Lauryn Hill Live – She’s so Back!

By: Rustycat | in: Music |

I was walking around in my home town of Tel Aviv, Israel a couple of weeks ago and spotted a gig poster saying “Lauryn Hill Live in Israel”. Huh?! I thought it was some cover band promoting themselves, as I moved closer I discovered Ms. Hill herself is coming to Israel for a full on concert.

Lauryn Hill

I think I was more taken by the idea that Lauryn Hill is still alive and kicking rather than the idea that she’s performing in Israel of all places.

A crowd of nine thousand gathered round in a distant park to get the chance to be reminded of their favorite hits like ‘Ready or Not’ or ‘Everything is Everything’. Truth is, I was a little hesitant about this concert. As we recall Lauryn Hill made everyone pretty angry when she did a follow up album to her successful ‘Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ debut and got on stage at an MTV Unplugged venue with a classic guitar, Neil young style, and gave the crowd a double album of new songs (for the record – one of my favorite albums). So I was a little afraid we were in for a two hour feature of new songs no one’s ever heard.

Fortunately, the exact opposite occurred.

Lights dim, a fifteen piece Motown looking ensemble take the stage with a cool ten minute long breakbeat jazz intro. Then comes Lauryn Hill dressed in some kind of white preachers robe running all over the stage rapping her heart out.

Lauryn gave a two hour concert of a lifetime!

lauryn

She was so full of energy; her vocal abilities are quite unique, from fast old school rapping to sweet mellow melodies. The music was pounding with all kinds of instruments, a four piece percussion team and a few back up vocalists. I can’t even try to pin point the music genres, they were all over the place. The show was mainly at a high tempo with the big arena rock chords, none of those R&B ballads rather than rough cut versions to all her song, it almost sounded like heavy metal riffs only with that cool hip hop pace.

They played all the Fugee hits and Lauryn’s hits, which gave the crowd the incentive they were looking for and formed a bond between them and the singer. On a personal note, she is a one woman musical phenomenon. The way she handled the stage, talking to all her musicians and inspiring the crowd is something to admire.

Apparently Lauryn just released a new single called ‘Lose Myself’ on the movie soundtrack ‘Surf’s Up’. It’s a great song and I’m already reading some blog chatter about an upcoming album which, according to last night’s performance, will have a more upbeat rap hip-hop gospel feel to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnUaP9zcRBQ

I’ve been hearing a lot about the future of Hip Hop and R&B and how it’s the end is near the genre. Some say they’ve tired out all the schticks. But I think this is just another way of saying there are a ton of musicians out there that haven’t the innovation and vision in their music. Hearing Lauryn Hill last night made me remember how a mainstream R&B singer can find her way in to the music shelves of all us indie rock fans as well as the kids and still manage to keep her head up high above all the gossip and industry shit.

If you see a Lauryn Hill listing in your town do yourself a favor and buy a ticket. Here are the upcoming tour dates:

NORWAY
July, 20th - 21st 2007
VIKA FESTIVAL, Norway
July, 21st 2007
Canal Street 2007 - Arendal Jazz & Blues Festival
ITALY
July, 24th 2007
Lauryn Hill at Lucca Jazz Festival 2007 in LUCCA
FRANCE
July, 25th 2007
Lauryn Hill at Nice Jazz Festival 2007
NETHERLANDS
July, 26th 2007
Lauryn Hill with Band at Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam
BELGIUM
July, 27th 2007
Suikkerock 2007 Festival in Tiennen, Belgium
CZECH REPUBLIC
July, 28th 2007
Music in the Park Festival 2007 in Praha (Prague), Chez Republic
USA
August, 06th 2007
FREE CONCERT! Martin Luther King Concert Series
An Evening with Lauryn Hill and Special Guests

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Posted on July 21, 2007

Comments

3 Responses to “Lauryn Hill Live – She’s so Back!”

Charbarred on July 21st, 2007 7:25 am

I’m actually looking forward to her next album. It’s good to know there are pop stars out there who aren’t crap.

baron on July 22nd, 2007 3:30 pm

apparently she derailed the fugees album, wyclef and pras always paled as performing members but I still liked wyclef’s production style (at least back in the day).

I always keep hoping for my favorite artists of that era to make a stunning comeback even if I know better. It took me a while to give up on the Pharcyde but I still can’t help but hope for Hill and also D’angelo (if he gets a record deal).

Beezo on August 6th, 2007 8:00 pm

I just received two extremely negative responses from her MLK concert at Wingate park in Brooklyn. I guess the USA is not feeling the new LaHill, well at least not at this point. Mass exodus from the concert is the term that stuck in my head.