A scintillating and enjoyable concert

By Mahes Perera

A concert where the audience didn't have to sit through songs that were performed often by artistes who gave the impression that they had no time to rehearse, so they'll sing what they know, even though others had done it over and over again.

Congratulations to the Sweet Inspirations for pulling off a concert that stood out in quality. It had all the ingredients to make it memorable for the music lover. There was variety in the content.... songs that were stand outs in music history, songs from an early era that were tricky in presentation by yet well handled by the singers which showcased their professionalism with music backing provided by musicians who have reached a pinnacle in their career and who expertly guided the singers through till the finale. And above all as according to the program notes it was a tribute from Shyami, Yasmin and Marcia as Sweet Inspirations to their parents Rita and Placidus Fonseka, themselves renowned singers whose music appreciation was on a selective higher level and who have successfully passed it on to their children.

The opener to the concert River Deep Mountain High was an attention getter. The song was sung by a group of very young singers before the three sisters walked on stage to pick up the song from where the young ones left off which as we learnt later was a song selected by their parents to sing at public performances when they were very young.

From there Shyami, Yasmin and Marcia swung into the major hit 'Sweet Inspirations' and with their perfect vocal harmony they created a scenario in the Motown tradition to keep the audience on an eager note for the rest to follow. "Love Will Keep Us Together' and after the short Abba medley came 'Hit The Road Jack' which brought in Yohan Fonseka, a brother with a resonant and attractive voice and together with his sisters they rocked the song through.

Stirring ballad

Honorine Fonseka, Yohan's wife made her entrance to sing the stirring ballad 'Sometimes When We Buch' before the tempo changed to You're the One I Want. Yohan and Honorine's children joined in with Samantha singing Perfect and Melissa skimming through Rolling in the Deep. In keeping with the saying 'music runs in the family' Rav David Shyami's son moved on stage to give the audience his version of the modern songs 'Lately' and 'One Life!

Shyami's rendition of the Babra Streisand hit 'Evergreen' with distinctive piano accompaniment by Harsha Makalanda was an enjoyable surprise. She sailed through the song keeping the emotion of the lyrics intact and later with her brother Yohan sang 'One Alone' from the Desert Song by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammestein this time with piano accompaniment by Indrani Wijesundera.

I was glad the song was included because according to the program notes it was a tribute to their parents who used to perform it regularly. Besides, it brought back pleasant memories for me when in my early years at the SLBC, under the eagle eye of the late broadcaster Priya Kodipilly, we were guided into the finer points of semi- classical songs, recordings of which by Nelson Eddy, Richard Tauber, Mario Lanza and Gordon Mc Rae were spun on the turntables by us with great enthusiasm.

Million seller

The first half ended with the young choirs singing the famous songs the 'Greatest Love of All' and Michael Jackson's million seller, 'We Are The World'. The show was compered by Viran Corea.The second half saw Yasmin in a solo spot cruising through the theme from the James Bond movie Skyfall and picked up by Sohan Weerasinghe singing the theme from another James Bond movie Thunderball. A word of praise to Sohan who hasn't over the years lost the quality of voice and style. In fact he is one of the few male singers who has retained his dynamism in stage presentation.

There were many songs sung that evening that were selective and on higher level than the normal run-of-the-mill ones. But I cannot close without picking out the last two songs on the program, the 3 Degrees hit 'When Will I See You Again' and Sister Sledge's 'We Are Family'. They were, in music jargon,' sure fire hits' and kudos to Sweet Inspirations for their scintillating performance.

A precious few acts can be counted on to deliver the goods, in the music industry. Sweet Inspirations did that with no glitches.