"Survivor Unleashes a Voice Overflowing With Passion"
New York TimesBettye LaVette got down to business within minutes after her set began on Friday night at Joe's Pub. ''Pain,'' she sang, on one fierce, annunciatory note, then shouted, ''Ow!'' Her band locked into a vamp, with horns answering a bluesy guitar. ''Pain,'' she sang again, in two notes leaping downward. ''Ow!'' Read more
"Down-home LaVette sings with a sting"
Pioneer Press
Lowell Pickett says he booked Bettye LaVette into his Dakota Jazz Club because he read a rave review in the New York Times of her performance at a Big Apple jazz club. But one listen to her "A Woman in Me," recorded in 2002 with Robert Cray producer Dennis Walker, shows that she's one of the grittiest, most deeply felt R&B singers on the planet. Read more
"Bettye LaVette held nothing back at Dakota" - Star Tribune
Monday night was the opening of the third season of "American Idol," the TV talent show to find the best young undiscovered singers in the United States. Monday was also the opening of a three-night stand at the Dakota Jazz Club for Bettye LaVette, the best "old" undiscovered R & B singer in the United States. Read more
"Long after Motor City sputter,
LaVette comeback
in overdrive"
Chicago Sun-Times
The Motor City was burning red-hot in the 1960s for female R&B singers: Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Martha Reeves ... and Bettye LaVette. While LaVette's career rise was certainly not as meteoric as the other aforementioned Detroit vocalists, she now is enjoying an unlikely resurgence on the blues/R&B circuit. And the 57-year-old LaVette, who's on the bill tonight at the Shubert Theatre, sees a positive side of avoiding instant stardom. Read more
Bettye LaVette: "The Great Unknown"
Wisconsin State Journal
Rhythm-and-blues belter Bettye LaVette should be famous. Her show at Luther's Blues Saturday night should be a momentous event. Her albums should be easy to find. Her bio should find space in music encyclopedias. Instead, the lively LaVette, who turns 58 this month but recorded her first major label single at age 16, finds herself in classy, small clubs. Though relatively anonymous, she'll also play lengthy nightclub stints in New York and Paris this year. So how did LaVette - one of the "great lost soul divas," according to The Village Voice - miss stardom? Read more
OTHER PERFORMANCES
Chicago Blues Festival, Sweetwater San Francisco, Porretta Soul Festival