The World Famous Apollo Theater’s New Music Café

In New York City, last Friday night, “Joi’s Futuristic Throwbacks – The Apollo Session with Devon Lee’ opened the flood gates of the World Famous Apollo Theater's Music Café. The venue  billed as Harlem’s newest night spot, offers“…a unique experience for its audience, featuring diverse performers across a myriad of music genres…R&B, Hip Hop, Soul Jazz, Pop, Funk and Rock—transformed by cutting-edge artists in a stylize lounge space…” and runs through June, 2011.

On the night I  was there, as ticket holders arrived in the lobby they were immediately cast as silhouettes by the light boxes sitting on the floor in the open space. The  surrealism added to the exhibit of the abstract work by Harlem based artist, Dionis Ortiz that were hung on the surrounding walls.

At 9 PM, an hour before the show was to begin, it was a full house. I sat on a bar stool, my elbows kneading into the top of a high boy table, at the back of room; playing the role “The Silent Observer". I  had been hired to design and stage the space that now seemed to have magically turned  the Apollo Theater’s Sound Stage into a cafe, filled in brushed steel café tables, classic Thornet bentwood café chairs, bar stools and tall tables to accommodate the audience.


Near the entrance of the Music Cafe stood a white bar lit from inside, (similar to the light boxes in the lobby mentioned before), compliments of Heineken, the Music Café’s sponsor.

It was two days before that the spaces was still under renovation and filled with the sounds of buzzing saws, hammering, the shouts of the carpenters, stage hands. The electrician were setting the lights  with gels that cast the ceiling to floor velvet drapes  in magenta lighting. The velvet  adding a touch of glamour in the room, is reminiscent of  the bygone era of Harlem’s legendary night clubs – the Baby Grand and Cotton Club; where a long time ago, African American entertainers were made to enter those clubs through the back door and leave the same way they came, when the gig was over. 

As the lights went  down, my eyes narrowed toward the stage as the  Atlanta-based Joi adjusted her mic. Joi is tall, lean and has a tight body. Clearly she works out at the gym. Her lustrous skin is the color of lightly roasted cashews. Her brown hair, grown into Afro, crowns her natural beauty.

Then there was the  black Lycra dress that fit her  body like a second skin. It had a slit on one side that ran all the way up one  thigh, ending just before the point of no return. Another one of Joi’s talents is her outrageously daring fashion, though subtle, the dress she wore that night was no executaion to the rule.   


Joi's voice embodies that of America’s greatest Queens of The Blues from Bessie Smith to Dinah Washington. Her unabashed sensuality,style and superb singing talent -- the Futuristic Throwback as it were, revealed her incredible vocal range and riveting stage presence. In particular was her rendition of the Torch Song, “You Don’t’ Know What Love Is.” I’m certain that I detected Shirley Bessey’s virtuosity and Billie Holiday’s signature phrasing, as Joi flawlessly delivered the lyric’s lament and refrains slowly and authentically.

Backed by her five member band, and her partner, guitarist Lee Devon, throughout  her performance Joi moved sinuously across the stage like a cat and then at other times, stopping on a dime, to  grab the plastic bottle of water sitting on the floor upstage. After taking a long swallow Joi's seductive  moves integrated  seamlessly into her act. She began to stride  downstage toward the female drummer of her band; her hips swaying all the way there. And then with her back turned to the audience, Joi bent over and gave the audience a wide angle view of her derrièr  rounding it in verrrry sloooow rotations. I couldn't take my eyes off her, I didn't want to miss one moment of her performance.

She returns to the mic, and with her legs astride as to suggest that she meant business (and she did), she stoically stood at the edge of the stage reached out to the audience, captured us with her hypnotic gaze,and began gesturing to us with Hindu-like Mudras.  Her agile fingers appeared to be sending out a mysterious sign language or messages to Genesh, Shiva or Lady Durga,  the Indian Gods and Goddess; or perhaps she was  giving the audience her blessings. In any case, for me,  Joi turned my wonderment of watching her perform on its head, when she suddenly let out her giddy laughter and she then said to the audience, “This is all fun ya’ll”, spoken in her indigenous Southern drawl, entangled somewhere in there was the hint of  Joi’s Portugused and African ancestors channelled through her, I was certain.


Throughout the night, Joi unabashedly broadcasts her politics and sensuality. She gave us her deliberate bump and grind, suggestive of a strip tease dancer in the old fashion sense of its meaning; where her tell, but not show it ALL, could put a pole dancer to shame. 

And then in the next moment, the seriousness of a song’s lyrics was  juxtaposed to Joi’s tongue and cheek playfulness, the levity of which elicited from me laughter and my great pleasure of being her audience. At the finale, there was rousing ovations to The Queen and pioneer of Neo Soul,  and the "…hot and heavy and smoking guitarist Devon Lee who provided the dark dripping with sensuality grooves..."

Moi,

Mahmoudah Brooklyn, NY

Photo: Mahmoudah Young