TV Reviews : Variety Show on KTLA Celebrates Black Music Artists

“Celebrate the Soul of American Music” (at 8 tonight on KTLA-TV Channel 5) is a star-studded variety show masquerading as a tribute to black music artists such as rhythm and blues vocalists the Temptations and the gospel-singing Dixie Hummingbirds.

So forget that the awards aren’t significant and enjoy the good-intentioned show, taped last month at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. For the most part, it’s a fast-paced, slickly produced delight, and only partly a commercial venture. Part of the proceeds go to the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and the Rebuild L.A. Fund.

Among those honored are LaVern Baker, Bobby Bland, Cab Calloway, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Dinah Washington and the producing-writing team of Gamble and Huff.

Each honoree sits in a front row seat while a celebrity, such as actress Lonette McKee or comedienne Marsha Warfield, recounts their accomplishments, followed by a contemporary artist performing relatively faithful versions of their work.

That’s what makes the show worth watching: the chance to see some of your favorite soul stars performing the material of some revered veteran. Many of the performances are polished and imaginative, like Cherelle, Ce Ce Peniston, Meli’sa Morgan and Lisa Taylor teaming up for a Martha and the Vandellas medley, or the R&B; groups Troop and Atlantic Starr singing Temptations songs.

There are a few clunkers, however, such as Alfonso Ribiero of NBC’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” stumbling through the material of Cab Calloway, a premiere song-and-dance man in the ‘30s and ‘40s. But the show is informative even when the entertainment sags; each honoree is carefully placed in historical perspective.