Lizz Wright News

The March concert calendar indicates the annual winter slowdown in live music is most definitely over.

Most of those listening to Erika Flowers at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival hadn't heard of her.

Anybody who thought they had Lizz Wright figured out -- a jazz singer with a giant voice and strong gospel connection -- was in for a delightful correction at the singer's SFJAZZ performance Friday night at Herbst Theater.

The Philadelphia jazz servings at various locations over the next two weeks are as varied as a smorgasbord; something for every taste.

When Lizz Wright left her family home in rural Hihira, Ga., a dozen or so years ago to live in a big city and become a jazz singer, she escaped her evangelist father's strict rules, including not being allowed to listen to secular music, as well as the quarter-acre backyard garden she worked in, often reluctantly.