Lauryn Hill: Possibly Sane Again, Definitely Listening To A Lot Of Fela

Last night, as we were closing up shop to go home and watch Big Love/drink ourselves to sleep, one of your Idolators commented, “I wish I could go to the Lauryn Hill show.” “Yes,” said the other, “that should be a ‘good’ time.” Well apparently it was indeed a good time, though just as inexplicable as one could have hoped, with Hill’s hits set to loooong African/island rhythms by a large ensemble and the singer herself apparently performing her own songs in all new arrangements that had her skiddly-diddly-bop scatting like Cab Calloway:

They were her hit songs from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, but played over unrecognizable reggae rhythms and Afro-beat ska arrangements. She sang the favorites the crowd came to hear, but fans couldn’t sing along because they didn’t know these melodies, and because, well, Hill wasn’t even singing. She was scatting and chanting and shuffling about. She performed an energetic rendition of “Lost Ones” fused with Bob Marley’s “Natty Dread” and then “Final Hour” melded with Peter Tosh’s “Downpressor Man,” and “Zion” blended with Marley’s “Iron, Lion, Zion.” Sometimes it sounded beautiful, sometimes it sounded like babble. Each song — upbeat, percussive basslines beneath Hill’s rough, repetitive chanting — was at least ten minutes long. The crowd sat in a collective stare, not quite sure what to make of it.

Now, the idea of 10-minute Afrobeat/reggae versions of Hill and Fugees classics could turn out either astounding or atrocious in practice, and so you should probably take this (mostly positive) Rolling Stone review with a few grains of salt. Especially when you remember that other recent Hill shows featuring a similar big band/new arrangements set up were panned as dodgy, possibly drunken debacles. If anyone was at the concert and can confirm/deny this report in the comments box, this old Fugees fan would much appreciate it.

Lauryn Hill Shocks Fans With Two-Hour-Plus Career Spanning Concert