James Brown’s 1966 classic “The Chicken” was next. Stewart on bass once again shone through from the start. Then, a gorgeous mid-range trill led off another Ellis solo, from which the song settled into a head-nodding 12-bar funk & blues at which point I began wondering how many hip hop songs over the years had sampled it. Towards the end of “The Chicken”, Wilson gave us a Southern-rock style piano salvo straight from Gregg Allman’s playbook. It was time to bring on the fried chicken, because now the show was officially cooking with gas.

“How you enjoyin’ it?” Ellis asked, obviously rhetorically. After a loudly affirmative response, he simply said, “Then stick around!” It was time for some rock & roll with “Back On Top” from Van Morrison, whose band Ellis music-directed in the late 70s and early 80s. While his stretching of the reggae envelope, piano playing and compositional brilliance will always be his strong suits in my mind, there are times when Wilson’s voice finds its comfort zone and truly commands a tune. This was one of them, and it carried beautifully into “Days Like This”; enhanced all the more with the sublime backing harmonies from Gold. “Mama told me there’d be days like this”, but she couldn’t have predicted these kinds of evenings.

Closing the first set was another funky rock Morrison classic, “Cleaning Windows.” This was the first time to shine for guitarist David West, who plays a custom-made double-sided axe that has a traditional six-string set up on one side with a fretless configuration on the other.

Guest of honour Pee Wee Ellis returned for the title tune from Different Rooms, with a typically understated, “Thank you.” This one was a slow and melodic shuffle-blues ditty highlighted by terrific interplay between West’s incredibly resonant guitar and Ellis’ high-register sax melody that in places sounded almost like a flute; definitely a number to satisfy the 'Hughies' in the room.

Taking the show in another 180-degree vibe transition was the closest thing Toronto’s ever had to James Brown — Jay Douglas, breakdancing his way down from the bar to the stage in his pinstripe crème suit with a fluidity that put people half his age to shame. What followed were no less than three of the greatest funky soul tunes ever – “Cold Sweat”, “I Got The Feeling” and “I Feel Good (I Got You)” — which surely had the notoriously finicky Godfather smiling down from above. The slow soul treatment of “I Feel Good” was ambitious to say the least but brilliantly pulled off, enhancing the power of those simple and timeless lyrics. Douglas’ voice has the range from R & B balladeering to melt your heart to primal Godfatheresque soul screaming that stops you in your tracks before it pushes you to the dance floor. And with Pee Wee Ellis and two Toronto young guns in the house, you could surely still shake your booty to the horns.

After a rapturous response to “I Feel Good”, the band staged perhaps the shortest encore segue in history and closed out the night with Van Morrison’s “Bright Side of the Road”. Nobody on that stage wanted to stop playing and in a different venue they probably would have gone on well past last call. The excitement and passion in Wilson’s piano and lead vocals was as high as I’ve ever seen it. West whipped the crowd into an absolute frenzy with a blazing mandolin volley. Ellis and the horns just did their funky thang. And as they had been all night, the whole band was radiating joy from the kind of experience for which musicians truly live.