Words and sounds in London.
Looking every bit the North Philly vamp in an orange striped catsuit, short cropped hair and a smile that beams out to the very back walls of Somerset House, Jill Scott marches on stage and straight into an energetic version of her sultry anthem 'It's Love'.
Her three backing singers, The Pipes, are full of zeal. They dance around without any sort of synchronicity behind their respective mics, but the stage is all the more alive for it. The crowd play call and respond, the musicians move around freely – welcome to Jill Scott's version of soul.
The supremely talented songwriter burst onto the nu-soul scene over a decade ago with her debut album 'Who is Jill Scott?', a blend of jazz grooves and deep beats with smatterings of spoken word - a fact we're reminded of as she introduces 'The Way' with a brief poem.
In between songs an utterly bizarre mock infomercial for an imaginary product called 'Ballfresh' falls flat. It's just not funny and stops the flow of the gig dead in its tracks. Luckily, save for another odd (but funnier) character sketch involving an African doctor, Miss Scott's Harry Enfield impressions are kept to a minimum and the music can speak for itself.
The ever popular 'Getting in the Way' starts full of character, but the tempo is hiked up midway through as if somebody has pressed the fast forward button. Unfortunately a few more songs are treated in the same way, with the beautiful 'Slowly, Surely' becoming a mid-tempo shadow of its original self. That's not to say the crowd aren't entertained, and Miss Scott's natural charm and fun personality come across well, but some songs just aren't meant to be rushed.
The performance is solid throughout, but when you see an artist with such recognized talent you expect to be blown away, and it's not until the penultimate song that she really gives us something special. A stripped back rendition of 'He Loves Me' is by far the crowning moment of the night. Under a spotlight she stuns the crowd into complete silence with a voice stricken with emotion; it's like we're seeing a different performer from the last 90 minutes. Goosebumps all round.
I'd like to have seen more of it. In my eyes, the more upbeat songs, such as the percussion heavy 'Quick' and 'Hate on Me', haven't had such an arresting effect as some of her mellower material. In such a beautiful setting, at an open air gig, this is the time you want to hear Jill Scott's emotion, her poetry, you want her to connect with the surroundings and the moment. Nobody will be disappointed with what we got, it's still in a different league to what the majority of current artists are capable of, but I can't stop that tantalizing feeling that it fell just short of something very special.
Click here to visit the Spoonfed live music homepage.
.jpg)
Add an event
Review: Byzantium
20 years after Interview with a Vampire, director Neil Jordan cooks up the theme on a ...