“Long Walk” at The FunkJazz Kafe
Posted in Live Performances on July 29th, 2001
Jill Scott discusses her experience at The FunkJazz Kafe
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Moods What’s Happening At Hidden Beach Incoming Jill Scott Feeds Mac Oh Hell Yes
Jill Scott discusses her experience at The FunkJazz Kafe
From 2001.
These two perform the classic hit, “Summertime,” and do their own rendition of it.
Jill Scott”You Love Me” Live in 2001
Ebony, July, 2001 by Lynn Norment
WHO is Jill Scott?” For the past year, this question has been buzzing through the entertainment industry and among music fans. We’ve heard her soulful, earthy voice, reveled in her heartfelt, woman-in-love lyrics. We’ve seen her smiling face with twinkling eyes, enjoyed her down-to-earth, jazzed-up stage performances. We’ve even seen her sing on television, paying tribute to her greatest influence, Aretha Franklin.
Jill Scott has been called the “premier female romantic voice of the neosoul era.” One magazine named her one of “50 most beautiful people.” A music industry insider says he can see Jill smiling when he hears her singing. Another says God is talking to him through Jill Scott. Her music has been described not only as hip-hop but also as poetry and R&B and jazz, as “introspective” and “hypnotic,” as a “thorough sensual appraisal.” There have been comparisons to Billie Holiday’s aching sensuality, Lauryn Hill’s earthiness and social consciousness, Roberta Flack’s introspection.
Yet, the question–”Who is Jill Scott?”–continues to beg for a definitive answer. Scott herself says she is a poet and singer and, based on her lyrics and words, a woman in love–in love with her man, her music, her soul. In love with life. “I would say I’m a whole woman who is on a long journey,” she says when asked the million-dollar question. “It began with music, and writing …” She hesitates. “Basically, I can’t answer the question, for what I do is to invite folks to watch and to enjoy. I’m an artist.”
A very successful one, though success for Jill Scott is not measured by dollars, albums sold or by whether people like her or not. Yet, success has found this spirited creative force and infused her into the hearts of fans around the world. The Philadelphia native’s platinum album, Who Is Jill Scott?, has sold more than a million copies and represents an auspicious debut for Hidden Beach Recordings.
A clever, gifted lyricist, she writes about love and related matters that consume the heart and soul of a Sister from the neighborhood. A poet and actor before venturing into music, Scott’s music is peppered with bursts of spoken-word segments, interspersed with melodic vocal offerings. She is a prolific wordsmith who co-wrote each of the songs on her CD, her favorites from more than 50 she put together. Her alto is clear, earthy and soulful; and her womanly desires and needs are spelled out, passionately.
“No question about it, my songs are created from places I’ve been, something I’ve Keen, something I’ve felt. It’s all coming right out of me,” she says. “I just put my thoughts down. I keep with me a notebook I pick up from the dollar store. I place stickers all over the book so I can see the places I’ve been during that time. The words wake me up sometimes. I see them in my dreams; the rhythm, it hits me all at once. Sometimes I have to sleep to hear the song. Sometimes they won’t let me sleep. I have vivid dreams, where I see the whole thing … When it’s time to write, I must. To others I have to say, `Sorry, I can’t help you right now.’”
That’s why, she says, this “celebrity” that has engulfed her over the past year is difficult at times. While she appreciates the support of fans, she is sometimes caught off guard when concentrating on a thought that is evolving into a poem or a lyric. “Some folk tap you on the shoulder and pull you out of the dream,” she says. “That has been hard for me, because I want to be respectable of folk.”
She says she signed with Hidden Beach because she wax impressed with the fact that CEO Steve McKeever (”the keeper, the young visionary, the Chicago Brother”) was interested in her music, her heart and where her music comes from. Other industry executives, says Scott, only wanted to know, right up front, how she looked. “Jill’s the ideal artist to usher in Hidden Beach,” says McKeever, previously an executive with Polygram and Motown, where he launched the MoJazz label. “She’s both a throwback to the days of `real music’ and compelling artists, and a representative of the emerging cadre of new, relevant performers who will set the tempo for the next generations.”
One of Hidden Beach’s “guiding philosophies” is to give artists the creative freedom to try new genres and musical styles, and that obviously is what caught Scott’s attention. “Steve has a passion for and sincerity in music and about music,” she says. “I also knew I’d be able to run my own show. There would he nobody telling me what I could and could not do, from the artwork to the presentation, not only the music.”
Though Scott has been writing poetry since she was a youngster, she didn’t write her first song until a few years ago when her friend and collaborator, Andre Harris, gave her a tape full of music and she wrote, among other lyrics, the words for her hit “A Long Walk.” “I was on the bus on the way to an audition, maybe the third or fourth callback,” She recalls. “When I heard that beat, it sounded like a summer day. From there the words just started coming and I just went with it. Much of it was part of my fiance’s and my first date. That’s when we met. We just went to the park and got a chance to learn how to look at each other. `Long Walk’ is really a metaphor for life, If you rush and run through it, you might miss it, but it you take a long walk …
At age 28, Scott is stepping through life with grace and style. Even when she was a child growing up in North Philly, those around her realized she was special. Vivacious and “very loved,” she learned to glow in the spotlight, reading and acting out stories for family and friends. She grew up with her mother, Joyce Scott, and her grandmother, and she is still close to both. “I have a great relationship with my mother,” she says. “I remember her being a carpenter, putting up drywall and paintings, refurbishing old furniture and discovering antiques.”
Over the years her mother worked in various jobs–as a dental technician, operating a day-care center and refurbishing antiques. Her mom is now a receptionist in a hair salon and “practices reflexology.” Says Jill of her mother: “She does whatever she wants to do. And I love her for that. Sometimes it was a little hard for us, but this is what she wanted to do. She goes with what is moving in her heart, through her spirit. And I love her for that so much because that is where I am. I don’t feel chained or locked, with anything or anyone. I allow my spirit to lead, and there’s a spirit that leads that spirit; and so far I am just atoned because that’s where I am.”
Initially that spirit led Scott to Temple University, where she studied to be a high school English teacher while performing poetry and exploring theater on the weekends and evenings. After three years she became disillusioned, dropped out and quit her job as a teacher’s aide. That same day she received a call offering her a theater apprenticeship. That led to her performing with the Canadian east of Rent, poetry readings and opportunities to meet others in the performing arts community. Scott also co-wrote with the Roots the hit “You Got Me,” which won a best-rap Grammy for Erykah Badu. The vocalist began to work with producer Jeff Townes (DJ Jazzy Jeff), who formerly performed with Will Smith. It was Townes who sent out Scott’s demo CDs, which led to her signing with Hidden Beach Recordings. He produced Who Is Jill Scott?
In addition to her music, Scott has a great love for Lyzel Williams, her longtime friend and now fiance who is the inspiration for many of her songs. She met Williams, a graphic artist by day and DJ by night, about eight years ago after he sat in the middle of the aisle during a poetry reading and she just couldn’t keep her eyes off him. Marriage is on the horizon, she says, but not a “celebrity wedding.” In the song “He Loves Me [Lyzel in E Flat],” she sings with sensuous passion: “You love me especially different every time / You keep me on my feet / Happily excited by your cologne, your hands, your smile / Your intelligence/ You woo me, you court me, you tease me, you please me …”
“He cares nothing about this music industry,” Scott says, “and I love him for that. I love him so much.” She says what she likes about Williams is: “He’s a man, not a boy trying to be a man. He’s steadfast, strong. Every day in his walk, he carries a love and respect for his woman … I totally respect him.”
She also loves herself and insists that others treat her with respect. “What makes me angry with people is when they pull and tug on me and in some sense don’t respect the fact that I’m royalty,” she says. “My power is my own, and it’s coming different from everyone else in the world.”
Such uniqueness makes Jill Scott stand out in a sea of pop and hip-hop artists, and she learned long ago to follow her own mind and heart. On “One Is The Magic Number,” she sings of self-love: “So many times I defined my pride through somebody else’s eyes / Then I looked inside and found my own stride / I found a lasting love for me / If I am searching for my spirituality passionately / I must begin with me.”
It’s a lesson she had to learn. “Trying to find out who I was, trying to find myself in the image of the magazines and the TV was just foolish,” she explains. “Because we all have such a power within us. People keep talking about God and heaven. It’s in here, in my gut. Everybody has a place. Whether you are fat or thin, blue-eyed, blind–everybody has a power. And it’s their own. Look through your spirit.”
That’s how she found herself and discovered who Jill Scott really is.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
