Photo Credit: Christopher Nelson

Don’t tell John Legend that the true soul singer is dead. The consummate professional, Legend appeared on stage Monday afternoon dressed in crisp white pants and a gray shirt, waving graciously to the audience, while his band — keys, guitar, drums, organ, bass, horns, and three back-up singers — welcomed him on with warm chords.

Sitting down at the grand piano, the Grammy-winner launched into the hook from Jay-Z’s “Do U Wanna Ride,” which moved quickly into “Heaven” as the crowd, a surprisingly equal mix of male and female, sang along approvingly. The show was clean and polished, but only in the best of senses, the fact that it didn’t always differ much from the album more of a testament to the artist’s ability than proof of a top-of-the-line studio. Showmanship was balanced gracefully with talent in arrangements that mixed funk and R&B with swells of rock and jazz, bringing an unexpected darkness to Legend’s otherwise romantically-driven songs. In “I Can Change,” for example, though it started out like gospel song, the piece ended on more ominous tones, almost apocalyptic in nature. The intensity growing, the band then transitioned into “Slow Dance,” a contrast that made Legend’s sentiments seem all the sweeter. After slinking about by himself for a while, he invited a woman from the audience to come dance with him, a request she happily fulfilled, glad to touch his sweat-stained shirt as he crooned near her, his voice, his curls, perfect.

John Legend is certainly aware of image, but his concert wasn’t about theatrics, stage tricks, or pyrotechnics. It was about recreating, reinterpreting the iconoclastic performance: background singers with choreographed dance moves, he himself gliding around the stage and to the piano, microphone in hand, a smile never leaving his face. There was nothing particularly provocative here, nothing extreme or even much out of the ordinary, just a very solid, very strong showing — pulling equally from Get Lifted and Once Again as well as from Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Wilson Pickett — from a very gifted musician who clearly knows what it takes to put on a good show, day after day.