Joss Stone brings her Soul to Ottawa Jazzfest

Joss Stone walked onto the TD Jazz festival Main Stage Sunday night in Confederation Park and floated an invitation out to the audience to come together and connect through music.

And with that, a new relationship was born or rather Newborn. She played under a cloudy sky, a sky that only moment earlier had been heaving gusty winds and substantial rain. That didn’t stop Ottawa fans and it was a full house. Muddy but full.

Stone has been performing since she was a teenager, releasing her first album, Soul Sessions, in 2003. She is known for her soulful, sultry style and strong vocals and on Sunday night she didn’t disappoint. Her vocal performance throughout the concert was impressively powerful, raw, sweet, and even growly. Her 6-piece band, which included a 2-man horn section, was solid and on point, and the backup singers delivered perfect harmonies.

The first part of her set included “Newborn”, “Big ol’ Game”, as she shouted out that life is a game… if you’ll allow it, and “Cut the Line”. By the time she got to “Love Me”, she teased the audience into singing along. It took a while for this Ottawa crowd to warm up their vocal chords (must have been the cold evening air), but she brought them there. When she launched into a cover of “The Look of Love” by Burt Bacharach, she had won over even the coldest of hearts.

Things got a little more intimate with “Landlord”, “Stuck on You” and “Victim of a Foolish Heart”. An ode to 4/20 with “Sensimilla” and “Harry’s Symphony” lulled folks into a dreamlike state until she slowly started to pick it up with “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye”. She performed fantastic cover of “Give More Power to the People” while referencing the good and not so good world leaders of today. The power, however, was all in her voice and it rippled through all the way down to your toes. “I Don’t Want to Be” was delivered with so much feeling that people in the crowd were turning to each other and murmuring “… goosebumps”. The set finished with an intoxicating cover of “I Put Spell on You” and we were all hers.

She didn’t make the crowd wait long for the encore. Asking for requests, it was a toss-up between “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Right to be Wrong”. Thankfully, she sang both. The night ended with the songstress throwing sunflowers out into the crowd.

Review by Gloria Haché

TD Ottawa Jazz Festival continues through July 2, 2017 for full program and tickets visit www.ottawajazzfestival.com