Raphael Saadiq at the Empire, W12
Contagious enthusiasm: Saadiq Gus Stewart / Getty Images
David Sinclair
May 2 2011 12:01AM

Raphael Saadiq has long been the go-to guy for stars in need of a producer, collaborator or musical director. He has worked with everyone from Prince and Stevie Wonder to Mary J. Blige and D'Angelo. That was him bouncing around like a pinball with Mick Jagger on stage at this year's Grammy Awards.

But, despite achieving multiplatinum success in his group Tony! Toni! Tone! in the 1990s, it has taken Saadiq, 44, a while to establish himself as a star in his own right. His fourth album, Stone Rollin', a collection of typically catchy, retro-soul songs released last month, could mark the breakthrough. If not, he will always be able to put on an old-fashioned R&B show full of easy charm and scintillating musicianship, as he did on this one-off date at Shepherds Bush.

The Empire was beyond sold-out, with people standing, jostling and dancing in the aisles of the balconies before Saadiq was even halfway through his set. The scene on stage, meanwhile, looked far more orderly, harking back to the days of the immaculately-suited and drilled soul revue bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Saadiq, a geeky-but-cool looking guy in the kind of black spectacles that make their own statement, played a white guitar - or not, as the moment demanded. Behind him, five musicians stood or sat in a neat line, while two backing singers shored up the vocal parts, one of them, Monet Owens, erupting with volcanic effect as she took the lead lines on certain occasions.

Saadiq led the way with contagious enthusiasm, singing in a beautiful high tenor and picking out the rhythmic riffs of songs such as Don't Mess With my Man with a super-funky touch. It was not hard to spot the Motown influences on numbers including Love That Girl and Dance Tonight, nor to detect the touch of the Isley Brothers behind the soaring guitar solo that brought Good Man to a rousing finish. But the show was more than the sum of such classic inspirations and, as Saadiq wound up with a belting chant of Over You, he came across as a modern R&B singer with an unusually deep appreciation of music history making his own way forward.