Pop Music Reviews : Corny Set From the Ma and Pa Kettle of R

Maybe it’s due to the mind-numbing overexposure of today’s high-tech, high-speed R&B; style, but the Ashford & Simpson show at the Universal Amphitheatre on Wednesday seemed awfully corny and dull.

These days R&B; fans get a steady diet of racy rapping, frantic, pulsing rhythms and the hyperkinetic gyrations of youngsters like Bobby Brown. In that context, Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson seem like relics, throwbacks to the bygone era--sort of the Ma and Pa Kettle of R&B.;

The husband-and-wife team has made its reputation primarily through composing and producing. Though excellent in those roles, Ashford is at best a decent backup singer. Simpson, an old-fashioned R&B; belter, once had the makings of a solo star but chose to sing duets with Ashford. As a vocalist, she’s so much better than her husband that the contrast--in concert particularly--is often jarring.

In the ‘60s--during Motown’s heyday--they wrote a lot of great songs, such as “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” but hardly anything of quality in the last decade. They’re living on past laurels and are stuck in the slow, suggestive soul style that died years ago.

The opening set by Mica (pronounced MEE-sha ) Paris, a 19-year-old black English singer, wasn’t very exciting either. Basically a low-key Anita Baker, the pop-soul singer is a raw talent who needs much shaping. There’s been a buzz about her in the industry based on her album “So Good.” Too much of her material, though, emphasizes her softer side, when it’s the gutsier side that’s her real asset.