Several weeks ago we had the good fortune to see Lizz Wright again at Scullers in Boston. We had seen Ms. Wright during her first American tour back in 2003 and were knocked out. At that point Ms. Wright was what I might call a pseudo jazz singer, not a pure jazz singer but a singer with strong jazz influences, but what we encountered the other night was something of another realm entirely. Like some great African priestess the lovely Ms. Wright conjured up a rich blend of southern African-American traditions in a performance that was at once elegant and soulful.
She began the show with an elegiac reading of Me’Shell N’Degeocello’s hymn “Fellowship” (the title track from Wright's excellent new album). I can count on one hand the performers I have seen who pulled off beginning a show with a slow number, Ms Wright accomplished it with grace. Ms. Wright and her superb band blended southern blues, spirituals, gospel, funk, southern soul and R&B with ease, these interconnected but still disparate styles held together with the Ms. Wright’s powerful presence and voice. Ms. Wright has a wonderful gesture when she performs in which she will pat her chest as if to emphasize what is plainly apparent to her audience, that every note she utters is coming from deep in her soul. Whether it is the traditional blues of “Easy Rider” or her collaboration with Bernice Reagon on the new spiritual “I Remember, I Believe,” or her soulful adaption of Neil Young’s “Old Man,” or her funk reading of Gladys Knights “I’ve Got to use my Imagination” this show was a rich and moving experience. I can’t think of any other singer performing today who has such an effortless grasp of all the major styles of great Southern African American musical traditions and can perform them with such alacrity, joy and grace.
