Lizzo’s Pitch-Perfect Residency at the Blue Note Jazz Club Launches a Dazzling New Chapter: Concert Review
“Ever feel like you’re losing touch with who you really are?,” Lizzo said about halfway through her Sunday night set at the iconic Blue Note jazz club in New York’s Greenwich Village. “I have,” she admitted. “I had to remind myself, ‘I am 100 percent that bitch!,’” quoting arguably her most iconic (and arguably her most controversial) lyric.
Indeed, this intimate series of Blue Note shows feels like a breakthrough at the end of a challenging few years for Melissa Viviane Jefferson. After soaring to superstardom at the end of the last decade with a message of positivity and self-love via hits like “Cuz I Love You,” “Juice” and “Good as Hell,” she beat the sophomore slump with her Grammy-winning 2022 set “About Damn Time.” But some ugly legal battles with her former dancers and musical collaborators clashed against her ultra-positive vibe, so a reset was in order, although a pair of mixtapes last year and even a New York magazine cover story called “Lizzo Starts Over” didn’t really do the job.
But early this year a few new tracks began low-key making the rounds, one of which is a stunner: “Don’t Make Me Love You,” a kind of ‘80s fantasy that combines a “Billie Jean”-inspired bassline with a chorus that evokes Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best.”
That song was at the center of her dazzling, literally life-spanning set on Sunday night, the second-to-last of a dozen shows of her bicoastal residency at the 200-capacity Blue Note supper clubs in Los Angeles (last weekend) and New York that saw her playing two 90-ish-minute sets a night, three nights in a row. Even at this one — Sunday’s early set, the fifth of six New York performances — there was a long line of people outside waiting for no-shows, while inside, Gayle King was rolling deep with a CBS News crew, Natalie Portman brought her daughter — and that’s just who we could see in the tightly packed room.
But “Don’t Make Me Love You” was only one highlight in a set where Lizzo — clad in a spangled, flapper-esque dress, complete with a headdress, and a faux-fur wrap — clearly felt she had something to prove, and did. At the top of the night, she said that the setlist would combine old songs — some very old — and even new and unreleased ones, as well as songs she loves and ones in honor of the iconic Blue Note and its storied history; she listed off several of the legendary names: “Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles. It’s such an honor to be here… ” she paused and looked down at the audience members dining at the tables directly in front of her and laughed, “… performing for your french fries,” showing just one example of her formidable comic timing.
The loosely autobiographical setlist showed off not only her powerhouse vocals but her skills as a flautist as well, sprawling across hits (some with lively new jazzy arrangements) to covers of everything from Bach to a sultry reading of the standard “Summertime,” from Meredith Brooks’ ‘90s hit “Bitch,” from a new song interpolating D’Angelo’s 2000 classic “Untitled (How Does It Feel?)” to a flute piece she said she’d played in the eighth grade. While clearly carefully and deliberately arranged (just look at all the cues in the setlist below), the set was loose but tight — it was her and the band’s 11th show in two weekends — and was autobiographical without being weighed down by a heavy conceit around it.
Yet it wouldn’t have been as strong without looking forward as well, and it’s pretty obvious that she knows “Don’t Make Me Love You” is special: Before performing it, she told a story about meeting Angela Bassett — who was stunning as Turner in the 1993 biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” — backstage at one of the L.A. shows the previous weekend. “She said she was getting Tina vibes,” Lizzo enthused, “I said ‘Thank you, but you’ve gotta show me how to do Tina’s shoulders!,’” she laughed, going into a Tina shoulder-roll. She then specifically requested that everyone pull out their phones and post the song on the internet — an ask that could have backfired with a lesser song.
But most of all, these shows reminded the audience, up close and personal, what a major talent Lizzo is: a top-class singer, an engaging and entertaining performer, and to a degree we haven’t really seen before, a trained, serious musician. In the past she was often backed only by a DJ, but here she was accompanied by four top-notch jazz musicians — keyboardist Philip Cornish, guitarist/singer Emily Elbert, bassist Chelton Grey and drummer Jharis Yockley — each of whom got some extra shine during the night with fiery solos.
The set drew toward a close with an intimate version of “What a Wonderful World” — the lyrics of which would have seemed ironic on this night, not 48 hours after the president started a war with Iran, but Lizzo made several references to the turmoil in the world during the set: When she sang the line “Woke up feeling like I just might run for president” lyric from her 2019 hit “Like a Girl,” she grimaced and made “no way!” gestures.
At the end of the night, Lizzo said, “I’m not here for the drama, I’m not here for the bullshit — I’m here to raise the vibration of this planet, for the better,” which could have come off hubristic before she concluded, “I write songs about who I aspire to be, sometimes I’m not that bitch — I’m like, ‘I’m gonna be 100% that bitch, take the dinner out!’,” she laughed. “That’s manifestation, baby. Thank you for sharing that frequency of love with me.”
If it’s manifestation, she’s off to a good start.
Indeed, this intimate series of Blue Note shows feels like a breakthrough at the end of a challenging few years for Melissa Viviane Jefferson. After soaring to superstardom at the end of the last decade with a message of positivity and self-love via hits like “Cuz I Love You,” “Juice” and “Good as Hell,” she beat the sophomore slump with her Grammy-winning 2022 set “About Damn Time.” But some ugly legal battles with her former dancers and musical collaborators clashed against her ultra-positive vibe, so a reset was in order, although a pair of mixtapes last year and even a New York magazine cover story called “Lizzo Starts Over” didn’t really do the job.
But early this year a few new tracks began low-key making the rounds, one of which is a stunner: “Don’t Make Me Love You,” a kind of ‘80s fantasy that combines a “Billie Jean”-inspired bassline with a chorus that evokes Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best.”
That song was at the center of her dazzling, literally life-spanning set on Sunday night, the second-to-last of a dozen shows of her bicoastal residency at the 200-capacity Blue Note supper clubs in Los Angeles (last weekend) and New York that saw her playing two 90-ish-minute sets a night, three nights in a row. Even at this one — Sunday’s early set, the fifth of six New York performances — there was a long line of people outside waiting for no-shows, while inside, Gayle King was rolling deep with a CBS News crew, Natalie Portman brought her daughter — and that’s just who we could see in the tightly packed room.
But “Don’t Make Me Love You” was only one highlight in a set where Lizzo — clad in a spangled, flapper-esque dress, complete with a headdress, and a faux-fur wrap — clearly felt she had something to prove, and did. At the top of the night, she said that the setlist would combine old songs — some very old — and even new and unreleased ones, as well as songs she loves and ones in honor of the iconic Blue Note and its storied history; she listed off several of the legendary names: “Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles. It’s such an honor to be here… ” she paused and looked down at the audience members dining at the tables directly in front of her and laughed, “… performing for your french fries,” showing just one example of her formidable comic timing.
The loosely autobiographical setlist showed off not only her powerhouse vocals but her skills as a flautist as well, sprawling across hits (some with lively new jazzy arrangements) to covers of everything from Bach to a sultry reading of the standard “Summertime,” from Meredith Brooks’ ‘90s hit “Bitch,” from a new song interpolating D’Angelo’s 2000 classic “Untitled (How Does It Feel?)” to a flute piece she said she’d played in the eighth grade. While clearly carefully and deliberately arranged (just look at all the cues in the setlist below), the set was loose but tight — it was her and the band’s 11th show in two weekends — and was autobiographical without being weighed down by a heavy conceit around it.
Yet it wouldn’t have been as strong without looking forward as well, and it’s pretty obvious that she knows “Don’t Make Me Love You” is special: Before performing it, she told a story about meeting Angela Bassett — who was stunning as Turner in the 1993 biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” — backstage at one of the L.A. shows the previous weekend. “She said she was getting Tina vibes,” Lizzo enthused, “I said ‘Thank you, but you’ve gotta show me how to do Tina’s shoulders!,’” she laughed, going into a Tina shoulder-roll. She then specifically requested that everyone pull out their phones and post the song on the internet — an ask that could have backfired with a lesser song.
But most of all, these shows reminded the audience, up close and personal, what a major talent Lizzo is: a top-class singer, an engaging and entertaining performer, and to a degree we haven’t really seen before, a trained, serious musician. In the past she was often backed only by a DJ, but here she was accompanied by four top-notch jazz musicians — keyboardist Philip Cornish, guitarist/singer Emily Elbert, bassist Chelton Grey and drummer Jharis Yockley — each of whom got some extra shine during the night with fiery solos.
The set drew toward a close with an intimate version of “What a Wonderful World” — the lyrics of which would have seemed ironic on this night, not 48 hours after the president started a war with Iran, but Lizzo made several references to the turmoil in the world during the set: When she sang the line “Woke up feeling like I just might run for president” lyric from her 2019 hit “Like a Girl,” she grimaced and made “no way!” gestures.
At the end of the night, Lizzo said, “I’m not here for the drama, I’m not here for the bullshit — I’m here to raise the vibration of this planet, for the better,” which could have come off hubristic before she concluded, “I write songs about who I aspire to be, sometimes I’m not that bitch — I’m like, ‘I’m gonna be 100% that bitch, take the dinner out!’,” she laughed. “That’s manifestation, baby. Thank you for sharing that frequency of love with me.”
If it’s manifestation, she’s off to a good start.