Jill Scott
Wednesday, July 25, 7 p.m.
Jill Scott seamlessly fuses jazz, blues, hip-hop and r&b with endless sophistication and charm into a style that is completely her own. Her vocals are refreshingly controlled yet exploring and free; the poetic character of her lyrics sets her songs apart from many of the Top 40 artists in music today.

Scott was born and raised in Philadelphia, alongside artists such as DJ Jazzy Jeff, Will Smith and The Roots. Scott concentrated on her verse after a brief stint at Temple University, and began reading her poetry at various clubs around town. After attending one such performance, drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson asked Scott to sit in on a writing session with his band The Roots. The result was the Grammy-winning single “You Got Me,” which Scott penned in five minutes.

Trying to jump-start her music career, Scott began calling Jeff Townes, a.k.a. DJ Jazzy Jeff. Though he didn’t return her calls, a chance meeting on the street led him to invite her to his studio. The first session resulted in “A Long Walk,” a song that later found its way into Scott’s first album, Who Is Jill Scott, which has received rave reviews and drawn her comparisons to Erykah Badu, Billie Holiday and Chaka Khan.

Scott has also collaborated with Eric Benet on a remix of “When You Think of Me,” Will Smith on “The Rain” from Willennium, Common on Like Water for Chocolate and the single “8 Minutes to Sunrise” from the Wild Wild West soundtrack.

Erykah Badu
Wednesday, August 15, 7 p.m.
Melding ‘70s soul with jazz and hip-hop, Erykah Badu has assumed the throne of reigning queen of neo-soul. Her languorous, sensual vocals have removed her from the legion of cookie-cutter female r&b singers and have drawn comparisons to such legends as Billie Holiday.

Born Erica Wright in Dallas, Texas, she was raised by a single mom who made her living as a local stage actress. By the age of four, Erica had performed professionally alongside her mother. During high school she changed her name to Erykah Badu, the "kah" representing inner self and Badu, which means "to manifest truth and light."

Badu’s big break occurred after opening for D’Angelo in 1995, after which D’Angelo’s manager signed her to her first record deal. Her first album, Baduizm, instantly rose to the top of the charts in 1997, achieving platinum status in one month. Badu quickly became somewhat of a media darling – not only did she have a hit single with "On & On," but she proved she could balance her intense spirituality with an equal business savvy.

Badu’s second album, Live, was released on November 18, 1997, the same day she gave birth to her son, whose father is Outkast member Dre. She released Mama’s Gun in 2000, which received critical praise and included the hit single "Bag Lady." Not only an accomplished musician, Badu also co-produced her albums, directed several of her videos and made appearances on several TV shows and motion pictures such as "Cider House Rules." Erykah Badu is truly a superstar in the making.

Sade
Sunday, July 15, 7:30 p.m.
When Sade first came on the recording scene in the '80s, her record company, Epic, made a point of printing "pronounced shar-day" after her name on the record labels of her releases. Soon enough the world would have no problem in correctly pronouncing her name. Born Helen Folasade Adu in a village 50 miles from Lagos, the capitol of Nigeria, she was the daughter of an African father and an English mother. After her mother returned to England, Sade grew up on the North End of London. Developing a good singing voice in her teens, Sade worked part-time jobs in and outside of the music business. She listened to Ray Charles, Nina Simone, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, and Billie Holliday. Sade studied fashion design at St. Martin's School of Art in London while also doing some modeling on the side. Around 1980, she started singing harmony with a Latin funk group called Arriva. One of the more popular numbers that the group would perform was a Sade original co-written with band member Ray St. John, "Smooth Operator," that would later become Sade's first stateside hit. The following year she joined an eight-piece funk band Pride as a background singer. The band included future Sade band members guitarist/saxophonist Stuart Matthewman (a key player in '90s urban soul singer Maxwell's success) and bassist Paul Denman. The concept of the group was that there could shoot-offs. In essence, a few members within the main group Pride formed mini-groups that would be the opening act. Pride did a lot of shows around London, stirring up record company interest. Initially, the labels wanted to only sign Sade, while the group members wanted a deal for the whole band. After a year, the other band members told Sade, Matthewman, and Denman to go ahead and sign a deal. Adding keyboardist Andrew Hale, the group signed to the U.K. division of Epic Records. Her debut album, Diamond Life (with overall production by Robin Millar), went Top Ten in the U.K. in late 1984. January 1985 saw the album released on CBS' Portrait label and by spring it went platinum off the strength of the Top Ten singles "Smooth Operator" and "Hang on to Your Love." Her third album, Promise (November 1985), featured "Never As Good As the First Time" and arguably her signature song, "The Sweetest Taboo," which stayed on the U.S. pop charts for six months. Sade was so popular that some radio stations reinstated the '70s practice of playing album tracks, adding "Is It a Crime" and "Tar Baby" to their play lists. In 1986, Sade won a Grammy for Best New Artist. Sade's third album was 1988's Stronger Than Pride and had her first number one soul single "Paradise," "Nothing Can Come Between Us," and "Keep Looking." A new Sade album didn't appear for four years. 1992's Love Deluxe continued the unbroken streak of multi-platinum Sade albums, spinning off the hits "No Ordinary Love," "Feel No Pain," and "Pearls." While the album's producer Mike Pela, Matthewman, Denman, and Hale have gone on to other projects, in later years Sade kept a low profile, despite some interest in a Sade reunion. ~ Ed Hogan, All Music Guide

Mya
Tuesday, September 11, 7 p.m.
Mya is a dancer turned smooth urban R&B vocalist who released her eponymous debut in the spring of 1998, when she was just 18 years old.Mya was born in Washington D.C., where she took dance classes as a child. After briefly losing interest in the art, she returned to dancing in her pre-teens, eventually joining the dance troupe T.W.A. (Tappers With Attitude). She left the group after a short while, heading to New York to study at the Dance Theater of Harlem with Savion Glover, best known as the choreographer/mastermind behind the Broadway spectacular Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk. Her passion for improvisation made her a favorite of Glover, who had her perform solo at the Kennedy Center. Although Mya was best known as a dancer, she was also musically inclined, learning how to sing and play the violin as a child. When her father -- a professional musician -- learned that his daughter could sing and was serious about a musical career, he shopped around the demo tapes, eventually earning the attention of Haqq Islam, president of University Music. Impressed with Mya's audition, Islam signed her to Interscope Records. Mya and Interscope spent the next two years working on her debut record, hiring an impressive list of collaborators, including Darryl Pearson, Babyface, Diane Warren, Raphael Brown, Wyclef Jean, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, and Sisqo and Moko from Dru Hill. The resulting album was a smooth urban song cycle about love and growing up; it was released in April 1998. Two years later, her more mature second album Fear of Flying, which featured collaborations with Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez, Jadakiss, Wyclef Jean and Swizz Beatz, arrived. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide