LaVern Baker: Live In Hollywood '91

After 22 years of living in the Philippines, LaVern Baker returned stateside and started booking dates in cities she hadn’t played since the '60s. The Cinegrill at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel became her favorite haunt, and it was there that this concert album was recorded in April 1991. Baker’s showmanship had been honed over 40 years on the chitlin’ circuit and overseas, and this performance proves that at age 62 she knew how to work a stage in the same way a veteran surgeon knows how to work an operating table. She doesn’t just run through the songs automatically; she heightens their feelings by slowing down to talk to the audience, milking the pauses. When it’s riotous she goes for broke, and when it’s slow, she makes it burn. Her pickup band is fairly perfunctory but exudes an organic sound, driven by Hammond organ. The music is entirely focused on Baker’s indomitable vocals. As one of the most storied R&B belters, she had to live up to a tall reputation. Yet her performances of “What a Difference a Day Makes,” “Tomorrow Night," and “Saved” confirm that she could still smash it out of the park.