Bettye Lavette put on a typically thrilling show at The Iridium last night. She highlighted songs from her most recent album Things Have Changed which is up for Best Americana (Americana?) Album Grammy later this month. She has also been nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance (that sounds more like it) for her interpretation of Don’t Fall Apart On Me Tonight. Things Have Changed is devoted to the songs of Bob Dylan. Clearly this is a no-brainer; a can’t lose proposition.
Bettye spoke about the album (among other things) and performed two songs from it during a WFUV session that you can hear HERE via the WFUV site. While recording an introduction for that session, I heard myself refer to her as my favorite singer. I don’t remember having used that phrase before. As I digested the remark, I became more comfortable with it. Yes, Bettye Lavette IS my favorite singer!
And why not? Does she not dominate all the material that she interprets? Does she not bring guts and fire to the microphone every time she steps in front of it? Hell yes – as confirmed in The Bronx at WFUV as well as downtown at City Winery last year.
I first crossed paths with the Detroit-raised artist, who makes her home in New Jersey, about seven years ago when I had the opportunity to host a concert she was doing at Madison Square Park. At that point, she was on the road supporting her new album Thankful N’ Thoughtful. I had been duly impressed by her albums I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise from 2005 and 2010’s Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook but I had never seen her on stage. I was astounded with the way she transformed and fully inhabited familiar rock songs and was HOOKED. I copped the requisite photo op…
My next brush came in 2015 when Ms. Lavette played a residency at Cafe Carlyle around the time of the release of Worthy. I shot some video and was able to arrange an on-camera chat with her after the show to produce this television piece.
At the intimate Carlyle show after I had put down my camera to sit down and be free to connect with the music, I experienced a rare swelling of feeling elicited by the way her voice seemed to contain infinite amounts of passion, pain, toughness, and experience. Bettye Lavette is an extraordinary vocalist and a seasoned, intuitive entertainer utterly at home on stage. She put on an exhibition that night that I’ll never forget.
