Her Name Is Ledisi!

Last night I had a rehearsal at my house for our upcoming show (9:30 PM Saturday, January 5th at Ashkenaz) and at the end I left the guys to load out of my living room on their own while I booked over to Yoshi's in Jack London Square to see Ledisi with my friend Emily. Emily is the one who introduced me to Ledisi in the first place, 7 to 10 years ago, and she has seen her perform at nearly every "nook and cranny in the Bay Area" as Ledisi put it during the show. I've seen her at Stern Grove opening for Nancy Wilson (where I remember her telling the audience she was nervous), a horribly loud Rassella's date where she could barely be heard over the patrons and a great show at Cafe Du Nord. I've bought all three of her albums.

The 10 PM show was sold out, which has been the usual for Bay Area Ledisi shows for several years now (she's often cited as the only local artist who can sell out 300-seat Yoshi's for a week). She fronted her longtime band of piano/keys, guitar, bass, drumset and three vocalists with a voice as malleable as rubber, but with absolute control. She can go from a head-thrown-back gospel wail to a straight-toned pianissimo in seconds. Her skills would be meaningless, however, without her songwriting and stage presence.

She didn't play the latin jazz original I love, "Feeling Orange But Sometimes Blue," but the entire show was her R&B tunes ("'ARRuh and B' is what they used to call it," she said.). To be honest, her new album, nominated for a Grammy (along with Ledisi best new artist! Go girl!!), has a commercial smooth R&B sound (a la Erykah Badu, Jill Scott) without any jazz thrown in for those of us who like hearing her treatment of standards. But having seen her live, I can appreciate the album more. For instance, she opened the show with Lost and Found, which is reminiscent of a song from The Wiz. On the album it starts with just voice and piano. A violin comes in after the verse and chorus, followed by subtle synth pads, making this one of the simplest acoustic productions. Her lyrics are always evocative:

Souls pass me by
Why can't they see me here
Touch me one time
Just like magic
I will reappear
Sadness like the rain it showers over me
I wanna feel again
Please someone find me

Now that I'm playing the album again, I hear more acoustic moments as well as her irrepressible scatting.

Her patter during the show -- "church in a juke joint," she called it -- went full circle. She started with a funny riff on "mean people," and later discussed how couples in dysfunctional relationships "lose their walk" and did a funny imitation of male and female struts and shuffles. At one point she described sleeping on floors in New York before nailing her current record deal with Verve, and beginning to question her will to continue singing. "I realized, I'm not Beyonce." "My name is Ledisi" was a constant refrain, said while imitating a DJ turnabling. During her song "Take Time" she did an extended, hilarious interlude where she scatted and pantomimed the activities of a hectic day, including commuting, meeting and typing on the computer.

It all makes me wonder how much she has rehearsed and refined some of this material. To my mind, the show was a flawless inspiration. And that was what she left us with. "My name is Ledisi. I'm a Grammy nominee -- two time! I'm not saying that to boast," she said. "I'm saying that because I've done the work. I want to leave you with a message. I want to inspire you. I was lost and now I'm found." Amen!