Great Jazz at Festival dei Due Mondi: Lizz Wright sings at the Teatro Romano

After Dianne Reeves and Rhiannon Giddens, Lizz Wright is the next great voice of contemporary jazz coming to Festival dei Due Mondi, Thursday, July 11 at at 9:30 p.m. at the Teatro Romano. An extraordinary heir to the African American performers of the past, Wright presents to Spoleto her latest album Shadow, in a concert in collaboration with Umbria Jazz, accompanied from Kenny Banks (piano and organ), Ben Zwerin (bass), Adam Levy (guitar) and Ivan Edwards (drums). The New York Times calls Lizz Wright's voice "a soft, dark alto, endowed with qualities one might associate with barrel-aged bourbon or butter-soft leather." Produced seven years after Grace (2017) and released in April this year on Blues & Greens Records (the label founded from Wright in 2022), Shadow is her opera of rebirth, because it comes after much meditation, after Covid, after a series of political vicissitudes, social conflicts that the United States has experienced, and is experiencing. Wright tells to the Republic, "The new album includes five original songs and six covers that combine past and present, and address themes such as sharing and healing, love and grief-the one felt over the passing of his grandmother Martha is at the heart of Shadow."

The daughter of a minister of worship in Georgia, Wright initially got into music as a choir director in her hometown, and to 22 years old she managed to to make a national name for herself to with a memorable tribute concert to singer Billie Holiday. "My influences are very clear. You only have to listen to my music," he says. "Mine was a very spiritual family and strongly tied to the land having from generations of a farming tradition. What you hear in my music is not only my African-American heritage but also that of someone who lives connected to the land. I try to break away from stereotypes and sing my personality as a woman and a human being on this Earth." to 23 years old reaches the top of the Billboard jazz charts with her first album Salt , to which is followed by Dreaming Wide Awake, The Orchard and Fellowship, a gospel-heavy set that includes prestigious collaborations with the Kindred Spirits, Me'Shell Ndegéocello and Angélique Kidjo. On the Concord label he releases Freedom & Surrender and Grace, an album recorded with producer Joe Henry and critically acclaimed worldwide as a testament to Wright's deep connection to the South and its music, a mix of contemporary and traditional folk, gospel, blues, jazz and soul. In 2022 with the live album Holding Space she launched her independent record label, Blues & Greens Records, with the goal of creating a sustainable circuit for artists. The U.S. musician's vision of life is far removed from the ruthless commercial reality that oversees the music industry and that she herself has been able to experience firsthand in her 20 years as an artist. So much so that the lintel on which her record label is based subverts every paradigm in place: the mission of Blues & Greens is to restore basic humanity to the music world by placing healthy, sustainable business practices and well-being at the forefront. And to making that principle practical, it is established that Blues&Greens artists will own their masters, creative works and images.

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