The Orchard

Lizz Wright

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 26, 2008)
• Original Release Date: February 26, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Verve Forecast
• ASIN: B000Y14TXO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,121 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #53 in

  Music > Jazz > Vocal Jazz

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Wright's collaboration with Craig Street continues on The Orchard. While her prior releases boasted contributions from some of the jazz world's most respected jazz players, The Orchard features an eclectic cast that includes noted singer/songwriter Toshi Reagon, who co-wrote several songs with Wright; Calexico members Joey Burns and John Convertino; avant-guitar hero Oren Bloedow; longtime Bob Dylan sideman Larry Campbell; Ollabelle member Glenn Patscha; and guest vocalists Catherine Russell and Marc Anthony Thompson (aka Chocolate Genius).

The Orchard's fluid, intimate performances reflect the unpretentious spirit in which the music was created. The project actually began with a set of photographs taken by Wright in her rural hometown, focusing on the orchard of the title, a setting that she's known since childhood.

That organic approach was maintained throughout the recording process, which took place at studios in upstate New York's Catskill mountains, in Tucson, Arizona and Brooklyn. The sessions emphasized spontaneity and chemistry.

That rare ability to exist within the musical moment is one of the qualities that make Lizz Wright a special artist and The Orchard a career milestone. "This record was a huge learning experience, in every way, and I think it showed me a lot about myself," she states. "I never would have imagined that I would have written some of the things I wrote on this record, or told some of these stories. But I felt really free and I really let myself go, and I surprised myself."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars With this fine album, she has found 'her' voice., August 13, 2008

By	Potente - See all my reviews

Lizz Wright has never been shy of experimentation with her sound - seemingly exempt from any commercial pressure, she has been allowed a journey (perhaps by her label) that many of her contemporaries would truly envy.
"The Orchard" continues with evolution of her artistry off the beaten path and the result is an incredibly personal album.
Working again with producer Craig Street (a producer famous for his work with a broad palette of singers such as Cassandra Wilson, k.d. lang, Me'Shell 'Ndegeocello), she moves further away from the accessible jazz of her 2003 debut "Salt" and toward contemporary soul without sacrificing any of her music's sensuality or spare beauty.
Her debut album was a great success critically, but "Dreaming Wide Awake" was an attempt at Norah Jones pop/jazz.
Now, Wright is back on the right track working with folk/blues ace Toshi Reagon on half the dozen cuts.
"The Orchard" is the mostly self-written album and it reflects her journey through life, starting with her life growing up in the small, rural church town of Hahira, Georgia. She may be technically considered a Jazz artist, but she's got plenty of Soul and Rhythm & Blues in her music as well.
The CD features an eclectic cast that includes noted singer/songwriter Toshi Reagon, who co-wrote several songs with Wright; Calexico members Joey Burns and John Convertino; avant-guitar hero Oren Bloedow; longtime Bob Dylan sideman Larry Campbell; Ollabelle member Glenn Patscha; and guest vocalists Catherine Russell and Marc Anthony Thompson (aka Chocolate Genius).
A youth spent singing in southern churches has left an indelible mark on the music of jazz-pop phenom Lizz Wright. But above and beyond her innate soulfulness -- her father was the preacher and musical director of her hometown church in Hahira, Georgia -- the young singer's strongest attribute is her tenacity.
When you first listen to her voice, many great names come to mind: Anita Baker, Cassandra Wilson, Regina Belle and Tracy Chapman.
Let it be said here: Lizz Wright is in a class all her own: the timbre of her voice is what strikes you first - rich and strong, infused with gospel and the vocal heritage of jazz.
Her knack for writing and interpreting intensely personal songs make it difficult to place her anywhere but in the heart.
She commits herself fully to her third effort, including the majority of the material she co-wrote. But something truly awesome transpires when she settles into hits by Led Zeppelin and Patsy Cline, each of which culminates with mind-blowing oomph.
In fact she luxuriates in her sprawling cover of Led Zeppelin's "Thank You", and her rendition of the Patsy Cline hit "Strange" is sublimely dreamlike.
Like any great singer, Wright has the ability to completely re-imagine and inhabit classic songs. She has the competence to get right inside her material, because she has an enviable ability to make focused, commercial music of great honesty.
Her voice, a large, contralto sound, often slow and heavy, is packed with emotion and commands attention, like on the opening track "Coming Home", a ballad with a prominent beat, a song that seems a blend between a spiritual and rock music and on the vibrant "My Heart".
The producer Craig Street, renowned for his understated, skilful recordings, doesn't overplay Wright's spectacular voice; instead, he drapes it in a polished contemporary jazz context mixed with blues and R&B plus a trace of pop and rock.
She responds with subtle grace and seeming sincerity, radiating a self-possession and maturity beyond her years.
Standout tracks : the intimate "Song for Mia", arranged in slow waltz-time; "The Silence", all pulsing piano and brushed-snare sixteenths and her blues-inflected, sultry interpretation of Ike Turner's "I Idolize You", where she oozes with primal desire.
It's not jazz, soul, blues or gospel - it's heart music.
"I'd been trained in choral, gospel and a little bit of opera", she says, "and wanted to move away from those styles. I love songs that create moments, that are very personal and that tell a story".
Whith this fine album, she has found "her" voice.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lizz is WRIGHT On!!!, March 13, 2008

By	Mamadou Faye (Md) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Lizz Wright is too be watched for a loooong time to come. This, her 3rd project, is another success. Her amazing contralto voice adds this velvet cover to every note played by the stellar musicians. Is it me or is her collaboration with Toshi Reagon (of her own musical notoriety which she was born into and then blazed her own path - the daughter of the incomparable Dr Berniece Johnson Reagon, the founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock and the late Cordell Reagon, who also lent his wonderful tenor voice to the Civil Rights Movement) the "Wright" medicine? Her cover of Ike's "Idolize You" makes me want to coerce my dad to send me his album so I can hear the two songs in succession. This was a birthday gift to myself and what a GIFT!!! Lizz is WRIGHT on!!! If you get the opportunity to see/hear her live, do so. Her persona comes through in her performance. When I last saw her, surprisingly the band was composed of all young musicians who delivered just as she, with this maturity, depth, wisdom, and love for their craft. Cant wait for her to sing these songs live as well.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich and powerful, February 27, 2008

By	A. williams - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Simply a powerful performance on every song. Her voice is so rich and heavy. I honestly got chills over her cover of 'I idolize you'. Her whole album has a distinct depth that draws you in and cradles you. It makes you feel something, relate to something in your life as if you wrote the song yourself. Very powerful. Very worth it.