Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires returned to The Chapel in San Francisco, CA, playing two consecutive sold out shows to kick off the Labor Day holiday weekend.
After a legendary list of life events, the 67 year old former James Brown impersonator has nothing but genuine unconditional love for the city whose streets he slept on for 17 years before returning home to his mother in Brooklyn. It was there, at age of 62, that Bradley was discovered by Daptone Records.
His third album, Changes, named after the Black Sabbath song Bradley covers on the album, was released this April and finds Bradley at his most powerful. Of the many stories he does tell on stage and in passing, the weight of a thousand more are always on his mind and when he opens up to sing, he lets every one of them out.
On Friday, Bradley’s band took to the stage and took the crowd on a jam, loosening up the legs and getting people moving with some high caliber funk rhythms before Bradley’s groovy introduction as a man known “from nation to nation.”
Jumping right into it, the emotion was exploding off of Bradley’s face and he only intensified as he moved through selections from each of his albums for a total of 13 songs in just under 75 minutes. He got the show started with “Nobody But You” off of Changes and moved quickly into the title track from his 2011 debut album, No Time For Dreaming.
Another exciting aspect to Bradley’s unapologetic take on the soul-funk fusion brand is how everything he does he does with his entire spirit- whether he is delivering an original composition or a cover makes no difference to him. “Love Zone”, the 1986 hit by Billy Ocean, definitely flew under the radar for most of the crowd, but thanks to Bradley’s delivery, everybody enjoyed it’s placement in the middle of the set.
Throughout the exhilarating performance, Bradley touched on dreams and opportunities, both crushed and realized, as well as an unyielding hope for the good in the future. This was most fervently acknowledged between the tracks “The World (Is Going Up In Flames)” from the first record and “Ain’t It A Sin.” A live staple over the last few years, “Sin” is another of the new tracks that made its way to The Chapel.
The set ended with “Changes”, the Black Sabbath song Bradley fell in love with at first listen to the lyrics.
“I’m gonna give you this song the best way I know how,” said Bradley. “The way I do things best is putting it into my soul. I lost the best friend I ever had.”
During the song, Bradley took a momentary break from his high kicks, spin moves and microphone stand shenanigans to get down on the stage, close to the edge and identify with the front rail. A crew member suddenly appeared and handed Bradley a bouquet of multi colored roses.
He was handing them up front and throwing them into the middle. Unable to get off the stage and join the crowd, he addressed the crowd with a single rose left in his hands.
“I held onto a rose for the back of the room, I tried to get back to you, know that I love you,” he said. “From my heart and soul I gave you all the spiritual roses.”
Supporting Bradley Friday and Saturday was San Diego based jazz duo Mattson 2. On Friday, they warmed the crowd up proper, ensuring maximum loose grooves across a 50 minute six song set. Brothers Jonathon and Jared Mattson comprise the duo, with Jonathon manning the drumkit and Jared providing layers of oceanic bass and jazz guitar melodies. They are definitely a West Coast group worth keeping an eye on!
Check out a full gallery of images from the show below!
