R³ Experience: The Power of Russel Léonce, Ruth Osman and Rizon, “heavenly synergy” (updated on Oct. 31 with Erica M. B. Ashton photos)

Trinidad

originally posted on October 08, 2009

update 3 on October 31, 2009

The Daaga Auditorium at St. Augustine, University of the West Indies, Trinidad, hosted a repeat performance of R³ Experience The Power of Russel Léonce, Ruth Osman and Rizon on October 3, 2009. The first staging of the show in July of this year attracted such intense critical acclaim that the producers thought it wise to put together an encore and return the Experience to Daaga, St. Augustine.

Russel, Ruth and Rizon were, however, not content to simply rehearse the same show and thus merely retrace their musical steps.  Based on all published Comments by fans of the second edition of R³, the show was not exactly like the one before.  Brenda B. Butler put it succinctly in a posting on her Facebook profile republished on Russel’s blog.  Butler noted that “new elements were added – dancers, a violinist, new songs, rearranged songs.”

Gillian Moore of the Trinidad Guardian had her own views of the show, which she captioned as a “polished, entertaining and refreshing (take on) themes of grace, love and faith.”

Moore went on to describe in her Guardian review how Léonce drew the audience in with his R&B-Gospel renditions including his hit song “Troubles Won’t Last” taken from his Culture of Love CD; how Osman’s warm vocals enveloped her audience, and held them spellbound on the Jazz standard “Nature Boy,” “When You’re Near” and her self-penned compositions, “Rain” and “You“; and how Rizon’s Soca-Pop won the crowd over and had them singing along with him.

Not to diminish the exceptional musicality of the threesome – which Allison, a Commenter on the blog, characterized as “heavenly synergy” – what stood out all the more was the message and the ministry.  Butler thought that it was their  ”overtly Christ-focussed“ interactions with their audience that did the trick for Russel, Ruth and Rizon. Others observed that they conveyed their convictions and spirituality with such aplomb that  their patrons, by their own admission, were brought to tears and emotional surrender.

One of those persons, Karis, shared her feelings on Russel’s Ning powered social network saying “The show was wonderful…made me cry at times though because it was so deep.”  Karis continued, “I saw others wiping their eyes too.  (That) was a real touching show.”

Holding the music together were Musical Director/bassist Clint DeCoteau, acoustic guitarist Marva Newton, electric guitarist Jason Bishop,  percussionist Modupe Folade Onilu, traps man David Richards, keyboardists Emile Fortune and Rodney Harris.  The back-up vocalists were Deryck Ollivierre, Genisa St. Hilaire and Reisha St. Hilaire.

If the long string of superlatives and verbal gushing are enough to go by, Butler and Karis were among a houseful who shed emotional tears on the night of October 3, 2o09.

R3 - The final bow?

Browse to russelleonce.ning.com and Lisa Allen-Agostini’s Trinidad Guardian Commentary to see for yourself.

Previous posts:

SONGBIRD Ruth Osman @ Aura, September 02, 2009

R³ Experience 1, July 25, 2009