Original “Gimme Shelter” gospel singer Merry Clayton brings the house down @ Toronto Jazz Festival during difficult Divas show.

(June 22-08) It was a rainy night in Toronto - but gospel diva singer Merry Clayton warmed up the main tent stage during a Saturday night at Toronto’s International Jazz Festival. Being the original duet partner to Mick Jagger on the Rollings Stone landmark Let It Bleed album - and the classic “its just a shot away…” Gimme Shelter. Clayton implored the audience for help during the song remarking, “If I’m gonna do Gimme Shelter, you guys can’t just sit there like bumps on logs.”

It was diva’s night at the Jazz Festival - with singers Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love joining Clayton. But the “divas” label seemed to ring pretty true on the night. We heard that Ronnie Spector was “difficult” on the day - very late leaving the hotel causing the show to start almost an hour late and then Spector would only perform two songs and refused to take the stage with fellow divas Clayton and Love for a planned encore. Thankfully, Merry Clayton’s stirring rendition of Gimme Shelter ensured the audience still went home happy and the 3rd night of the Toronto Jazz Festival was still considered a success.

UPDATES:
Globe and Mail reviewer J.D. Considine certainly witnessed the problems in the Divas show and brought to light a very apt definition of the term:

‘Diva” is a word that gets tossed around all too lightly these days.

Implying both adulation and approbation, it refers to those female singing stars whose sense of drama is personal and permanent, and who insist on star treatment whether on stage or off. Divas can be thrilling, but they can also be a pain, and it was more of the latter than the former when Ronnie Spector, Darlene Love and Merry Clayton jointly headlined at the Toronto Jazz Festival on Saturday. - J.D. Considine, Globe and Mail