Just got back from an amazing Jill Scott concert at the Gibson Amphitheater here in Los Angeles. I wanted to get this review down as soon as possible, because I’m still riding the high from this experience. If you ever get a chance to see her live, I strongly urge you to check her out. Right now I feel she is in top form, with more swagger, presence, and passion than ever. She hasn’t quite had the same success as her debut album, “Who is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1″, released in 2000, but she seems fully content with where she’s at. This current tour is in support of her third album, “The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3″, and the songs from this disc make for some great additions to her live act. The venues might have gotten a little smaller since her days of going double platinum, but this only truly works to her advantage.

Jill Scott is one of those rare artists with an ability to speak directly to you while performing. The intimacy of her stage show is almost unreal. And I’m sure all 5000 or so people in that theater tonight would agree. With an excellent back up band, her expressive tone and delivery, and her eloquent yet down to earth lyrics, she is practically reciting the history of your love life in song. And if you’re a hopeless romantic like myself, you’re wondering how the hell she knows everything about you…. it’s as if she has perfected the craft of weaving her performance into your life’s memories. On top of that, her in-between-song banter could double as an inspiring and uplifting sermon about love and self worth, and this only seemed to reaffirm the themes and concepts of her music.

One of the main highlights of the show was “Cross My Mind”, a song from her second album “Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2″, for which she won a grammy for in 2005. The band fully matched the tone of her longing memory of a past love, and her delivery, half spoken word half sung, was flawless. (Strangely enough, I received a text from the person who was crossing my mind at that moment during that song, and I was practically floored at the coincidence. Jill’s a mind reader, I swear.) She also performed a very laid back version of her breakout single, “A Long Walk”, as opposed to the more aggressive funk-rock version she has been known to do in the past. Jill also performed a very powerful rendition of “Hate on Me” which got a lot of the crowd on its feet as she exclaimed, “Let the haters hate!” She encored with “The Way”, and given this specific holiday, this was easily predictable yet quite welcome.

After the encore ended, about a minute went by and people were starting to file out. Yet she surprisingly came back to the stage for one last song, which was also one of the main highlights of the evening. She told the crowd the song had came to her in her sleep, and she didn’t write it as much as she “took dictation” for the song that came to her. The song was yet another affirmation of love and self worth, and she even had the remaining crowd sing the chorus along with her. This song spoke of everyone being worth so much more than the wrong relationships we sometimes pursue, and surrounding ourselves with people and relationships that only let our “lights shine even brighter.” And this seemed to be her sincere Valentine’s Day message to everyone. As sappy as this sounds written down, if you were there to witness her sing this with as much passion and strength as she carries, you’d practically be in tears, too. It was one of those shows. Her second Valentine’s Day message to everyone at the end: “Go home and make good lovin’.” Definitely a good message to end the show, and definitely a good way to end the holiday….

Here’s recent footage of Jill on VH1 Soul performing “A Long Walk” and “Golden”.