I had not seen Jackie since Worcester, which was not that long ago.. and in Worcester, after a 3 month summer hiatus, Jackie was in fine form.. these impressions are so subjective, as much built up by my own desire to see and hear her perform, so when she does perform, I'm so impressed.. but I truly believe that the summer rejuvenated her, so that indeed Worcester was her best ever (at that time)..
but after seeing her in Long Beach, we can now see, with her current concert tour, Jackie is on such an amazing roll.. I felt absolutely no disinclination to jump to Standing Ovations after EVERY SINGLE Long Beach song.. Jackie was special above and beyond for EVERY SINGLE song compared to when I last saw her.. I kept thinking this can't continue, but song after song it did.. Jackie surely seems to be improving on perfection - BY THE WEEK..!!
such power of voice and persona.. she has always poured so much into every song – part of the basis of her amazing interpretative talent.. but as she grows, she has more and more to pour into her songs.. she not only filled the venue with her sound, but I felt her to cause the theatre space to expand – how does she do that..?? - she is like a feature of the universe – some theories hold that there was a period of inflation after the Big Bang - and now, space is inflated again via The Jackie Effect.. personally, it was Imaginer that she took to the highest of heights.. but song after song, I found myself bafflingly uttering under my breath “wow Jackie.. whew.. you did it again..”
Jackie seemed to be generally enjoying herself throughout the concert – laughter, waves, giggles, heartfelt thanks, swaying around.. she was very in command of her stage and show.. as always, I was very impressed by the ease with which she spoke and interacted.. but she has seemingly always been at ease on stage speaking to audience.. case in point was the MOTM PBS special which I had watched the day before – granted there was more scripting and rehearsal and opportunity for retakes, but still I'm sure no one could disagree that she seemed remarkably at ease..
it was wonderful to hear Walking In The Air and Believe - so delightful to hear Jackie's voice slightly up tempo, as is needed for some of the lyrics.. and especially for the “We're walking in the air” and “We're floating in the moonlit sky” (and similar lyrics from Walking In The Air) – I mean it when I say that to my ears it truly seemed that there was more than one singer – the delicious effect somewhat startled me a bit.. and oh my oh my that note she sang associated with the “walk” part of “walking” and the “float” part of “floating” (and similar words of similar lyrics) was so hauntingly beautiful – so different from her SFTSS/MOTM version – maybe someone, more knowledgeable than I about these matters, can explain to me what was going on with that note..