It was a great night of music. The last time I’d seen Tamar-kali perform was last November at Indiana University’s black rock conference. She was very good then, but was great on Friday.
What pushed it over the top was, simply, Tamar. Perhaps it was a sense of relief and accomplishment at having Black Bottom finally out in the world. Maybe it was the nearly 300 people who showed up help celebrate the album’s release. Whatever it was, she was engaging, charismatic, funny, but still clearly in charge of her voice, her band and us, the audience.
I think we’d all be disappointed if it were any other way.
Cool, too, to have The Roots’ Kirk Douglas join the band for “Your Girl” and then stick around to accompany Toshi Reagon and Alice Smith, who joined Tamar in a cover of Betty Davis’s “Game Is My Middle Name”.
