Marvin Gaye’s legacy coming to Patchogue
What’s Going On: The Marvin Gaye Experience” comes to the Patchogue Theatre on Friday, Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. The performance will also serve a VIP Member Appreciation Night for Patchogue Theatre VIP members, who can attend the show for free and are invited to a cocktail reception following Owens’s performance. Tickets range from $25 to $50 and can be purchased at www.patchoguetheatre.org.
Photo courtesy of Bicoastal Productions
Marvin Gaye’s legacy coming to Patchogue
Story By: TARA SMITH
8/31/2017
“What’s Going On,” the socially conscious 1971 Marvin Gaye album, is sacred text to soul singer Brian Owens. “That album spoke to the truth of human nature,” Owens said in a phone interview last week, noting Gaye addresses issues still relevant today.
“He’s talking about the environment before anyone else was,” Owens said, referencing “Mercy Mercy Me,” a song that features the lyrics: “Things ain’t what they used to be, no no / Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas, fish full of mercury.” The album also discusses “trigger happy policing” during “Inner City Blues,” resonating with Owens, a current resident of Ferguson, Mo., where in 2014 the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer sparked protests against police violence. “To me, the album isn’t an indictment on people. It’s an indictment on evil,” Owens explained.
His desire to share that album, along with dozens more of Gaye’s Billboard hits, laid the foundation for his current project, “What’s Going On: The Marvin Gaye Experience,” coming to the Patchogue Theatre on Sept. 15.
Owens, 36, grew up hearing jazz and soul giants in his home and told the Advance that his earliest musical memory is hearing Sam Cooke at four years old. He cites some of his influences as Nat King Cole, Otis Redding, and of course, Marvin Gaye. “These guys could really swing,” he said. “They had a way of incorporating all of these styles in the umbrella—gospel, jazz, blues—into their own voice. To me, that’s the coolest thing,” Owens said.
After studying jazz at a collegiate level, Owens began developing a concert he performed in St. Louis he called the Master Series. “The point for me as an artist was to dig deeper into specific soul artists who influenced me. I felt as though their music wasn’t being performed enough,” he said. That show, which Owens says he never intended to perform outside of St. Louis, featured covers of artists who had the greatest impact on him, from the blistering funk of Curtis Mayfield to soul-soaked Johnny Cash covers. Soon, Bicoastal Productions brought the show to stages nationwide, which has resonated with audiences ever since.
“Listening to Johnny Cash helped me find my voice and what I actually sound like, since I knew I could never sound like him,” Owens said. His fascination with Cash goes far deeper than black and white. “It’s American music, it’s part of my Southern identity,” he said. “The classical music of our country is jazz. It’s soul, rhythm and blues, and country. Not Beethoven or Bach,” he joked. In October, Owens will release an album entitled “The Soul of Cash,” exploring soul arrangements of the country classics. “It’s what it would sound like if Sam Cooke or Otis Redding had covered Johnny Cash,” he said.
Still, Marvin Gaye is Owens’s biggest influence. “The diversity of his catalogue, the color in his voice. It’s unlike any other. There will never be another Marvin Gaye,” he said. He’s quick to clarify that his show is not meant to be an impersonation or a tribute. “I don’t try to sound like Marvin, but it definitely comes out on stage. The point isn’t to impersonate him, but to be a living, breathing embodiment of the spirit of his music and his message,” Owens said. “It’s the way I think Marvin would maybe do it as an artist, but I still have the freedom to be me on stage.”
Separated into two acts that explore Gaye’s cut-too-short career, the first half of the show is an upbeat welcome featuring Gaye’s hit singles and duets. The latter half is mostly dedicated to “What’s Going On,” Owens explained. The album, Owens said, tackles heavy subject matter in an upbeat way. “That’s the beauty of that record. Even in the midst of all of this, he’s urging people to come together. There’s a lot of hope there.” The album is ranked No. 6 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
The most challenging part of studying Marvin Gaye’s music was his vocal complexities. “It kicked my butt vocally because he could be both smooth and rough within the same measure,” Owens said. “He had grit, but was super smooth. He uses his voice as an instrument, akin to any great sax player. And it made me a better vocalist.”
At the end of the day, this show is about celebrating Gaye’s spirit and preserving the legacy of soul music. Owens knows young people are more politically and socially aware than ever, and Gaye’s music transcends time with those messages of hope. The show, he hopes, can be an introduction to that. “It’s just really great music and the show is fun and interactive,” he said. “It’s a matter of upholding the tradition of soul music that is so desperately needed in our culture today.”