Lizz Wright – Fellowship

Lizz Wright

Growing up in Georgia, jazz singer Lizz Wright (Salt, Dreaming Wide Awake) grew up the daughter of a minister and sang gospel.

No surprise, then, that on her exquisite new gospel-centric CD, Fellowship, Wright sounds like she’s been singing the glory down since birth. She has.

Wright gathers a deliciously fascinating mix of songs and songwriters/arrangers – from Shirley Caesar to Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton and Angelique Kidjo – and bathes the mix in a folk-soul mystique that conjures fragrant notes of Tracy Chapman and Odetta. The result is an effective and seamless blend of hipster cool and rootsy gospel.

The “Gospel Medley” is especially worth the listen. Wright doesn’t just take listeners to church: she takes them to a Holy Ghost church, where there is plenty of handclapping and soul-stirring singing, anchored by Kenny Banks on piano. One especially fitting song in the medley is “Up Above My Head,” because it pays tribute to another genre-blurring female musician, one of its pioneers, in fact: Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Wright gives “God Specializes” the Baptist treatment, just like Gloria Griffin did decades ago. The backing vocal ensemble on this track sounds strikingly – even eerily – like the Roberta Martin Singers summoned back to life to reprise their hit one final time. “Amazing Grace” shows Wright at the apex of her vocal power.

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.