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Bilal at the Highline Ballroom

Bilal at the Highline Ballroom (8.3.07)

Opener and self-styled it boy Peter Hadar warmed a New York City crowd well for Bilal's little ballyhooed but anxiously anticipated recent return to center stage. The Philadelphia-bred singer, whose incredible debut 1st Born Second (2001) proved too weighty to engender wide audience support, hit the Highline Ballroom the first Friday in August to run down selections from his long shelved sophomore album, Love For Sale, in fantastic fashion. Accompanied by an astute 7-man band, helmed by musical director Robert Glasper, and two female background singers, an unassuming Bilal drifted onto the stage, red wine in hand, band in full groove, and started sanging. No preface as to the fate of Love For Sale or record label status (he identifies himself as unsigned on his MySpace page), just music: bombastic, strange and quite beautiful.

Over the past few years Bilal has stayed relatively busy lending vocals to other artist's projects (Clipse, Common, Boney James) and exhibiting his jazz chops in spot dates but there have been few opportunities to hear him do his material in full, at least here in New York, and a handful of those appearances have been marred by his irascibility or sub par backing bands. Looking comfortable at the Jill Newman-produced show's start quarter to 11 PM, Bilal dug in on the grotesquely funky "Gotsa to Be Cool," on which the band incorporated "Can I Have it Like That," then took folks back on "For You," which on account of the devotees in the audience was a massive sing-a-long, and let loose on a whimsical, latin jazzified rendition of "Something to Hold." "Sing that shit Bilal," yelled a voice in the crowd between horn stabs but some time after the line that always kills me, "I want to be your one and only and I know that shit sounds corny but it's the way that I feel."

The Sa-Ra popularized moralism, "Hollywood," came next, followed by a new ditty. "All the humans make some noise," exhorted Bilal in one of his few direct addresses to the audience. "How do you do you?" he asked to a bit of confusion eventually introducing "How Do You Do You" as a new song tackling self-definition and presentation; call it psycho-soul. At song's end Glasper, a rising jazz star in his own right, witnessed his dexterity on the keys all the way into "Sometimes." Thereafter, a gesticulating Bilal-part Chuck Berry, Mick Jagger, and preacherman-was par for the course. The gospel "Trouble Don't Last Always" bubbled under the cresting tune leading Bilal to promise, "This gonna help you through next week."

Prophesies aside, Bilal generated an uncommon intensity on the strength of his voice and vision where posture stands in for so many pop poseurs. It was refreshing and he wasn't even done yet. "All For Love", "Let it Go" and "Reminisce" fused with Soho's "Hot Music" and dedicated to the late producer J Dilla followed, generating such a fervor that Bilal quipped "We might as well do another bootleg record." The encore, however, looked back to his debut with a churchy "When Will You Call" giving way to the song that kick started Bilal's career upon its inclusion on the Love & Basketball soundtrack, "Soul Sista." In sum, the performance suggested that this bright hope of the late nineties and early augties new soulsters hasn't petered out but been pushed underground.

Intrepid blogger Jesse Boykins III uploaded some video from the show to YouTube included below:

"Sometimes"

"White Turns to Gray"

Set List: Gotsa to Be Cool, For You, Something to Hold, Hollywood, How Do You Do You, Sometimes, All for Love, Let it Go, Reminisce/Hot Music, White Turns to Gray/You Can Make it If You Try, Make Me Over/Purple Haze, Fast Lane. Encore - When Will You Call, Soul Sista.

• Bilal
• Soul

Posted on August 14, 2007 5:27 PM

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