Articles

Lizz Wright: Grace

By James Nadal

In reaffirming the adage that you can go home again, Lizz Wright did just that. The songs on Grace reflect a homecoming to the singer's southern heritage--a personal rite of passage to glean inspiration and redefine her musical origins. She revisits her rural Georgia upbringing and Atlanta gospel roots, and finds comfort at her current home in Asheville, North Carolina. Having had an enduring taste of fame and success, she articulates the need for humanity, direly absent in times like ...

Lizz Wright: Freedom & Surrender

By James Nadal

Few musicians, that have been commercially successful and artistically praised, have, at the height of their popularity, decided to take a hiatus to discover themselves. Renowned expressive vocalist Lizz Wright, did just that, and guided by a warrior spirit, propelled her music into a renewed direction on Freedom and Surrender. After a string of acclaimed records for the Verve label, and a number of guest side projects, Wright signed with Concord Music Group, savoring the opportunity to create music on ...

The Top 5 Workout Tracks For November

By Chris Lawhorn

[Editor's Note: Working Out to Jazz is a new All About Jazz column, devoted to providing jazz playlists for the purpose of working out. For his third installment, Chris Lawhorn's emphasis is on largely up-tempo tracks from a handful of recent releases. Check in with Working Out to Jazz regularly, for new workout music suggestions, as Chris breaks it out for you by Beats Per Minute (BPM).] For the coming month, I've tried to find the best, up-tempo ...

Lizz Wright at House of Blues in Cleveland

By Matt Marshall

Lizz Wright House of Blues Cleveland, Ohio June 5, 2008

The strains of swamp organ accompanied, seeming to guide, Lizz Wright onto the tight stage of the House of Blue's small, mood-lit Cambridge Room. Her movement was fluid, unhurried. When she settled behind the microphone, she rooted there like a willow in soft dirt.

Throughout the opening “Trouble"--and, indeed, throughout the evening--her arms stretched from her body like wispy limbs from a spiritual ...

Lizz Wright: Dreaming Wide Awake

By Chris M. Slawecki

Lizz Wright's sophomore release is a great production of songs impeccably crafted, both soul-rending originals and poignant renditions of pop classics. Wright, who more or less emerged as a professional singer after she debuted with a 2002 series of tribute concerts to Billie Holiday, continues to demonstrate exquisite taste.

As good as the songs, instrumentation, playing, and production are on Dreaming Wide Awake--and they are all quite good--Wright's allure is ultimately all about her voice. Somehow this luminous ...

Lizz Wright: Dreaming Wide Awake

By Stephen Latessa

Lizz Wright has an immediately arresting voice. She sounds equally at home whether reaching for high, airy notes or dropping down for the deepest, earthiest tones. Dreaming Wide Awake finds her taking on an eclectic assortment of songs, including a number of impressive originals. With its stripped down soul/jazz/pop arrangements, the album cannot escape comparisons to Norah Jones' work, but it also recalls Solomon Burke's great statement of purpose, Don't Give Up On Me. Like the Burke album, Dreaming Wide ...

Lizz Wright: Salt

By Michael Fortuna

Please don't take Lizz Wright's song away. To do so would be blasphemous. The 23-year-old vocalist from Hahira, Georgia has been singing in jazz clubs in Atlanta for a few years, eventually hooking up with the band In the Spirit. Last year she caused a stir when she performed at Billie Holiday tribute concerts in Chicago and Los Angeles. She now has an album under her belt, Salt, and it's an impressive debut. Wright's voice, which lurks ...