Acclaimed jazz and blues vocalist Lizz Wright will perform live at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center on Sunday, Oct. 23.
Tickets are $39. For tickets, visit AlysStephens.org or call 205-975-2787.
Wright is a steward of American music, bringing brilliant color and vibrancy to singular original works and compositions by some of the greatest songwriters of our time, according to her bio. The New York Times touts her voice as “a smooth, dark alto possessed of qualities you might associate with barrel-aged bourbon or butter-soft leather.”
“Holding Space” is Wright’s first recording to be released on her new label, Blues & Greens Records, designed to forge a model of business in music where artists are positioned to build more sustainable and wholesome careers. The show was recorded live in Berlin, Germany, at the sound board in the center of the audience. The spirit and events of this show captured Wright’s attention as she was listening back through live material during the start of the 2020 lockdowns. “Holding Space” is an experience of an artist tenderly sharing her narrative with her audience from the same creative and sacred space that the music springs from.
Jazz Times wrote that “Holding Space” is “Wright unadulterated, from Allison Russell’s carved-oak ‘Barley’ to a lusciously slow version of k.d. lang’s ‘Wash Me Clean,’” calling Wright’s voice “one of the marvels of the contemporary scene.”
The Jazz Music Awards: Celebrating the Spirit of Jazz on Oct. 22 in Atlanta — billed as the first awards celebration to exclusively focus on jazz — will feature Wright as a performer in a star-studded lineup of acclaimed artists. Wright recently performed in a tribute concert to Bob Dylan at The Town Hall in New York City led by Oscar- and Grammy-winning songwriter and producer T Bone Burnett, with the McCrary Sisters, Mumu Fresh, Sara Bareilles, Bill Frisell, Margaret Glaspy, Joy Harjo, Joe Henry, Julian Lage and Punch Brothers performing songs spanning Dylan’s decades-long career.