Submitted photo The IU Soul Revue, to be featured Friday in a performance at Columbus North High School’s Judson Erne Auditorium, is shown during a past performance.
Its alumni have worked for artists ranging from John Mellencamp to Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.
Moreover, director James Strong has worked with popular artists such as Toni Braxton, En Vogue, Tupac, New Edition and LL Cool J and performed for sold-out crowds at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall.
So expect the IU Soul Revue to bring top-tier talent to its free performance at 7 p.m. Friday at Columbus North High School’s Judson Erne Auditorium, 1400 25th St. Ivy Tech Community College is sponsoring the show as part of the continuing celebration of Black History Month in Bartholomew County.
Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, award-winning singer, songwriter, and music producer, has seen the instrumental and vocal ensemble composed of current IU students perform.
“The talent was amazing,” Edmonds said on the group’s website at aaai.indiana.edu/ensembles/revue/index.html. “It’s cool to see young kids doing R&B music… . “I was very impressed. I thought I was going to be impressed, but I was more impressed than I’d imagined.”
In Columbus, the group performed a number of years ago at the local Empty Bowls fundraiser. An added Columbus angle from the past: Columbus native and current movie and TV actress and singer Chaley Jackson, now known to national audiences by her first and middle names as Chaley Rose, once sang with the ensemble.
The ensemble has opened for such notable acts through the years as James Brown and Bootsy Collins.
When the group performed at the original Commons in downtown Columbus in 2001, Tyrone Cooper, the Revue’s director at the time, emphasized that he regularly told his performers that they had to do more than just sing notes.
“You’ve got to feel it,” Cooper said then.
And, he said, if the audience feels it, they can do more than merely love it. They can love the fact that the music can move them and groove them.
“They can dance,” Cooper said. “We expect it.”
About the concert
Who: IU Soul Revue performing as a part of local Black History Month events
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Columbus North High School’s Judson Erne Auditorium, 1400 25th St. in Columbus
Admission: Free
