It’s August, it’s Donostia and the Big Week begins, where thousands and thousands of people come to see the fireworks around La Concha Bay. Rarely does anything even minimally interesting happen for the general public with its back to the sea or far from the pintxo bars. The Dabadaba room, which usually leaves nothing to chance the rest of the year, timidly rears its head, as if it did not want to steal the limelight from these summer months. But today is a big day. A short 72-year-old in a jaunty flowered jacket and shiny glam shoes, perhaps the biggest soul singer of the last decade, has been sweating from the very first song.
In the opening bars, “I`ve Got It” sounds and, yes, the most optimistic omens are confirmed: Lee Fields, who seems to have made a pact with the devil due to his surprising youthful appearance, arrives in great shape. His voice is as deep and powerful as ever, and he sings with an honesty that would claw at the hearts of the most callous people on the planet. A major event in a small room with capacity for about 250 people. It doesn’t fit a pin. It’s really hot. A perfect sound. Pure and authentic soul, unadulterated, without poses, without absurd recreations or modernities.
A man who generally sings of love and who has a message that he repeats like a mantra throughout the evening: “Are you happy?!” The response from his followers is unanimous: “YES”. Today is a day to remember. Today is one of those days in which the entrance fee (30 euros) is more than justified. Soul of a lifetime, romantic and captivating as in the ballad “What Did I Do”, with which one is capable of imagining what those performances would be like at the historic Apollo Theater in New York, where in its day the first swords of the soul, r&b and funk. Lee Fields he dedicates “Ladies” to women and personally addresses some of the guys in the room who have moved with their partners to tell them that they are very lucky. The scene takes place a span away. A luxury in the age of festivals.
It is not the first time that Lee Fields, survivor of Brooklyn’s neosoul label Daptone Records, goes through the San Sebastian tabla. If soul is any kind of religion, the singer has become a reliable creed to follow ever since. “My World” (2009) to “Sentimental Fool”, edited last year and that Fields asked permission from the public to be able to make a place for it in the repertoire. Among the themes chosen, the previous parliament of “Two Jobs” surprised, where job insecurity is criticized (“I`m working for two jobs, gettin’ paid for one”) and the saxophone, crouched in a corner, ended up exploding in a thousand colors. Of course, the meaningful closing of the album, “Extraordinary man”, was missed.
Part of the lyrics of this exciting song could be the summary of the eventful life of Fields himself. A man who, despite his impressive vocal gifts, has not had it easy to succeed in the world of music and who has really forged his career after 60 years of age, in the last decade and a half: “Trying to be an extraordinary man / It was easy when I was strong / But when I’d stumble, you don’t always come along”. The singer’s summer tour with his current six-piece backing band combines festival performances with more intimate gigs. That was the reason the tour manager used, already in the merchandising, to justify the strange absence of “Faithful Man”, which has become an absolute hymn. What was the reason for removing it from the setlist? Lee Fields has a very tight schedule, he said. The band’s guitarist commented afterwards that it had been a personal decision of his leader.
Be that as it may, at 11:28 p.m. the band returned to the stage and the encore focused on “Honey Dove”, which is no small feat either. Lee Fields she had taken off her undershirt and with the same flowered jacket now on a bare chest, she screamed “Baby Love”. The message had been made clear. Big voice, charisma, communication from the stage and the usual soul. A unique frontman with a youthful honor and in which each concert is an event in which every last drop of sweat is left. Literally. Outside the fireworks finished off the conflicting task and mixed with an inclement sirimiri.