Odd encore: After Scott’s long, bilingual performance of “He Loves Me,” she left the stage and the lights came on. There’s a cabaret, one-woman-show aspect to her performance, and the concert was often at its best when Scott was least adorned. More than an ace singer, Scott is an accomplished actress, arguably the best lyricist in her little corner of the music world, a natural comedienne and the kind of charmer that makes anyone in her audience yearn to just chat over a cup of coffee, post-concert. Some of the lightness that makes Scott’s records so fetching gets lost in a concert of this size, and her band, truthfully, didn’t tease out anything new in these songs and often instead ironed out the interesting wrinkles. The band caught up with her on “Crown Royal,” a sort of R-rated “Loco-Motion”-style instructional where Scott allowed herself to get a little bit dirtier on stage than she does on record, an Elvisian hip wiggle leading into a mild twerk.īringing a page poet’s sensibility to a traditional soul stage show, Scott came off as a little bit Nikki Giovanni, a little bit Denise LaSalle. That “poignant rocking forth and back alright,” as she sang in her third song, “Whatever,” was woven throughout the set, sometimes surface, sometimes subtext, sometimes with yearning, often with humor. There may not be anyone in pop music since Scott’s arrival 15 years ago who writes about sex as well as Scott does, who situates it as a healthy, earthy part of life without being crass or pandering about it. But she performed barefoot, occasionally walking back a little table to sip from a wine glass, fan herself or fiddle with other accessories.Įven with a seven-piece backing band and three back-up singers flanking her, it gave the impression of concert as the elaborate daydream of a woman getting ready to go out for the night, or perhaps having just gotten back. Scott cut an elegant figure, wearing a black, white and brown animal print sleeveless jumpsuit with a sheer black shawl, her hair up but tumbling down just over her eyes. Scott’s 19-song, roughly two-hour set drew more than half of its material from Woman and her 2000 debut, Who is Jill Scott?, but ranged across her career, pulling from all five of her studio albums and an early live bonus track in just the concert’s first seven songs. And if that designation doesn’t quite mean what it did 20 years ago, it’s still a mighty fine place to be for a now 15-year music vet who’s never fully crossed over from her R&B/soul home to the larger pop world. Spiking the mood of mutual gratitude and celebration, perhaps, was that Scott took the stage owner of what is currently the #1 album in the country, with her newly released Woman. It’s because, while most of her songs, as with most R&B songs, deal with love and sex (and not always in that order), Scott’s not catering to men but rather inviting them along on her own terms, with her own considerable but reasonable demands. Here’s a female artist that women really love and to whom they relate: It’s not just because she looks like a normal woman. The fan-artist relationship felt more personal, and many of the women - almost all women - who stood to cheer Scott’s arrival stayed up, even as most of the audience had returned to their seats. After all, at that level you’re a celebrity and the people in the seats - or leaping out of them - like you enough to have paid a meaningful amount to see you.īut it felt a little different when Jill Scott walked across the Orpheum stage for the first time on Tuesday night. We're proud to be presenting Golden Moments as our newest SoulTracks Listening Room.At big concerts, performers always get a strong ovation when they take the stage. Kicking off with "Jilltro" and ending with her still sassy "Gettin' In The Way," Golden Moments presents Scott's career-defining songs in a fresh context which will remind old and new fans alike why they first loved her. And the album cover artwork utilizes original paintings by noted African-American artist Chaz Guest (whose work currently hangs in the White House) capturing a young Jill live in performance at the label's star-studded launch party on June 1, 2000. Golden Moments covers Jill Scott's near decade with the Hidden Beach label (2000- 2009), where she made some incredibly memorable music. The sixteen track collection of digitally remastered hits and fan favorites also includes " I Adore You," a previously unreleased vault recording produced by platinum hit makers Carvin & Ivan. That 15th anniversary is being celebrated this month with a killer greatest hits compilation of Jilly from Philly entitled Golden Moments. Is there an artist of this century who has meant more to soul music lovers than Jill Scott? Her reign began 15 years ago with the release of her seminal album Who is Jill Scott? and continues to this day.
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