O.C. POP MUSIC REVIEW : ‘Quiet Storm’ Drizzles Sometimes Despite Phyllis Hyman’s Thunder

If the “Quiet Storm” radio format offered the musical vision that its name suggests--that of the hushed awe-filling feeling of watching the elements at play--it would truly be something to hear. As often as not, though, the format’s play lists--with their overly synthetic, emotion-bleached selections--could more easily be described as “Lingering Morning Haze.”

The “Quiet Storm” tour, which brought singers Phyllis Hyman and Cherrelle and the fusion-based Pieces of a Dream band to Anaheim’s Celebrity Theatre on Thursday (that lineup will be joined by Bill Withers at the Universal Amphitheatre Sunday in Los Angeles), certainly drizzled at times, but it also offered some genuine thunder.

That arrived in the form of Hyman, the headliner. Statuesque, even when performing barefoot as she did Thursday, the 6-foot-1 singer has a voice to match her image. Her singing steered a smooth, but never slick, course between jazz and soul. While not quite equal to the expression and control of the great jazz and pop stylists, nor to the emotional outpourings of the classic soul singers, Hyman showed touches of both in her 17-song set.

Sometimes a bit too reserved, she pulled out the stops on her voice in the hit “Living All Alone”--which featured an explosive tenor solo from sax man John Valentino and a whistled solo from Hyman--and on “Meet Me on the Moon” and “What Ever Happened to Our Love,” both soul ballads from her upcoming “In the Prime of My Life” album.

Though sporting a regal, high-crowned outfit that made her look about as forbidding as Grace Jones, Hyman showed a warm stage manner, indulging several requests from the audience. At one point she spotted a child sleeping in the front row, sang a snippet of a lullaby, and then declared, “She can sleep if she wants to. I’ve got her money.”

The one part of her performance that faltered was a medley of Ellington tunes from “Sophisticated Ladies.” It was no fault of Hyman--she spent two years in the Broadway production of that show--but rather her band overplayed on the tunes, running roughshod over the rhythms, and most definitely not swinging. It was an odd lapse considering the sensitive support they otherwise gave Hyman.

Openers “Pieces of a Dream” showed the soggier side of the “Quiet Storm” with a set of uninspired fusion-funk. The group also backed Cherrelle through a four-song set. On “Crazy (For Loving You)” and the No. 1 hit “Everything I Miss at Home” the young singer displayed both a nimble, octave-swooping voice and a lack of the emotional weathering necessary to make her notes felt. Additionally, the slinky “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On,” arguably her best song, was missing from the brief performance.