After a powerhouse performance at the Presidential Inauguration this past January, Bettye Lavette shines a new light on that past with her latest, "A CHANGE IS GONNA COME SESSIONS." The digital-only EP for Anti- Records, available exclusively through iTunes starting June 16, revisits Bettye’s forgotten post-Atlantic Records years as a nightclub singer, Broadway performer, and touring cast member opposite Cab Calloway in "Bubbling Brown Sugar."
The EP opens with a stirring solo version of Sam Cooke's posthumous Civil Rights anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come," a song which Bettye sang with Jon Bon Jovi in January as part of the "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial" concert. Joining Bettye for these aessions are pianist and musical director Al Hill, veteran bassist John Heard who has accompanied such luminaries as Count Basie, Cole Porter, Ella Fitzgerald, and Art Pepper, drummer Danny Frankel (k.d. lang, Lou Reed), and Tom Hagerman from DeVotchKa on strings.
A mix of standards and soul classics from Bettye’s 1970s stage and nightclub repertoire rounds out the 6-song set, including songs by Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Bill Withers, and Jimmy Reed. A rendition of Billie Holiday's "God Bless The Child," a song that Bettye first performed with show-stopping magnificence in "Bubbling Brown Sugar" highlights BETTYE's vocal mastery.
This nod to the past is just the latest step in a nearly five-decade career that has truly come full circle and is now pointed straight ahead: from early promise to a masterwork ("Child of the Seventies") shelved by Atlantic Records; from Broadway to obscurity; from a triumphant return with her 2005 Anti- debut "I've Got My Own Hell To Raise," to a Grammy nomination for "The Scene of the Crime"; and most recently her devastating performances honoring The Who at the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2008, paired with Jon Bon Jovi at the Lincoln Memorial for President Obama's inaugural celebration in January, and alongside Sir Paul McCartney at a Radio City Music Hall benefit for the David Lynch Foundation in April.
The track listing for Bettyes iTunes exclusive "A CHANGE IS GONNA COME SESSIONS" is as follows:
1. "A Change Is Gonna Come" (Sam Cooke)
2. "'Round Midnight" (Thelonious Monk)
3. "God Bless The Child" (Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog)
4. "Lush Life" (Duke Ellington / Billy Strayhorn)
5. "Ain't No Sunshine" (Bill Withers)
6. "Ain't That Lovin' You" (Jimmy Reed)
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