Lizz Wright - Grace

The Guardian 80

(Concord)

Over five albums 37-year-old Wright has emerged as the doyenne of current jazz singers, able to inhabit and transform songs from disparate genres. Grace is her homage to her native south (she grew up a minister’s daughter in Georgia), though its songs have diverse sources – Allen Toussaint’s Southern Nights and the antique Stars Fell on Alabama sit alongside kd laing and Bob Dylan. Wright and producer Joe Henry give it all a sanctified feel, however, bursting into full gospel choir for a title track, written as a torch song (by Rose Cousins, another Henry client) but here transformed into a plea for humanity. A potent brew.