Chrisette Michele Concert at City Winery
by Maja Rios
Chrisette
Michele concert at City Winery, March 27th was exciting. The beautiful
venue, City Winery, a perfect setting for Chrisette's steamy original
love songs. I've been a long time fan of her recordings, but seeing her
live was even better. Her band consisted of keyboards, guitar, bass,
drums and two female backup singers. Chrisette has a smooth yet gritty voice,
that I would describe as "liquid caramel". Performing all original
material, with an exception of "Summertime", she proceeded to give
almost a life history of relationships along with a somewhat humorous
banter of her past mistakes. Her songs frequently spoke of a woman
rising above bad relations but finding love again, even if it's within
oneself as in "No Way Love Forgot Me". Chrisette is a very original
singer who pushes genre boundaries that include R&B, gospel, jazz
and even opera, as she broke out on "Summertime" with an operatic,
'Porgy & Bess' vocal version! She is a very skilled singer and
songwriter. She soared above her back-up band which was good but a
little loud at times. City Winery vibe was very friendly, the sold out
crowd was enthusiastic, and for such a large venue, with tables so close
together meeting other people was easy. The club was surprisingly
intimate. Chrisette made reference to her jazz influences: Art Blakey,
Ella Fitzgerald, and Charlie Parker. Her jazzy style was evident as she
"scatted" many passages within her R&B tunes. I would love to see
her again!
Maja Rios
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