Ten years later it’s still Jill Scott’s time

It will be released this Friday “To whom this may concern” the sixth album by Jill Scott which comes more than ten years after the previous one “Woman”released in July 2015. A rather long pause that the 53-year-old musician born in Philadelphia – it is no coincidence that she was nicknamed “Jilly from Philly” – in a video published a couple of months ago explained this lapse of time as follows: “My process works more or less like this: I wait to be inspired. And this requires time and patience until the words come pouring out of my mouth”.

The return of Jill Scott it will make happy those who care about refined sounds in which jazz, soul and hip hop go hand in hand with each other. Jill after being a backing vocalist for the queen of ‘neo-soul’ Erykah Badu – so she was baptized at the time of her debut album “Baduism” in 1997 – he debuted, practically from almost nothing in 2000, with an album entitled, not for nothing, “Who is Jill Scott? Words and sounds vol.1” (read the review here). A first album of excellent quality which entered the Top 20 of the American sales charts and earned no less than three nominations at the 2001 Grammy Awards in the categories: ‘Best new artist’, ‘Best R&B album’ and ‘Female R&B Vocal Performance’ for the song “Gettin’ in the way”.

Jill then entered the music circuit through the front door and confirmed herself as the queen of R&B with the following albums. “Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2” (2004) reached third position in the charts, while “The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3″ (2007) stopped at fourth place. The next “The Light of the Sun” (2011) hit the target in the center and managed to reach the top of the ranking, a feat replicated with “Woman” (2015).

The flirtation with the Grammys with the first album was not an isolated exploit, it continued with other nominations and three awards. In 2005 he won it in the ‘Best Urban/Alternative Performance’ category thanks to the song “Cross my mind” (included in the album “Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2”), again in the same category he won in 2008 with his feat. in the song “Daydreamin'” interpreted with Lupe Fiasco (included in the album of Lupe Fiasco of 2006 “Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor” (read the review here) while, in 2007, he excelled in the ‘Best Traditional R&B Performance’ with the song “God Bless the Child”cover by Billie Holidaycreated together with George Benson And Al Jarreau.

Over the last ten years Jill Scott she certainly hasn’t remained idle, she has in fact collaborated with various musicians, among these we can mention Alicia Keys, Kehlani, Ty Dolla Sign And Tyla. His live activity has practically never stopped, except in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. In our country (source setlist.fm) Jill has never performed and, to tell the truth, even the episodes in Europe have been quite rare.

The release of the new album, “To whom this may concern”was anticipated last month by the release of the singles “Beautiful People”, “Pressha” And “Don’t Play (with it)”. In a Q&A with fans, sponsored by the British newspaper The Guardian, she said of herself and her music: “I’m not Nina Simone, although I respect that kind of work. I’d like people to read my lyrics and listen to the work from start to finish. I’m still discovering who Jill Scott is, but like a good meal, it takes time.”

Always about “To Whom This May Concern”and again answering a fan’s question, the Philadelphia musician replied: “I don’t think you can create art without having a life in the middle and there were reasons to make important changes. I excluded some people from my life, some ideas… Paying attention to social media I see that people are increasingly angry. There are many reasons for this and much of what is happening is disturbing, but I wanted to present a private revolution. It comes partly from my life experience, but also from noticing that people choose aesthetics rather than character or coherence.”