It must be great to be Smokey Robinson. On stage Friday night at the nearly sold-out Eastman Theatre he seemed to be having at least as good a time as the audience. And when it came to putting on a show, he was everything that last year's soul sensation, Al Green, was not.

While Green left the audience frustrated with a short set, skimpy on memorable songs, Robinson left the audience exhausted. It was two hours of non-stop hits and, at the age of 69, he sang them beautifully. Supported by a six-piece band, three back-up singers, and a too-lithe-crew of dancers, Robinson strutted like a 40 year old, commanding the stage from start to finish.

The show was broken into sections, one of which was a three-tune jazz set with acoustic bass, a smaller drum kit and Robinson singing classics like "Fly Me To The Moon." Another was built around the hits he wrote for other Motown acts, including "My Girl" and two others for the Temptations. But the largest ovations came for his own hits, "Ooo Baby Baby" and "The Tracks of My Tears."

Robinson was genuinely funny when he engaged members of the audience in romantic interludes. The show ended with a wonderfully ridiculous contest that pitted one half of the audience against the other to see who could sing "I love it when we're cruisin' together" the loudest. I'm pretty sure my side won.

Earlier in the evening, I caught the excellent Peter King Quartet at Christ Church where, I'm happy to report, the acoustics seem better this year. The church was nicely full for a musician who is best known across the Atlantic. King wasted no time, launching into cascade after cascade of notes on the opening tune, Chick Corea's "Inner Space." (King likes Corea; later the group played a driving rendition of "Spain.")

King's band-mate, Steve Melling, was especially strong on piano, playing wonderful chordal solos reminiscent of McCoy Tyner. But the second tune, written by him, was a standard blues; I'm always amazed when people claim this now-traditional form as their own.

Also outstanding was King's drummer, Martin Drew, who was solid throughout, and magnificent when he finally soloed at the end of the set. King was generous to his band-mates, sitting out one tune while they played as a trio. But the set's high point came when he soloed, turning Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" into a musical metaphor with the most, well, lush ornamentation possible on every line in a song whose lyrics speak ultimately of loneliness.

Saturday night I'll be checking out B-3 organ master Joey De Francesco and Nordic Connect, a band with Ingrid (trumpet) and Christine (saxophone) Jenson at the center of it.