“I used to be a singing waitress at Max’s Opera Cafe,” Ledisi reminded a packed Davies Symphony Hall, referring to the venerable restaurant two blocks up Van Ness Avenue, now sadly bereft of warbling waitstaff. The Grammy Award-winning singer has come a long way indeed, and the audience was eager to celebrate her triumphant homecoming performance on Oct. 6. Presented by SFJAZZ, the concert affirmed Ledisi’s status as R&B royalty — the result of a winding journey the Los Angeles-based singer has made on her own terms.
While headlining the Monterey Jazz Festival last month, the 53-year-old conspicuously avoided offering any kind of preview of her new album “For Dinah,” a lavishly produced tribute to the great jazz and blues vocalist Dinah Washington (1924–1963), released Oct. 3. However, Monday’s performance functioned as a tribute to Washington. It offered a different look at Ledisi, who has thrived by reigniting the fervor of 1970s R&B via original material while still paying tribute to the musical matriarchs who’ve inspired her.
Ledisi’s celebration of the Queen of the Blues provided a potent reminder of the singer’s protean power as she interpreted American Songbook chestnuts, belted the blues, and gleefully underlined the dysfunctional portrait of romance painted by pop lyrics. With the massive pipe organ that fills the back of the Davies stage, it was hard not to think of her fitting right into the landscape. She’s always had pipes to spare, but Washington’s songbook lets Ledisi unleash her quieter side, with glimpses of vulnerability and yearning.
While her big blues pieces elicited the most enthusiastic responses from the audience, I was most moved by her softer side, starting with the Gershwin opener — a jaunty take on “Love Is Here to Stay.” She was well served by her trio: pianist Brandon Waddles, bassist Brandon Rose, and drummer Greg Clark Jr. A big-toned baritone, Waddles also stepped in for a playful duet on “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes),” which was a huge R&B hit for Washington and Brook Benton in 1960.
More than any other jazz vocalist of the swing era, Washington was fully at home singing the blues, and she ushered gospel melisma into the jazz vocal palette. It felt like a missed opportunity that Ledisi didn’t interpret a song from “Dinah Sings Bessie Smith,” the classic 1958 album in which Washington celebrated her foremother, but there was a lot of ground to cover.
Slow and sultry, Ledisi’s reverent arrangement of “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” fully honored Washington’s definitive version. Accompanied solely by Waddles and leaning into her softer dynamic range on an understated version of “You Go to My Head,” she inhabited the intimate terrain with complete mastery. A slyly funky arrangement of “This Bitter Earth,” which brought to mind the Ahmad Jamal Trio, was less successful, sapping the song of some of its devastating, self-dramatizing loneliness.
Ledisi’s onstage persona evokes another jazz immortal, Sarah “Sassy” Vaughan, with a steady stream of quips. Ledisi teases the audience for its reactions (or non-reactions) with several wisecracks about her girdle. When she sings Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love,” she’s a natural comedian. And on Duke Ellington’s classic “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me,” she sang it through once before returning to mock Bob Russell’s be-my-doormat lyrics.
Called back for an encore, Ledisi sang “Teach Me Tonight,” finishing off the 80-minute seminar on following your muse, even if it means not fitting neatly into music-industry silos
