Joined: Dec 2005 Posts: 530 Location: Republica dominicana Karma: 9
Ms. Hill - Open Reahearsals in San Francisco « Thread Started on Jun 30, 2006, 10:50pm »
thanks jelani ! MP3 Live: Lauryn Hill, cold vampin' By Jim Welte - MP3.com June 30, 2006 at 12:54:00 PM | more stories by this author
L Boogie drops a pair of scorching secret shows on San Francisco fans, delivering a blunt reminder of her vast talent.
She's baaaaaack. Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
With two hush-hush "rehearsal" shows at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco last night, Lauryn Hill silenced the skeptics, answered years of questions, and unveiled a reinvention of sorts.
Backed by a raucous 12-piece band, the Fugees centerpiece oozed passion and soul, showing off new material, some reimagined old hits, and an aplomb reminiscent of the late 1990s, when her Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album made her the biggest artist in the world for a time.
On this night, the frail-voiced woman whose raw emotion at her 2001 MTV Unplugged performance that caused many to worry about her state of mind, let alone her musical career, was transformed into a heat-seeking funk bomb. In an hour-plus set that didn't start until 1:15 a.m. and continued even after the venue operators had turned on the lights and cut off Hill's mic, it was as though James Brown himself had inhabited her body as she let out howls, shrieks, and fist pumps of encouragement to her band.
The band kicked off the set with an almost free jazz-style intro jam, with Hill taking the stage and almost immediately storming into a hyperspeed version of her hit "Lost Ones," rattling off telling lines like, "I was hopeless now I'm on hope road" in rapid-fire fashion.
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
As with almost all of the songs she performed from Miseducation, "Lost Ones" was barely recognizable from its original version, awash in a sea of massive horn breaks, funky keyboards, and full-throttle guitars. In tune with the show being dubbed a rehearsal, there was loads of vamping, with the band trying out different rhythms in the same song and Hill often catapulting into a soul-drenched vocal improv-style scat.
The vibe of the evening was clear from the start: Hill, who has often hinted at permanent retirement from popular music, has seemingly rediscovered her vigor for performing live. What isn't clear is what exactly that means: were the rehearsals for a new album? A tour? And what ever happened to the much-hyped, Verizon-sponsored Fugees reunion album and tour that came and went with the ill-received single, "Take it Easy"?
No matter. For many Fugees fans, this--an Afro-wearing Lauryn spitting rhymes and belting out songs backed by a nimble funk band--was the return of the Fu-Gee-La. Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
"Lost Ones" was followed by "Final Hour," featuring Hill rhyming in an intense, soulful style that was one-part rapping and one-part singing, almost like Gil Scott-Heron meets Nina Simone.
Ms. Hill--as she has asked to be called in recent years--and her band then threw the packed house a curveball, turning the deliberate beat of "Zion" into an Afro-Cuban stomper, with Hill seemingly possessed by the spirit: "My joy! My joy! My joy!"
Hill then played a couple of snippets of new songs, belting out the uplifting chorus of one, "I'm moving on!" over a thick reggae beat, then segueing into a take on her deceased father-in-law's "Iron, Lion, Zion" over an uptempo ska rhythm. (Hill has four kids with Bob Marley's son Rohan.)
Before long, the house lights were on as 2 a.m. approached. But Hill didn't even seem to notice, charging into "How Many Mics" off the Fugees' 1996 smash The Score over a beat that gave the song a massive underbelly of funk.
The crowd's roar of approval morphed into an eruption when the band darted into the first notes of "Fu-Gee-La," also from The Score. With her voice booming, Hill delivered one of the verses that first placed her among hip-hop's finest MCs: "Fake bullets can't scar me/I can smell the weak out like safari/Play you out like Atari/Sacrifice you Hari Kari/And I'm sorry/To every single rapper **** and Harri/Saying they want to spar me/Cause how thick my repertoire/And my memoir be/Reminding me of eating Calamari/In the Kalahari/with a band of Rastafaris."
At the conclusion of "Ready or Not," the venue operators had apparently had enough and cut off Hill's mic.
But she wasn't done.
With plenty of help from eager audience members, Hill hushed the crowd to the closest thing to complete silence that 500-plus people can achieve, and then delivered an a cappella version of "I Find it Hard to Say" off the Unplugged album. It was daring, impressive, and downright moving.
As the crowd left the venue at 2:30 a.m., many couldn't help but wonder what they'd just witnessed meant. Has Hill managed to turn the raw emotion of the Unplugged show into a sound that literally takes her brand of soul-soaked, reggae-infused hip-hop back to its funk roots?
More to the point, is she back for good this time? Hill's absence from the scene has left a gaping void in urban music for an artist that can both sing like a bird and rhyme like a beast. The subject was enough to incite Talib Kweli to write a song called "Ms. Hill," in which the rapper heaps praise on Hill and asks her to get back in the music game.
It's unclear how much Hill needs music, although her boundless spirit on the stage last night indicated she does.
Joined: Jan 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 1,322 Karma: 39
Re: A very good review from Lauryn's Bay area sho « Reply #2 on Jul 1, 2006, 8:36am »
It feels so good to read something postive about her performance... nice read!
There are no photos? media?
sorry, I was away and just came home from a Tracy Chapman concert (which was great by the way.... plus: Soccer Championships!!! = I need a great deal of sleep right now! Thanks for sharing the review! Looking forward to more!)
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Joined: Jan 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 1,322 Karma: 39
Re: A very good review from Lauryn's Bay area sho « Reply #3 on Jul 1, 2006, 8:39am »
Here's a nice little review : That shit was AMAZING, and I like your review. I pretty much agree with everything you've said. I also heard a little bit of DC GO-GO in the mix. The sound at GAMH sucked, but the music was so good that it didn't detract from her performance. And how absolutely beautiful is Ms. Hill???Even in just a plain button down shirt, long brown pants, black leather jacket and scarf, she radiates beauty. I don't think anyone, including Lauryn and her band, wanted to leave. I would have stayed until the sun came up. Her sound was pretty psychodelic avant gard jazz. I like how she is just ROCKIN IT now. Will we ever get to see her in as intimate setting again in our lives?? Maybe not. I'm so thankful I was there ..and thank you for being an interesting person to talk to for an hour and half!! Have a nice trip. Coriander
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Joined: Jan 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 1,322 Karma: 39
Re: A very good review from Lauryn's Bay area sho « Reply #6 on Jul 1, 2006, 7:13pm »
Quote:
Quote:
plus: Soccer Championships!!! peace!
Offtopic, but Have you been to any of the games ?
nope, unfortunatly not. but i watched the last game at the "Fan Fest" in Stuttgart with 80.000 people... I almost had a heart attack! the sudden death was so nerve wrecking!
If you like this site and want to SUPPORT it, visit http://fugees-online.de and click on some GOOGLE Ads. This will help keeping this site up and running. Thank You!
Re: A very good review from Lauryn's Bay area sho « Reply #7 on Jul 1, 2006, 9:30pm »
NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT ! WE ALL KNEW SHE STILL HAD IT IN HER THATS WHY WE KEPT THIS FORUM ALIVE. NOW LETS ALL GET READY FOR A PHENOMENAL COMEBACK THATS GOING TO KICK EVERY ARTIST IN THE ASS. I HEARD FROM RELIABLE SOURCES MS HILL IS FINISHING UP HER ALBUM AND ITS SUPPOSE TO BE SOMETHING CLOSE TO MICHEAL JACKSON THRILLER !
Joined: Jan 2004 Gender: Male Posts: 1,322 Karma: 39
Re: Ms. Hill - Open Reahearsals in San Francisco « Reply #14 on Jul 13, 2006, 11:31am »
another - rather bad - review of that night (INKL. VIDEOS!!!):
I'm Over Lauryn Hill -- Fugees Front Woman Has 'Lost One' Fan
YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia, Review//Video, Words/Video: Tasin Sabir// Photos: JR Valrey, Jul 12, 2006
Editor's Note: The Hip Hop loving world has been eagerly anticipating the return of Lauryn Hill to the music scene. Her fans may be disappointed in what she has become since climbing her way to the top of the music world with the Fugees and as a solo artist after her ground breaking, multi-platinum, grammy winning solo debut -- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Sabir is an editor at YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia.
Lauryn Hill performed Friday night, June 30 at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Billed as an "Open Rehersal", Hill created such a frenzy that a second show was added. Everybody has been waiting for this brown skinned wonder to return from musical exhile.
She hasn't put out a studio album since the classic "Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" took over the world at the turn of the millenium.
Standing in line for the late show I overheard some girls leaving the early show talking about how the rehersal went. One girl described it as a waste of time -- everything was just too loud and it was impossible to hear Hill. Another young woman added that it hadn’t been worth her time. Undaunted I went in hoping they were wrong.
When the concert/rehearsal began twelve people came onto the stage. It was Lauryn Hill so of course she had to have a super-sized jazz/funk band.
She had a sax player, a trombone, a trumpet, like a million guitarists, two drummers, a keyboard player, a back-up singer, a bass player and probably some instruments I’m not remembering. I think it was overkill but they sounded amazing.
Hill came on shortly after the band played a few songs wearing a wig from the Erykah Badu collection, one big-ass afro wig. She was also wearing corduroy bell bottoms, a man’s dress shirt, a black leather jacket, and a homeless-man's scarf. She looked like she was auditioning for the Jackson Five movie.
Still, I held my breath, leaned over the balcony and waited for that signature sound. She started singing and...she didn’t sound horrible, but she sounded nothing like the Lauryn I loved to listen to. If it wasn’t Lauryn on stage, I would’ve left the concert early.
The girls in line were right. Whoever did the sound should've been fired because Hill’s voice was muffled behind all of those instruments blaring. But when I did isolate a single note I was not impressed. Sounding shaky and strained, she left the high notes up in the sky and didn’t even try to touch them.
Hill preformed some new material and put a fresh spin on some old hits of her's from "Miseducation" like Lost Ones and Zion. Towards the end of the concert she sang How Many Mics which I would not have recognized if the beat wasn’t familiar -- she energetically mangled the Fugees classic.
She sang as if she had a message that was dying to be let out or perhaps she was racing against the clock because the concert began at 1:15 and by 2:00 the crowd didn’t want to see her go and Hill wasn’t going to leave until she was good and ready.
2:05 approached and her band kept playing and she kept on singing. The main lights were shut on, but that didn’t work. Then the all the lights were shut off, but that didn’t work either. Until finally the sound was cut and it was just one voice and 600 or so fans eagerly waiting for more. Hill delivered. She came to the edge of the stage and silenced the crowd with an a cappella version of I Find it Hard to Say.
Lauryn Hill the rapping, reggae-singing goddess is now a funk, jazz-singing, rapping, so-so blues artist and you can hear every ounce of pain in her voice.
Her screams and shrills are her new instruments. She does whatever she feels and defines the notion of putting emotion into a song, but is it too much emotion? Much like her performance on the awful MTV Unplugged CD/DVD released in 2002, Lauryn started crying at one point.
If 'Unplugged' was a preview of what Hill has now become then why tease us with the dream of the Fugees reuniting? I believe a lot of fans won' t be into the funk style that she has now adapted. Not the little girls like me who fell in love with her as the hardest Fugee or the emancipated, in control, 'Miseducation' version of Lauryn.
The young women that love her so much, enough to pay $40.00 to see a 'rehersal', might be confused and perhaps disappointed if Lauryn Hill comes all the way back into the modern music world with this act.
It was really difficult, almost painful, watching Lauryn perform. Now she reads as an emotionally shook woman using songs as her therapy in an almost too personal way to share with an audience.
My first real assignment as a photojournalist was to cover the Lauryn Hill concert at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, 1999. I remember hearing her voice and thinking it was perfection. That raspy bold sound carried in a way I’d never heard before.
I remember rewinding that one scene in Sister Act 2 where she’s singing at the piano and that skinny nun is secretly listening behind the door. I remember playing Strumming My Pain over and over again trying to match at least one of those impossible notes and I remember actually liking her voice.
But unfortunately I am not a fan anymore.
What happened to the girl with braids from Sister Act 2? Or the woman with dread locks telling girls to 'Watch Out?'
"What happened to Lauryn Hill?" was what I thought the entire concert and it honestly made me sad for her. Sad to the point where I clapped and I cheered after songs to motivate this poor lady with the frail voice who used to be so great.
If you like this site and want to SUPPORT it, visit http://fugees-online.de and click on some GOOGLE Ads. This will help keeping this site up and running. Thank You!
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