MY LOVE IS YOUR LOVE: LIVE
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW 14 JULY 1999

Whitney Houston: A Change of Pace but Still in Step

By NEIL STRAUSS

NEW YORK -- For a contemporary rhythm-and-blues show, where backup tapes and the faithful replication of studio singles are usually de rigueur, Whitney Houston's two-hour performance at the Theater at Madison Square Garden was remarkably unscripted. Nearly every song was rearranged live, with the band waiting for Ms. Houston as she isolated a line and made it a wailing crescendo or paused mid-song to talk with fans.

When guest stars like Brandy and Luther Vandross joined Ms. Houston on "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)," they didn't emerge from the wings: they were called from their seats in the audience and sang with Ms. Houston from the foot of the stage.

This was the new Ms. Houston, a 35-year-old mother whose sleek, sophisticated recent album, "My Love Is Your Love" -- her first nonsoundtrack album in eight years -- is as rooted in the trends of today (staggered hip-hop beats and silky-smooth multitrack harmony singing) as her 1987 album, "Whitney," was in the aerobic pop of its time. She is also a woman who in public appearances often seems unnaturally placid and disconnected, as if surrounded by walls of glass. As she performed on Wednesday, in the first of two performances at the theater as part of her first tour in four years (the other show was Thursday night), the glass became ice and slowly melted.

Though she canceled several concerts thismonth because of vocal problems, Ms.Houston's voice was impeccable throughout Wednesday's show. She is easily one of the best pop singers of her time, yet none of her hit-heavy albums have weathered well enough to rank among the era's best. As if aware that her voice often outclasses her material, she tended to slow down and stretch out her hits so she could pull surprises -- melismas, crescendos, groans, octave-jumping wails, funny voices -- from her bottomless bag of diva vocal tricks.

She had more eccentric mannerisms than atalk-show host. Often she seemed to bedeliberately lingering vocally as the band tried to push her forward through the set. Perhaps as a result of time constraints, the hits at the end of the show, particularly "I Will Always Love You" and her latest break-up hit, "It's NotRight but It's Okay," were curt and abridged.

Perspiring profusely from the first song, Ms. Houston often walked to a table filled with towels, sprays, glasses and other containers to freshen up. Over the course of the night, she descended three times from a stage-set balcony (a true diva must always descend), each time wearing a different shiny or glittering Dolce & Gabbana outfit.

She introduced the audience to her mother, the gospel singer Cissy Houston; her brother and backup singer, Gary Houston (who sang Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground"), and her
daughter, 6-year-old Bobbi Kristina, who helped with "My Love Is Your Love," the latest Wyclef Jean song reminiscent of Bob Marley.

Before performing "In My Business," a plea for privacy that's equal parts Michael Jackson's "Scream" and Bessie Smith singing "Ain't Nobody's Business if I Do," Ms. Houston
brought out her husband, Bobby Brown.

In what has become a tradition at Ms. Houston's and Brown's shows, not unlike the way parents might demonstrate affection for their children in a formal setting, she let the audience watch as he planted one on her (a kiss, that is).

The show also featured disco-enhanced versions of older hits like "How Will I Know" and"I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" and a riveting gospel medley from themovie "The Preacher's Wife."

But Ms. Houston was at her best when taking songs from her new record and turning theminto workouts to exercise a voice that continues to raise the standard for female rhythm-and-blues vocals in the '80s and '90s.