March 10, 2008
Mariel Concepcion N.Y.
Ledisi's performance at New York City's Highline Ballroom was emotional both for performer and
audience; it was like a religious experience. The crowd, spread out throughout the bi-level, supper-club
styled venue, stood up, stomped, waved their hands, clapped along and even cried to the Grammy-nominated
singer's music.
Clad in a back sequined dress and red leather pumps, the New Orleans-born, Oakland-bred singer performed a compact set of just under a dozen songs. She was backed by a live band from Washington DC and three
background singers.
"If you're living and breathing, you're alright. Ya'll better learn how to love yourselves," Ledisi said before breaking into her hit single, "It’s Alright," off her 2007's Grammy-nominated "Lost And Found"
(Verve). When she sang the words, "Wish I had some money to pay my bills, but it’' alright," the audience
clapped in unison to show their agreement.
read more...
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September 2 - September 14, 2008
UCLA Freud Playhouse
In its first full season under the artistic direction of Jason Alexander, the recently renamed Reprise Theater Company will offer the musicals "Once on This Island," "I Love My Wife," "Man of La Mancha" and "Chess" as its offerings for 2008-09.
"Once on This Island," with book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty ("Ragtime"), is a retelling of "The Little Mermaid," set on a Caribbean island. The production, directed by Billy Porter and choreographed by Bradley "Shooz" Rapier includes in its cast 2008 Grammy-nominated R&B singer Ledisi. Ledisi will be cast as Asaka, Mother of Earth. The musical will be presented Sept. 2-14 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.
http://www.reprise.org/Shows/island.html
For tickets and information call 310-825-2101
www.reprise.org/Shows/island.html |
LEDISI IN NEW BOOK:Blood Beats Vol. 2 excerpt:
Interview with Ledisi
Text:
The following is an excerpt from my very first interview with Ledisi, conducted in San Francisco in 2002. I wasn't able to place the interview in a newspaper or magazine, so I sat on it for all these
years until I was able to include the full interview in my new book. Between the interview and now I've watched Ledisi struggle to stay on course, battling
major-label indifference while forging her own path in the indie world, and she's been a huge source of inspiration... not just for her gift but by her example. She's now signed to Verve, who released her
Grammy nominated 2007 CD Lost & Found.
MEETING LEDISI ON A WEDNESDAY
Rasella’s supper & jazz club in San Francisco is already packed to overflowing 45 minutes before the night’s show is scheduled to start. The space is crammed with all ages and races – girlfriends and “girlfriends,” couples still in the chemical glow of early romance, those looking to connect and those who are determinedly post-romantic bullshit. If Sex & the City were cast with Negroes and Carrie Bradshaw had dreads and an ass, this might be the show’s nightlife scene. The stage is almost bare: drums, a keyboard. “What does she look like?” asks a guy sitting at a nearby table. His boyfriend fishes an old copy of Ledisi’s self-distributed Soulsinger CD [eventually re-released on Tommy Boy Records] from a leather bag and passes it around the table. Sun, Ledisi’s manager / producer / creative cohort, takes the stage, untangling wires, plugging in equipment, shifting things around on the too-small stage to clear some elbow room. Two bald, good-looking black men climb
onstage and position themselves, drummer and bassist. By this time, a glance at a wall clock shows that
Ledisi is running late. Suddenly the club door flies open and the regulars burst into applause. Ledisi, clad in black jeans and jacket, with a flowing white scarf around
her neck and electric shock baby dreads all over her head, seems to fly across the floor to the stage. Grabbing the mike and slowly untwirling her scarf, she
sings the opening line to Rahsaan Patterson’s 1997 r&b hit, “Where You Are.” “Baby forgive me,” she croons
while smiling impishly, “for making you wait so long…” Ledisi is arguably the best soul singer in America. She’s one of the best singers, period. And tonight, performing two sets before a hometown crowd of San Franciscans (and Oakland and Berkeley heads who’ve crossed the bay to see her), she effortlessly proves it. When she sings, her mouth slides all over her face. Her banter and inter-play with her audiences is warm and familial. She jokes and cajoles, dances and clowns. As versed in hip-hop as she is in jazz, she scats and beat-boxes, scratching, twisting and kneading sounds with her mouth. Her voice – thick, deep and rich; playful, sexy and haunting – is pure emotion. When she sings the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” the room falls absolutely silent. Waiters and waitresses freeze in place and listen. The song becomes a hymn of unbearable grief as Ledisi funnels the words through a voice stripped of superfluous stylistic tics. It’s just stark and gorgeous, ridiculous.
To read more of this excerpt go to:
ernesthardy.blogspot.com/
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