JAZZ REVIEW : Maxine Weldon Puts an Exciting Touch on Oldies

Maxine Weldon, who opened Wednesday and closes Saturday at the Cinegrill, has been around the local block more than a few times.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, age has not withered nor custom staled, her infinite variety. Armed with her perennially radiant smile and warm personality, she kept her audience entranced for almost 90 minutes with a program that moved from pop to jazz to R&B; to country.

With three songs by Percy Mayfield, one by Cole Porter, the 1960s Brenda Lee country hit “Johnny One Time” and even a song in Japanese, Weldon never let boredom set in for a single instant. True, she kept her vocal volume at a sometimes disconcerting level, but there were moments of relaxation, as in “Am I Blue” and “Just for a Thrill.”

Weldon has always maintained this combination of extroversion and excitement, along with a refusal to recognize any dividing lines between idioms. Her blues numbers were especially powerful, spelled occasionally by instrumental interludes (Eliot Douglass on piano, Curtis Robertson Jr. on electric bass, backed by drummer Washington Rucker).

The trio supplied an R&B; beat as she delivered the “Stairway to Paradise.” No song is old when Maxine Weldon takes charge of it.