Erykah Badu at TBAAL

Erykah's One-Woman Show. Photo by Ray Winbush

Erykah Badu

TBAAL

Dallas, TX

October 31, 2015

 

Erykah Badu attended an arts high school that is famous for turning out a lot of great musicians. But – back then when she was known as Erica Wright (or Apples) – she was in the dance program, not the music program.

She returned to her dance and theater roots in her three-day, theatrical performance run in Dallas.

She put on a series of five-minute variety skits. There were twists and turns, quiet moments, upbeat moments. The performance was as quirky as the rollout of the show with alternate and subtitled names: Live Nudity, Meditate on Deez, One-Woman Show, One-Human Show.

Though it was a theatrical performance, there were musical interludes with a breath-taking rendering of her song Out of my Mind, Just in Time. She was backed by members of her band who were off-stage. The show was appealing to music-heads: 

• keyboard player R.C. Williams was heard playing more of a jazzy style rather the usual hip-hop fare
• drummer Cleon Edwards was in a more complementary, story-telling role unlike the ubiquitous Youtube drummer video clips which have become musical versions of ESPN slam-dunk clips;
• then there was Braylon Lacy playing bass behind the curtain; the listener was left to guess, was that an upright bass? Or electric bass?

The show was at times funny, at times it was like when your best friend told a not-so-funny joke but you laugh anyway. In the end, the show became a little more serious with issues that resonated with her core audience; issues like racism and economic inequality.

There have been mixed reviews, all the way from good to bad. But the bad reviews should be tempered by what was overheard from exuberant audience members in the lobby – they were gushing about what a great show it was!