Ledisi’s vocals appear in the George Clooney directed film Leatherheads and Miles Ahead starring Don Cheadle. Her other honors include three Soul Train Music awards and an NAACP Theater Award. Her records as a leader include Lost & Found, The Wild Card, which earned her a Grammy Award in the Traditional R&B Performance category, and Live at the Troubadour. She’s performed, recorded and toured with Robert Glasper, Terri Lyne Carrington, Herbie Hancock, Patti Austin, John Legend, Prince and many other artists.
That relationship with Simone inspired Ledisi to have a storied and star-studded career. “It’s not like it’s just a record I decided to do,” Ledisi says. As Ledisi remarks in the 2021 issue of Down Beat, recording Ledisi Sings Nina was her way to pay homage to an artist who inspired her to go on during a dark period in her life when she contemplated quitting everything. Simone’s classically-trained pianism spanned Bach and the blues, and her vocals ranged from the most rarefied opera arias to the upper room residences of the Negro spirituals. On Rudy Stevenson’s “I’m Going Back Home” you can hear Ledisi’s vocals dance and prance to the Crescent City second line parade rhythms. On the lone Simone composition, the spectrally-syncopated “Four Women,” Ledisi recounts the hardships and heroics of four Black women who endured the bitter-earthed horrors of racism, sexism, sexual abuse and the legacy of slavery. jazz classic “Work Song” proves that Black lives mattered when Simone sang the song in the sixties. Ledisi channels Simone’s haunting and heartfelt readings of Jacque Brel’s “Ne Me Quitte Mas (Don’t Leave Me),” and Dimitri Tiomkin’s “Wild Is the Wind.” Her swinging remake of the Nat Adderley/Oscar Brown, Jr. The anthemic, Broadway standard “Feeling Good” beams with its bravura brass arrangement, contrasted by the bouncy, mid-tempo rendition of the Walter Donaldson/Gus Kahn hit, “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” The homage features songs Simone covered and composed, wonderfully rendered by Ledisi. Ledisi’s concert will include selections from her 2021 tribute recording Ledisi Sings Nina, which features the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and the Netherlands-based Metropole Orkest. The party also features a pleasing potpourri of food from 12 Pittsburgh restaurants: Braddock’s Rebellion, Nate’s Chop House, Chef Claudy Pierre, Taj Mahal, Over Eden and TRYP Hotel, Vallozzi’s, Eddie Merlot’s, Oaklander Hotel/Spirit and Tales, Emerson’s, Morton’s, Fogo de Chao and Nosh & Curd. The party features dancing, live music and performances by drummer Jonathan Barber, the popular Cleveland cover band, Hubb’s Groove, and local artists keyboardist Kevin Howard and Selecta, spinning jazz and hip-hop classics in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop. įollowing Ledisi’s performance will be the festival’s annual Taste of Jazz Party held at the AWAACC at 9:00 pm. This year, Ledisi returns to the 13th edition of the festival with Ledisi Sings Nina, her powerful, show-stopping tribute to the legendary vocalist/composer/pianist/activist Nina Simone on Friday, September, 15 at 8:00 pm, at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC), 980 Liberty Avenue.
She honed those musical styles as a singer raised in Oakland, and is loved around the world, including in Pittsburgh, where she delivered a crowd-pleasing performance at last year’s Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival presented by Citizens (PIJF). PITTSBURGH, PA – The vivid and vivacious vocalist Ledisi was born in New Orleans with jazz, R&B, blues and gospel music in her veins.
CAPITAL JAZZ FEST 2021 TICKETS PLUS
The Evening Continues with the Taste of Jazz Party Featuring Selecta, Hubb’s Groove, Kevin Howard and Jonathan Barber, Plus Food and Beverage Tastings Presented by Area Restaurants LEDISI Returns to Pittsburgh with a Tribute to Nina Simone at the 13th Annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Presented by Citizens at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center on Friday, Septemat 8:00 pm
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