POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Bobby Womack Drives His R&B; Songs Home

When it comes to old school R&B;, few perform with more ease and assurance than Bobby Womack. Though he has never received the accolades given such peers as Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and Jackie Wilson, in many ways he’s just as seminal a figure in black music.

Though the Universal Amphitheatre was far from packed on Sunday, those in attendance were treated to quite a capable performance by a man who has written some of soul music’s most durable hits.

“If You Think You’re Lonely Now,” a scathing ballad recently reintroduced to a younger generation by the group Jodeci, had a bitter ring to it on Sunday. The fervent declaration of “Woman’s Gotta Have It” had several of Womack’s female fans--many of them appearing to be on the south side of middle age--clamoring at the front of the stage.

With dark glasses perched on his nose, a bare-chested Womack sang “I’m Looking for a Love”--originally recorded in the early ‘60s when he and his brothers formed a group called the Valentinos--with all of the church-based passion that great soul music is built upon.

Second-billed Harold Melvin deserves the trouper of the night award for showing up with only one Blue Note in tow, barrel-chested singer Donnell Gillespie. Their performance of Melvin’s 1973 hit “The Love I Lost” soared.