Slimmed body, massive voice

When Etta James walked onto the ZooTunes stage Thursday evening, she was hardly recognizable. The former big mama of the blues was a shadow of her former self, having lost some 200 pounds through gastric bypass surgery.

She couldn't even walk onto the stage the last time she played here, in 2002 at the Paramount. Back then, she drove out in a motorized wheelchair, and did the whole show sitting down.

At the Zoo, she strode out while her Roots Band was finishing up a couple of instrumental opening numbers, and it took a minute for the crowd to realize who she was.

But when she began singing "I Just Want to Make Love to You," there was no mistaking that voice and that sass. She winked, puckered her lips, bent over and did a little hip shake, as if to show that she's still, at 68, as risqué as ever.

She underscored that a few songs later, during the slightly salacious "I Want to Ta-Ta You Baby," when she called her guitar player over and couched his head in her lap. He continued to play, as she stroked his back.

Her two sons in the band — Donto on drums and Sametto on bass — looked a little embarrassed for her, maybe because there were so many kids in the audience. But the bit was harmless and probably went over the little ones' heads.

James did perform much of the set sitting down, but it didn't diminish her power or hamper her delivery. She sounded great singing slow numbers and got the capacity crowd up and dancing to rousers like "Rock Me All Night Long" and "Love and Happiness."

Review

Wednesday night at Woodland Park Zoo

One of the delights of ZooTunes is seeing kids dancing, by themselves, with other kids or (best of all) with their parents, and those two songs in particular seemed to make little feet happy.

James excelled on the ballads. "I'd Rather Go Blind" was dramatic and moving. "You Can Leave Your Hat On" was charming and funny. She sang her classic "At Last" much like the original, still managing to convincingly convey the song's dreamy ecstasy. Her closer, the slow-blues classic "Sugar On the Floor," was masterful.

The evening got off to a pleasant start with a set of sweet, funky and bluesy original tunes from Seattle-based singer-songwriter Leroy Bell and his band.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312, pmacdonald@seattletimes.com