James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, will perform live in Korea for the first time this Friday. He is currently on an Asia-Pacific tour, and made his China debut Wednesday, with classics such as "Get Up Offa That Thing" in the People's Liberation Army acrobatics theater in Shanghai.

He is scheduled to arrive from Shanghai the day of the concert and will be accompanied by a 20-person entourage of band members, dancers and production engineers. The star will leave the next day for Japan.

At 72, Brown still has his calendar packed with year-round concerts, has a lot of success with his much celebrated rhythm and blues. He has been a prolific hitmaker, having 114 Billboard R&B singles, 94 of which made the Hot 100 singles chart. Seventeen made it to number one; only Stevie Wonder and Louis Jordan have broken his record.

On Wednesday he said: "We are going to funk you up before we finish," and started his concert with: "Make it Funky." He was dressed in a cherry red satin suit and he shimmied, shook and leapt.

The nine-piece Soul General who put on a virtuoso display of rhythm and horns and his quartet of backup singers were also very impressive.

The singer is little known in China, so the audience was mostly European, American and Japanese. This Asian tour that stops in Australia.

Brown has been a charter member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 1986 and the recipient of the lifetime achievement Grammy Award in 1992, he is still very much alive and kicking, releasing new albums non-stop.

At the Korea concert, he will perform old hits such as "I Feel Good," "Sex Machine" and "Living in America" as well as recent songs from the album "The Next Step," which was released in August, 2002.

In an interview last year, Brown said he has no thoughts of retirement. "Retire for what? What would I do?" he asked, says Chicago Tribune.