Erykah Badu: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

Aug. 15, 2018 | Felix Con­tre­ras – Some folks around the NPR Music office said they felt an almost spi­ri­tu­al con­nec­tion to Ery­kah Badu during her visit to the Tiny Desk. And that was befo­re she and her band even play­ed a sin­gle note. It came from the waft of earth­ly scents that fol­lo­wed in her wake, to the flowing dreads and clo­thes that hung on her like robes.

After her self-intro­duc­tion, which included a rundown of her spi­ri­tu­al and crea­ti­ve ali­a­ses, Badu rol­led into one of her ear­liest musi­cal cal­ling cards, „Rims­hot.“ It’s an ode to the sound the per­cus­sio­nist makes when a drum­stick is struck against the metal edge of the sna­re drum. On this per­for­mance, as on her 1997 album Baduizm, it beco­mes a device to play with time — stret­ching it, stop­ping it, sus­pen­ding it. Pro­pel­led by jazz chords on the pia­no and the ste­ady pul­se of the acou­stic bass, the playful per­for­mance unfold­ed in the tra­di­ti­on of the best bebop.

But the pan­o­r­amic song „Green Eyes“ is the cen­ter­pie­ce of Badu’s Tiny Desk per­for­mance. It’s wide-ran­ging in scope and musi­cal arran­ge­ment and bril­li­ant­ly exe­cu­ted by the jazz and hip-hop musi­ci­ans in her back­ing band. The sto­ry of heart­break is striking enough, but her inter­pre­ta­ti­on show­ca­ses her for­mi­da­ble vocal skills. By the time it was over, we were all just as emo­tio­nal­ly and spi­ri­tual­ly spent as she was from the expe­ri­ence.

Ery­kah Badu is an artist for the ages. To old-school jazz fans like mys­elf, names like Nina Simo­ne, Bet­ty Car­ter and Shir­ley Horn come to mind as much as Bil­lie Holi­day becau­se of Badu’s sin­gu­lar approach to a lyric. They all cut their own crea­ti­ve path and left behind a lega­cy that you can iden­ti­fy with just one note. Ery­kah Badu is on that same path, and one day her name will be men­tio­ned along with the other Elders who share her spi­rit of musi­cal adven­ture.

Set List
„Rims­hot“
„Green Eyes“

Musi­ci­ans
Ery­kah Badu (lead vocals), RC Wil­liams (Keys), Bray­lon Lacy (bass), Cle­on Edwards (Drums), Frank Moka (Per­cus­sion), Ken­neth Whalum (Sax), Key­on Har­rold (Trumpet), Dway­ne Kerr (Flu­te)

Cre­dits
Pro­du­cers: Abby O’N­eill, Mor­gan Noel­le Smith; Crea­ti­ve Direc­tor: Bob Boi­len; Audio Engi­neer: Josh Rogos­in; Video­graph­ers: Mor­gan Noel­le Smith, Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Khun Minn Ohn, CJ Ricu­lan; Pro­duc­tion Assistants: Cathe­ri­ne Zhang, Téa Mot­to­le­se; Pho­to: Mor­gan Noel­le Smith/NPR.

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