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Things got so interesting toward the end of jazz singer Marie's show at Jefferson Center Friday night (read print version here to see what I mean), I wasn't able to focus the review so much on the music, singing and playing itself.

So let's get to that here, starting with Marie's voice. I had only heard her live once before, nearly three years back at the final Taste of the Blue Ridge Blues & Jazz Festival, where she headlines. She blew me away then, and I have to say she has still got it.

She was physically expressive then, as well as vocally expressive. She's deepened the physical portion of the show from what I can remember. That's probably the result of her work in theater in the Denver area, including participation in Black Radio Days, a series of reproductions in front of audiences of black radio programs from the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Marie was kind enough to send me links last week to Black Radio Days, http://www.blackradiodays.com/dfhist.htm, and to series producer Donnie L. Betts, http://www.nocredits.com/bkgnd.htm. These shows deal with deep moments in African-American history, both cultural and political. Check out the Web sites for more information, plus audio and video samples.

Her band -- pianist Kevin Bales, bassist Rodney Jordan and drummer Quentin  Baxter -- were so musical, so supportive. And each could shine on his own, particularly Bales, who floated, buzzed and soared in his solo over the changes of "O Shenandoah." Marie told the crowd she chose that song just for Roanoke.

That song, once lightly considered to be Virginia's new state song, is easy to sing. But it's not easy to sing as richly and resonantly as Marie did, yet without histrionics. She appeared early in the number to be breaking up emotionally, and when it was over, she wiped away a tear. But she did not lose control of that voice.

It was a great surprise when the former Rene Stevens Croan brought her older son, Michael Croan, onstage. Michael Croan had told her in the early 1990s that she should be out there, singing for people, Marie has told interviewers.

He obviously had an ear for talent -- and it turns out, he has a strong, elastic voice of his own. They locked in harmonically and dramatically together on such tunes as the folk-blues classic "John Henry," here given a funky, mid-tempo shuffle feel.

Mother and son also combined soulfully on Marie's own song, "Stronger Than You Think," She told the audience that this song was her best attempt at giving some usable advice to Michael and her other son, Desmond.

She did an evocative version of Abbey Lincoln's "Caged Bird," in tribute to late 19th-early 20th century poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, a child of slaves who wrote the poem "Sympathy." In the verses, Dunbar bookends the frustrations of the post-Reconstruction era with the lines "I know what the caged bird feels, alas!" and "I know why the caged bird sings!"

The band built to a climax has Marie's voice soared: "Birds were made to fly away ... Let him sing, let him sing."

Marie flew away from Roanoke long ago. It's nice when she flies back for a visit.