Liv Warfield’s Billie Holiday Tribute Feb. 16 at Jimmy Mak’s

[February 20th, 2008]

[TORCH SONGS] Liv Warfield is no Billie Holiday. Let’s just get that out of the way. And no one wants her to be, not even—if Warfield’s recent tribute to Lady Day was any indication—Liv herself. But damn, can our girl sing.

Warfield, Portland’s queen of sultry R&B, is more direct and boisterous than Holiday—whose smoky, muted trumpet of a voice is generally regarded as the finest jazz has ever seen, or dared. So the buzz before Warfield’s second set at Jimmy Mak’s last Saturday night was full of questions: How would Warfield tackle Billie? Would she tone down her gospel-tinged live show? Would she dress for the occasion? Would she scat?

Yes to all of the above. Warfield took the stage in a wide-shouldered blue dress and tackled “God Bless the Child,” a dauntingly understated tune for a heavyweight like Liv. For its opening verses, Billie sang through her like a visiting ghost. But by song’s end, Warfield had stretched the word “own” into a dozen syllables, her deep church purr escaping from behind Holiday’s wilted beauty.

Next up was “It Had to Be You.” “We funked it up a little bit,” Liv pre-emptively warned an unfazed audience. Sean Foote’s slapped electric bass popped over Warfield’s rich vocals, warming up to an untraditional slam poetry-style spoken-word assault, punctuated with blasts of Dave Fleschner’s Hammond organ.

“Funked-up” versions of “Good Morning Heartache” and “Summertime” followed, though it was Warfield’s knowing take on the moody and lyrically graphic “Strange Fruit” that highlighted her breadth as a vocalist. Despite some distracting delay effects on her vocals, Warfield proved that, while restraint isn’t a weakness.

A surprise came later in the evening when legendary drummer Bernard Purdie—who’s recorded with Lous Armstrong, James Brown and Liv—was called to participate in a freestyle riff-off of Warfield’s “ABC’s,” smiling and laughing from behind the kit.

After Purdie’s exit, Warfield and company preceded to play another original, “Brotha Man.” When an audience member’s cries encouraged Liv to “Keep it real!” she replied in song, saying, “I’ll keep it real,” before detailing an evening of doin’ it: “First I’m gonna take this flower out of my hair,” she began to thunderous applause. Billie’s ghost said good night for the evening.