Pop Reviews : Hip Gospel From Winans Family

If the Winans family weren’t singing about God, you’d swear it was a reincarnation of an old James Brown revue.

At the Universal Amphitheatre on Saturday, their glittery show stretched gospel out of its religious confines, dressing it up in the hip, often streetwise trappings of contemporary R&B.; It was structured like an R&B; revue, with singing family factions--including the four Winans brothers and the brother-sister duo BeBe & CeCe--starring in various segments.

The seven-piece backing band often locked into James Brown-like R&B; grooves, laying the foundation for slick, funked-up gospel. If you didn’t listen closely to the spiritual, uplifting messages--some praising the Lord, others calling for peace, love and understanding--you’d never connect much of this material with gospel.

The family’s stars, who dominated the second half of the show, are BeBe (Benjamin) and CeCe (Cecelia), and the Winans--four brothers who perform like a Motown doo-wop act, with slick choreography and heavenly harmonies.

The show was long, but mostly lively and entertaining, with hardly any lulls. The soulful, sophisticated BeBe & CeCe segment was probably the most stirring, mostly due to the spine-tingling vocals of CeCe, one of the best singers in the business--gospel or secular.