New Edition took 'Every Little Step' to close the 2022 Essence Festival on a high note

The Essence Festival of Culture is culturally and commercially significant enough to spin off other, simultaneous events in New Orleans.

One such piggybacking event during the 2022 Essence Fest was Sunday night’s 25th-anniversary celebration of Wyclef Jean’s “The Carnival” album in the French Quarter at the Toulouse Theatre. Just as Wyclef did two nights earlier at the Essence Fest itself, he reunited with Lauryn Hill once again.

But the actual Essence Fest remains the main event.

The size of the audience in the Caesars Superdome on Sunday for the 2022 festival’s closing night fell somewhere between Saturday’s full house for Janet Jackson and Friday’s more lightly attended opening night with Nicki Minaj.

I missed Sunday’s earlier acts, including the Roots backing members of the Wu-Tang Clan, to attend the Wyclef event. I arrived at the Dome during the Isley Brothers' set.

The Isleys are the sort of old-school act that Essence doesn’t book as much anymore: Their breakthrough “It’s Your Thing” is 53 years old. But from what I saw of the Isleys at the Dome, they represented.

Singer Ronald Isley’s mobility is somewhat limited, but his voice is not. As an energetic platoon of female dancers cavorted, Ronnie relished “Summer Breeze,” the 1972 Seals and Crofts soft-rock single that the Isleys covered two years later. “Summer Breeze” also let guitarist Ernie Isley show off his considerable chops as he sculpted a soaring solo.

The final “Shout,” all gospel-style exhortations and rhythm, didn’t give Ernie much to do, guitar-wise. But he played his guitar behind his head anyway.

According to the schedule that had been distributed to Superdome staffers and elsewhere, Wizkid was to have followed the Isleys.

Instead, former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial arrived on the main stage to celebrate the growth of the festival that launched when he was mayor. In regards to the various challenges facing the Black community, Morial suggested, “Let us fight until hell freezes over. And then let us fight on the ice.”

Fighting wasn’t on the minds of the folks in the Superdome. They were waiting for New Edition.

Not quite as old-school as the Isleys, various versions of New Edition have appeared at Essence over the years. Finally, the six principals of the group put the troubles of the past behind them to embark on a successful arena tour this spring. The polish and professionalism honed on that tour carried over to their Sunday night Essence Fest finale.

Stepping out in matching purple overcoats with blinged-out buttons and purple fedoras tilted at a rakish angle, they wasted no time. They jumped in with back-to-back early hits “Candy Girl” and “Mr. Telephone Man,” boy-band pop songs now rendered by middle-aged men. It was as if the Temptations were covering the Jackson 5.

Former bad boy Bobby Brown, sporting eyeglasses, a graying goatee and a bit of girth, earned a big cheer as he gamely sweated through “Roni.”

The six singers’ spins and steps were smooth, their various hats and jackets sharp. Their harmonies were solid and they looked happy to be together onstage; Johnny Gill, especially, seemed ecstatic.

The New Edition catalog is deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness of the Essence audience; much of that audience stood and sang along for the entire set.

Ralph Tresvant took a turn out front as a debonair ladies' man, surrounded by a half-dozen female dancers whose red bodysuits matched his jacket.

The trio of Michael Bivins, Ricky Bell and Ronnie DeVoe, aka the New Edition spinoff Bell Biv DeVoe, did their own brief showcase, then backed Brown on his “Every Little Step.” “Count Me Out” served as a vehicle for the latter-day New Edition’s long-running riff about Brown being booted from the group in the mid-‘80s.

The Bell Biv DeVoe smash “Poison,” followed by Brown’s “My Prerogative” and Gill’s “Rub You the Right Way,” had the whole of the Dome up and moving.

Arrayed in pink jackets and hats, New Edition closed out their show, and the 2022 Essence Fest, at 1 a.m. with the pleading “Can You Stand the Rain.”

It was a satisfying finish to a successful Essence.