The North Carolina Azalea Festival will be bringing The Temptations featuring Dennis Edwards to Kenan Auditorium on the campus of UNC-Wilmington on Wednesday, April 5th. The Temptations provide an opportunity for the Azalea Festival to showcase some of the best Carolina shagging music, while giving attendees an intimate, sit-down concert experience.
The Temptations Featuring Dennis Edwards
In addition to being the most consistently commercially successful and critically lauded male vocal group in rock history, the Temptations have been charting hits for 40 years. Yet unlike most other living institutions, the Temptations remain a vital, hit making group, with the double-platinum Phoenix Rising from 1998 living up to its name. In their early “classic” lineup —with alternating lead singers Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin, and Paul Williams, with Melvin Franklin, and group founder Otis Williams —the Tempts, as they were known, were simply untouchable. Through the years, the group’s trademark razor-sharp choreography, finely tuned vocal harmonies, and a number of compelling lead singers (Ruffin, Kendricks, Paul Williams, and later, Dennis Edwards) made them the exemplars of the Motown style. The Temptations have been distinguished among their Motown stable mates for their ability to move comfortably from smooth pop and standards to provocative, politically charged rock soul, from the Apollo to the Copacabana (and back). Despite changes and conflicts, through countless triumphs and setbacks, the Temptations have forged ahead.