Experts smexperts. Sometimes it's great to hear the
perspective of a journalist on what happened at a show, but sometimes, as a fan
of an artist, you want to hear from someone who just so happened to be in the
audience! GBSTL has provided a fan review that does just that.
Laura Mvula is well known for her vocal aesthetics. On her
debut album, Sing To The Moon, one can find majestic symphonies from a
sonically and beautifully trained voice, and well orchestrated lyricism.
She recently made two stops in NY, one being at the Music Hall of
Willamsburg, and Reshma Sapre was there to take you into that special capsule of time. Check it
out below.--GB
Reshma Sapre (@animalmatter)
On the invitation of my good friend Milton, who I trust with
musical suggestions, I decided to go see Laura Mvula at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. He had invited me to the show and after a quick visit to her website
where I watched the video for “She.” I was all in.
The hall was packed and I realized I hadn’t
been there in a while; it’s awfully clean for a rock venue. The mostly
urban crowd was layered in ‘fros, braids, and dreads filling the space corner
to corner.
I shuffled to the front to find my friend and got there just
in time. Her band emerged first, including her sister Dionne on violin and James on cello. Then she emerged wearing an oversized
greyish/army green Anorak with the hood over her head and white pumps which
she revealed she had purchased from Top Shop.
Mvula sat herself by her keys humbled by the crowd and
opened with “Like the Morning Dew,” harnessing something of Annie Lennox, Tori
Amos and an old African griot. When she called on the audience to be her
back-up singers as she led the way through Bob Marley’s “One Love” the room
spilled open with delighted raised voices.
Before treating us to “Flying Without You” she shared a
story of unreturned teenage love and heart-break that led to this upbeat,
richly layered, song about falling into pieces over a boy who didn’t love her
back at 15. When she sang “Father, Father” I, like most of the audience was
moved to tears. In the pin drop silence, you could feel everyone in the room; the energy charged with this powerful presence joining us from the stage.
Deciding it was time to bring the room back up she broke into her stateside hit
“Green Garden.”
Coming back onstage for what seemed like an unexpected
encore, she sang her version of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” that her
brother James Douglas had arranged. He accompanied her on cello and the
audience sang along. It was a beautiful end to a brilliant show. Plainly
put, Laura Mvula took us to church, and that’s coming from a heathen.
THE VERDICT?
I didn't know what to expect when I went to the see the
show, but what she delivered was really quite refreshing. I loved the
rapport she had with the audience, managing to personalize the performance with
genuine humility, grace, and ease reminding me of the early MTV Unplugged days.
The intimacy in which she shared the stories behind her songs and the clean
storytelling in her lyrics combined with a voice that blows you away have made
me a fan for life. I've read that other people rank her as a neo-soulstress,
comparing her to Jill Scott, etc, but I think she's so much bigger. She's
Annie Lennox, Björk, and Tori Amos big to me, and her songwriting ranks far
beyond many who are writing right now.
Snap Snap! Here's a pic of Laura in action!
