Born 62 years ago as Sunday Adenyi, the easygoing Adé spoke only a few words in English but handily communicated through both language-transcending exuberance and subtlety, proving anew his mastery of the juju genre. Fronting a dozen-strong version of his African Beats (the smaller touring band; it's larger back home), he cruised through his decades-old catalog, including four tracks off his recently rereleased 2000 album Seven Degrees North and "365 Is My Number/The Message" from his 1982 American debut Juju Music.

Absent from the stage, however, was a signature sound of Adé's music for years: a woozy pedal-steel guitar, which had added a Hawaiian-to-C&W wild-card element to the mix. In fact, unlike the multiple players in editions past, this lineup had only one steady guitarist throughout, with the accomplished King Sunny himself playing but briefly, bending some bluesy notes during an appearance by two female dancers. If you knew what you were missing - that layered weave of various guitars with all the chattering percussion - it was a mild disappointment.

The focus on vocals, however, did afford a truer display of juju's essence, which is fundamentally derived from the speech inflections of the Yoruban tongue. Unlike the punchy James-Brown-informed Afrobeat style pioneered by Adé's late countryman Fela Kuti - with exhortatory vocals in pidgin English - juju is smooth-rolling, keyed by the native language.

On Tuesday, Adé and his three vocalists were often joined by everybody in affecting a cappella chants to begin or end songs. Thus, as a rootsier take from the man who remains a long-revered "gateway" artist for many in discovering world music, it was arguably welcome.

All of which was reason to still hail this King, even on such an anti-royalist date as Bastille Day. And particularly under clear skies, in low humidity, and - to quote a grateful Adé, perhaps emphasizing his ensemble's rhythmic proclivities with a special-occasion reference - in a show as free as "the breeze off the river that is making us feel so . . . [pause, dropped voice] groovy."