Marsha Ambrosius @ Jazz Cafe [REVIEW]

Yesterday/Lastnight (Sunday 5th July) was insane.

Jumping between Hyde Park/Wireless and Camden/Jazz Cafe was, er, interesting to say the least.

Wireless of course was off the chain for all types of reasons which I will go into on another post (coming soon), but Jazz Cafe and more specifically Marsha Ambrosius was stupendous.

I’ve waited a long, long, long time to catch this lady sing live. Never got a chance to see her during the Floetry days and while they were dope as a group, it was always Marsha’s voice that got me locked in. Her vocals are like no one else’s, soon as you hear it, you know it’s her. Soulful, yet so Hip Hop.

So yea, arrived at the Jazz Cafe for about 10pm, listened to a couple of UKSOULJAM‘s warm up acts and waited for the headliner to arrive. Once she did the audience was 100% locked in. A mass of people who knew lyric-by-lyric, adlib-by-adlib, all  eager to see this home grown star return to the London stage. Lord knows it’s been too long!

She came on and opened with “Co-Star” off her insanely dope (cannotstoplisteningto) “Yours Truly” mixtape. A great way to start the evening, it’s one of the illest cuts off that tape. While the set was only short (about an hour) she covered a lot of ground and did the tunes everyone wanted to hear. As soon as she sang ‘baby’  from “Getting Late” – that was it. The crowd erupted into a shattering sonic scream, literally blowing Marsha back. She continued to perform one of her most stunningly beautiful tracks, in the most…Stunningly beautiful way. Her voice, I will say over and over, is mind blowing. She then went into “Say Yes”.  Ha, you can only imagine the reaction of the soul-hungry crowd, right? Yup, everyone went mental [again]. She loved it, she knew it was the song everyone was waiting on. Easily one of Floetry’s best (and biggest) tracks – written of course, by Marsha. A sultry, sexy, meaningful and deep song that everyone soul fan references. She sang is perfectly.

Aside from “Say Yes”, the track I think we all, unanimously wanted to see her perform, was “Butterflies”. Marsha famously wrote the song for Michael Jackson which subsequently ended up on his Invincible album. Easily one of the stand out tracks on that record (outside of “Rock My World”). It was evident she was going to perform the song in light of MJ’s passing, and we were all anxiously waiting for an emotional rendition of it. But before she sang that song, just as she sat on her piano, she spoke briefly about the King of Pop saying “I worked with that man, spent time with that man, I spent time with his kids – I cannot believe he’s gone”. Visiably upset, it was clear that Ambrosius had been deeply affected by his sudden and untimely passing. She continued saying “before I sing ["Butterflies"], I’d like to perform a song we were working on, but never got to finish”. Wow, I mean, you can imagine what that was like. I for one felt incredibly privileged. I don’t remember what the song was called, but we do have footage of it (coming soon), but she sang and played with so much passion – the Jazz Cafe grew silent. No backing vocalists, no band – just her and her piano. It was a moment. After a roar of applause, she began to play “Butterflies” – most probably the most emotionally charged part of the evening. As an MJ fan, a Marsha fan and a fan of that song – it was phenomenal.

“Butterflies” signified the end of her set, sadly. I really could have done with another hour of her on stage – an hour wasn’t enough. She has tons of material and could have quite easily performed for the rest of the night, but that’s just me acting spoilt. I was happy I got to witness her music live, something, as I mentioned, I’ve been waiting for for a long time now.

I just hope she returns again soon!

PinBoard had the pleasure of interviewing Marsha Ambrosius just before her gig. We got some real exciting stuff coming, including some exclusive, exclusive material from the lady herself. The interview will be up soon. Watch out for that.

Peace, Love & Marsha Ambrosius

Speeakz

Shouts to UKSOULJAM, Keep the Faith, Paul Aaron & Marsha Ambrosius