Pop Music Reviews : LaVern Baker Back With the Blues

The great LaVern Baker re-emerged at the Cinegrill on Thursday after two years of illness--strokes, diabetes and resultant leg amputations--and the rhythm & blues pioneer seems ready to prove it was only a temporary setback.

“This is the first time I’ve hit a note in two years,” Baker told the crowd, pausing between songs in her wheelchair. “But God has been good to me.”

That remark was typical of Baker’s generally cheery demeanor Thursday, the opening night of a two-week engagement at the club. Wearing a sparkling black gown, Baker spent her 90-minute show joking with friends in the audience and singing her old hits with increasing power. Any squeamishness in the room soon evaporated.

“I feel good,” she said. “The only thing now is that I’ve got to find a man that’s short.”

Baker’s performance was tentative at first, backed by an able but hastily gathered group of mostly local players, but the singer has lost little of her command over pop and the blues. Novelty hits like “Tweedle Dee” and “Jim Dandy” were crowd-pleasers, yet it was her occasional excursions into the deepest blues that carried the most weight, energized with fine soloing by guitarist Roy Alexander.

By the night’s end, Baker (who in 1991 became only the second woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) had reclaimed her old role as grand interpreter of good times and wicked love.

* LaVern Baker performs Thursdays through Sundays at 8 p.m. at the Cinegrill, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 466-7000, through Sept. 24. $20 cover charge, plus $10 minimum.