“Erykah Badu stood, clad in what seemed like a Day-Glo bodysuit adorned with a tangle of various accoutrements,” writes Preston Jones in Monday’s (6/24) Dallas Observer. “Above her, multi-colored lights pulsed, and a projection screen displayed a riot of eye-popping images… Before her, seven backing musicians situated behind microphones, keyboards, drums, bass and a laptop, and beyond those bodies sat the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The music being made, rich with tension between earthiness and sophistication, swelled and shifted and rumbled, blossomed and soared inside the gorgeous Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. The song at hand was ‘Twinkle,’ from Badu’s masterful 2008 LP New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) … and Badu was in full command of the moment. The sight was as transfixing as it was faintly incongruous, a sensation that was near-constant Friday night as Badu made a sold-out appearance alongside the DSO…. The jam-packed room’s demeanor oscillated between the reserve befitting a recital, and a rowdy end-of-the-week looseness … Yet the pairing of these Dallas cultural institutions worked, often to spectacular effect. The DSO, led by conductor Ted Hearne, lent a fascinating texture to Badu’s layered, trippy and righteous R&B odysseys.”
Posted June 25, 2019
In photo: Singer/songwriter Erykah Badu and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra perform at Meyerson Symphony Center, June 21, 2019.
