On its website, Duke Performances writes of its current season: “Tradition keeps us rooted, but in art and individuals alike, change is a sign of life.” One would be hard-pressed to find an artist more indicative of this ethos than Lizz Wright.
Wright, who performs Friday in Reynolds Industries Theater, is a singer steeped in tradition. Growing up under a Pentecostal minister in Hahira, Georgia, she was immersed in gospel music from a young age; in fact, secular music was off-limits. Her singing career was poised to follow a course within the African American church until one momentous night at a jazz club in Atlanta. She was sitting in with a local jazz band that played as a church band on Sundays. After singing a couple jazz standards, she asked them to play “Amazing Grace”—as a blues number.
“It was a very weird moment, an emotion I had never had before,” she said. “You don’t sing like that in church.”
Since then her repertoire has expanded to reflect her artistic curiosity. Her records feature songs that run the gamut of influences: jazz standards to traditional gospel to rhythm and blues—2008’s The Orchard even featured a Led Zeppelin cover. Though she is billed as a jazz artist for this season, she could easily have fit into several of Duke Performances’ series.
“She falls into a bunch of different subcategories,” said Director of Duke Performances Aaron Greenwald. “One of the interesting things we’ve learned in marketing the show is that people know her as much as an R&B singer as a jazz or gospel singer.”
Wright’s eclectic musical interests are reflective of her outlook in general. In 2009 she took a break from touring and recording to pursue a lifelong dream: attending culinary school.
“I really gave myself some space to use my mind and hands differently and learn,” said the singer, who currently lives outside Asheville, NC. “They also teach about how to use food as a healing medium. A lot of musicians are really great cooks; they both are connected.”
Duke Performances’ season this year features an increased number of international artists—India’s Zakir Hussain, Serbia’s Goran Bregovic, Mali’s Bassekou Kouyaté—a notion which meshes well with Wright’s take on her own work.
“The communication I have with people through music is so much deeper than what we can have in a conversation,” she said. “We don’t even have to share a language.”
The audience can look forward to a stirring experience on Friday, as Wright is known for powerful live sets.
“As a live performer she is enormously dynamic,” Greenwald said. “Picture the incredible range of Aretha Franklin.”
And though she is sure to display her traditional foundations—her most recent album, Fellowship, includes a 10-minute gospel medley—don’t expect a museum piece. Wright sees tradition as a launchpad for something alive and vital.
“My tradition is storytelling,” she said.
Lizz Wright will perform in Reynolds Theater tomorrow night at 8 p.m. Tickets are $34/$26 for general admission and $5 for students and can be purchased at the Duke Box Office or tickets.duke.edu.
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