By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

There was a moment during Sunday's concert by Three Mo' Tenors in Music Hall, when the standing-room-only house went quiet, and tenor Rodrick Dixon said, "This song echoes the sentiment of African-American tenors past, present and future."

"Make Them Hear You" from Broadway's Ragtime was a kind of anthem for the three staggeringly talented gentlemen of Three Mo' Tenors, who oozed personality and style in their Cincinnati debut. Their program was testimony to the power and polish of the African-American tenor, long absent from American classical stages, and they effortlessly proved they could scat, sing the blues and hit nine high C's in one of opera's most celebrated arias.

The well-designed program, backed by the Cincinnati Pops and the group's own tour band, crescendoed to a deeply moving "America," sung in memory, said tenor Thomas Young, "of everyone who has given their life to protect our freedoms."

Before the evening had ended, the tenors had traveled from Puccini to Stephen Sondheim ("Send in the Clowns"), Motown ("Love Train"), Duke Ellington, spirituals and gospel. They introduced themselves with "La Donna e Mobile" from Verdi's Rigoletto, each taking a turn with a phrase, and hamming it up a bit like those other tenors.

Young, a distinguished opera veteran of several decades, performed Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" in a slow tempo, allowing us to revel in his vocal splendor and the evening's lushest playing by the Pops (conducted by their co-music director Fred Hughes). His "Send in the Clowns" was equally unhurried; he sauntered out with hands in pockets and made the audience listen to every word. His purity of tone, superb intonation and imaginative phrasing worked, whether he was scatting with astonishing range and wit in Annie Ross/Wardell Gray's "Twisted," or cooling down in "Try to Remember," a pretty duet with Victor Trent Cook.

Dixon, a penetrating tenor with charisma to spare, nailed his high-wire act in Donizetti's "Ah! Mes Amis" from The Daughter of the Regiment, and knew how to turn a beautiful ballad in Leon Russell's "A Song for You" at the piano.

It was Cook, a countertenor and Broadway baby, who added showbiz to the proceedings. The song-and-dance man brought down the house as a zoot-suited Cab Calloway in "Minnie the Moocher." His voice had an arresting timbre, whether singing Scarlatti or the a cappella hymn, "Were You There."

As a trio, they had fun coordinating their moves in "Midnight Train to Georgia," where Young was Gladys Knight to his colleagues' Pips. They got to the soul of the music, and the crowd ate it up.

Three Mo' Tenors will be appearing with the Cincinnati Pops at Riverbend this July.

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com