Over the last five years Lizz Wright has become a widely known and respected singer in jazz circles. But I sort of resent the "jazz" bin she is often put into. That's because the very thing that makes Wright a compelling listen is her hard-to-categorize style that borrows just as liberally from the folk, gospel, and Delta blues buckets as it does from jazz, if not more so. Her deep, rich and gently seductive voice hits no red lights as she drives it across all these musical forms.
About a year ago I raved on a track off of Lizz Wright's last album Dreaming Wide Awake from 2005. The song, "Trouble," was cited as an example of Wright's burgeoning songwriting skills on an album of mostly covers. With The Orchard, Wright continues her transition from "singer" to "singer-songwriter." Her co-write credits are listed in eight of the twelve tracks.
The Orchard was originally intended by Wright to be themed around "an orchard," the orchard of her native Hahira, Georgia. As she was putting together the songs for this latest album, the theme got expanded, diluted and replaced with a mishmash of topics and styles, but centering around love and relationships. Since Ms. Wright is so adept at changing up and mixing up moods and genres, the album (like her prior two) still manages to be cohesive and focused.
That cohesiveness comes largely because in putting together the songs (mostly collaborating with Toshi Reagon), Wright steadfastly maintained her nostalgia about her youth in rural Georgia. She also took the unprecedented step of working out the songs with her band in a small club setting before going into the studio with them. Thus, despite these songs being recorded in four different parts of the country, there's a certain consistency about them.
Once again utilizing the producing services of Craig Street, the record sounds clean without weakening the rootsy feel. Most importantly, Street rightly arranges all the instrumentation around Wright's irreproachable voice. As in the fresh new spiritual "Coming Home" that opens the album, lightly accompanied by acoustic guitar, bass, organ, drums and a slithering slide lurking in the background.
Article comments
1 - Jordan Richardson
I'm looking forward to checking this one. Nice review!