New footage of Martha and the Vandellas LIVE!

[Sharpmoves]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mPfIgm-MoI

Not sure what the occasion was, but nice to see Martha get these be-suited and high-heeled lot onto their feet to help her dance in the street! Excellent band too, with some nifty jazz-infused flute playing. Martha and her sisters looking fabulous in their outfits.

[theboyfromxtown]

With Bettye Lavette

[RobertZ]

Wonderful! Great, high energy performance!

[Roberta75]

Dr Reeves has such charisma and such amazing energy. Shes polished and beautiful and Motwons finest and best performer out there today. You go the First Lady of Motown Sr Martha reeves. Nice to see Miss Bettye up there as well.

Thanks for shariung Sharpmoves.

Yours, with every good wish.

Roberta

[carole cucumber]

Mr. Lester,
I see.... you meant she's singing in the background.

But here is her performance from the same episode:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpnnnpvxzNM

[theboyfromxtown]

Carole

Bettye also does a dance with her!

I can't get down like that anymore. I need help to get up!

[BigAl]

Oh, my goodness.

[marv2]

Oh, my goodness.

She is dancing the classic..................."le booty-green"! LOL!!!

[luke]

I agree..oh my goodness.

[BigAl]

It's too bad Martha can't be less self-indulgent with her performance. She takes so many liberties with the material that often it's virtually unrecognizable, and that's not what audiences want to hear. She should sing her hits straight and not do all that trilling up and down and save those vocal gymnastics for other material. Most older singers will pitch their material down as much as a whole octave as their voices age without compromising its integrity. Martha, however, seems to love sliding up and down the scales and too often it ends up sounding almost comical. She should recognize the range where she sounds best and stick to that. [[Even Yma Sumac did that as she got older.) She could take some pointers from her contemporaries who've been able to successfully tailor their material to accommodate their mature voices.

[PhillyKen]

Amen BigAl.I have seen her a few times in past 3 yrs and each time I hope for 1965 but that's not gonna happen for many of our favorites.In Martha's case,you nailed it.The shrieks and vocal gymnastics aren't what we go to hear.You can even hear and see in the video she is out of breath which affects her performance.It's not her fault.It's hard to maintain for over 50 years.She put out some of the best music ever but cant duplicate it now.In comparison,I just saw Gladys Knight in concert.A very enjoyable and entertaining performance.As much as we all wanna ignore it,time marches on.I'd love to see the whole Motown revue as I saw it in 1964-65 but that aint gonna happen.I'm happy Martha is carrying on but its not 1965.