New Orleans born and bred singer Ledisi performed in New York on May 16, 2011, at the high-tech Time Warner Samsung Experience Center. It was another stop on her promotional tour to support her forthcoming album, Pieces of Me.
I missed her in Atlanta, but was able to catch her this time. And excuse the bad grammar, but the girl can simply “sang.” That’s the only way to describe what Ledisi does with her professionally trained yet gritty voice. And we only have a few of those voices getting airplay, including Fantasia and Jennifer Hudson, so every opportunity to experience them live, I jump on.
The big voice just isn’t a requirement anymore, now that advanced production techniques have leveled the playing field to make room for anybody with vocal chords, including Kim Zolciak of the “Atlanta Housewives” franchise. Zolciak had a hit song with vocals that sounded as if she were hanging her head off the side of her bed with a cigarette in her mouth. But no need to get too far off into that, because Ledisi is certainly holding it down for the truly gifted.
With a release date of June 14 for Pieces of Me (Verve Forecast), the four-time Grammy nominee is staging intimate listening parties during which she performs a few of the album’s tracks — complete with full band and backup singers. And if you’ve never caught her live, she delivers sass, substance and well, just good sangin’.
If you’ve loved previous projects Ledisi has released, last night’s performance demonstrated that Pieces of Me will give you more of the same. Of the various ways she could’ve heralded a new release, I’ll take a live ad from Ledisi any day.
