Lizz Wright on TV and On Tour
If you’ve not heard Freedom & Surrender, the new album from Lizz Wright, then you are missing an absolute treat. Initially planned as an album of mostly cover-songs, it became the very opposite – an album of mostly originals. Wright explains, “There’s a time for everything. There’s a time to do cover-song records, which can be like sharing good homework after doing really beautiful research. It can be amazing and very creative in that way. But I just knew it wasn’t time for me to be doing that. I had to prove it and buckle down and make it happen.”
This is a sexy, sensual album with Lizz herself writing 10 of the 15 songs, six with producer Larry Klein and long time songwriting partner, David Batteau. The album touches upon fresher emotional terrain, especially the ethereal, acoustic guitar and Hammond organ-powered ‘Somewhere Down the Mystic River,’ the beautiful lament ‘Here and Now,’ (which was inspired in part by the passing of Maya Angelou), the salty and spiteful ‘You,’ the tender R&B ballad ‘Blessed the Brave,’ and the erotic blues drag ‘If You Lead Me.’
Wright wrote with J.D. Souther and Maia Sharp on ‘Right Where You Are’ and ‘Real Life Painting,’ respectively. The former is a mesmerizing love slow jam, featuring Wright in an amorous duet with Gregory Porter, while the latter is an evocation about dwelling in the momentary carnal bliss of a love affair…it is stunning and a contender for most beautiful ballad of the year.
Wright toured with Porter in 2013 and this Friday she is appearing in Stockholm and spends the rest of the month playing dates through Europe. Tonight she is recording an appearance on the acclaimed BBC Jools Holland Show which airs on Friday.
Oct 16 Stockholm Jazz Festival Stockholm, Sweden
Oct 17 Lillehammer Kirke Lillehammer, Norway
Oct 18 Cosmopolite Oslo, Norway
Oct 19 Stenhammarsalen Lorensberg, Sweden
Oct 22 Flagey Brussels, Belgium Tickets
Oct 23 Paradiso Grote Zaal Amsterdam, Netherlands
Oct 25 Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall Istanbul, Turkey
Oct 26 Heimathafen Berlin, Germany
Oct 27 Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Germany
Oct 29 Theatherhaus Gessnerallee Zurich, Switzerland
Oct 30 New Morning Paris, France
Oct 31 Ronnie Scott’s London, United Kingdom
Nov 12 Blue Note Nagoya, Japan
Nov 14 Blue Note Tokyo, Japan
Nov 15 Blue Note Tokyo, Japan
Nov 17 Cotton Club Tokyo, Japan
Nov 18 Cotton Club Tokyo, Japan
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