one point, Sheila momentarily set aside her "queen of percussion" persona and became a rock goddess, picking up a guitar and coming out in the crowd to sing "Rockstar" from "Icon." The song about the lonely life of a touring musician is the type of arena-rock anthem that begs to be performed Tina Turner-style on a cherry picker suspended above the crowd.

At the end of "Rockstar," Sheila returned to the stage and strummed the melody from "Purple Rain," with the crowd joining in with Prince's familiar vocal riffs. If I'm not mistaken, the guitar she played was one of Prince's, the same one she played during the BET Awards.

Throughout the show, Sheila alternated between her trademark high-energy performance style and intimate moments in which she addressed the crowd and told them how much she misses Prince. One of the most touching moments was when Sheila asked for the stage lights to be dimmed and she sang her power ballad "Girl Meets Boy," which expresses her grief over losing Prince.

 

Several times during the song, Sheila's voice broke with emotion.

"I've been through a lot of stuff in my life, but this has been so hard," she told the audience about mourning Prince.

But she was quick to add that, like the legions of Prince's fans around the world, she takes comfort in music.

"Music is love," she said. "Music is a gift from God, and it feeds my soul every day."

She resumed the uptempo vibe again with Prince's "America" and "Baby, I'm a Star." She closed her set with "The Glamorous Life." As a longtime fan, I've seen Sheila perform her Prince-penned signature song many times, and I can say in all honesty that this was the best, most spirited rendition I've ever seen. She really seemed to be channeling Prince's essence as she banged on the timbales. She transported the audience back to 1985, when she opened for Prince and The Revolution on the "Purple Rain" tour.

The Prince tributes by Sheila E. and Morris Day and The Time in Cleveland, as well as the performances by Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan and all of the artists who took part in the Minneapolis/St. Paul concert will go a long way in helping all of us who loved Prince to heal.

I've been reflecting on Prince's legacy in my own way in the months since he passed away. On Wednesday (Oct. 19), I'll post a new blog entry about what I learned from the experience of listening to 30 of Prince's albums in the order in which they were released.