By Fredric Dannen
Dwight Blake, an international touring and recording artist born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, built a devoted following in Puerto Vallarta a few years back, and the reviews started popping up on social media. “Dwight Blake’s fun, high-energy performances are always a hit,” wrote the Vallarta Daily News. “Audiences can’t help but get up and dance!” Was it true? We folks in San Miguel wanted to find out.
So, at the end of March 2019, Blake made his local debut in three concerts at the San Miguel Playhouse, entitled Memories of Motown. Attendance swelled for each concert as word got out that the Vallarta papers were not exaggerating. The final show was sold out, and at the end of it, more than half the audience was on stage dancing with Blake.
Sometimes hype isn’t, well, hype. Blake returned to San Miguel twice after that, at other venues, and then the pandemic hit.
One night only, Friday, December 2, at 7pm, he’ll be back at the San Miguel Playhouse for the first time in more than three and a half years for a show entitled “Dwight Blake: Feeling Good.” Blake, as his fans know well, plays piano like a fiend and has a silky and soulful voice that can extend from a Barry White baritone to a Philip Bailey soprano. His fellow musicians describe his shows as “tight,” a sincere tribute in a field too often beset with laziness and inattention to detail. Blake’s vocal style was honed in the church, but his finishing school was a rigorous succession of bookings on luxury cruise ships and Las Vegas venues such as the Golden Nugget and the Mirage.
Blake performs cover versions of songs in a wide range of genres, and two of the numbers on his program are James Brown’s “I Feel Good” and the standard “Feeling Good” in the Michael Bublé arrangement—hence the title of his show. His setlist, as of press time, also includes “Let’s Stay Together” (Al Green); “Old Time Rock and Roll” (Bob Seger); “I’ll Be Around” (Spinners); “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” (Stevie Wonder); “Purple Rain” (Prince); along with songs of Barry White, the Temptations, Seal, and Earth, Wind, and Fire.
For a few numbers, including a duet on “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Blake will welcome vocalist Tara Lynne Khaler, making her San Miguel Playhouse debut. Khaler, who recently moved to San Miguel with her jazz pianist husband, has been heard in venues across the world performing a variety of musical styles. Originally from Dallas, she was an active member of the New York City music world for almost 20 years, with performances at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, Symphony Space, City Center, and on and off Broadway. Like Blake, she has also been a guest entertainer on some of the world’s best cruise lines.
All seats are reserved. Tickets are 500 pesos for the center and 400 for sides and may be purchased at Boleto City, Mercado Sano, Ancha de San Antonio 123, ground floor, Monday through Saturday, 11am to 5pm, or online at boletocity.com
Music
“Dwight Blake: Feeling Good”
Dwight Blake, piano and vocal; guest vocalist, Tara Lynne Khaler
Fri, Dec 2, 7pm
San Miguel Playhouse, Ave Independencia 82
500 and 400 pesos
Boleto City, Mercado Sano
e-tickets: boletocity.com
