Bettye Lavette

There's a space in American music where country meets soul, where elements of blues, folk, pop, jazz, gospel and R&B melt in seamless alchemy, where genre boundaries are ultimately not very meaningful.  The best of that music is rooted somewhere around two or three in the morning, when all is quiet, one's emotional guard is down and the musicians are able to drive the voodoo down, getting at the essence of what it is to be human.

Ms. LaVette is one of the greatest soul singers in American music history, possessed of an incredibly expressive voice that one moment will exude a formidable level of strength and intensity and the next will appear vulnerable, reflective, reeking of heartbreak. Unfortunately, it says much about the vagaries of the popular music industry that, although LaVette has been recording for over four decades, up to this point she has remained criminally unknown.  The Jefferson Center welcomes Ms. LaVette to the Shaftman Performance Hall for a season celebrating 10 years of performance; ten years of identifying the unknown and well-known; all of which leave celebrated.