Monterey 2009: Ruthie Foster

Ruthie Foster got right to the point in her mid-afternoon set on the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Garden Stage. “I like to mix my blues with my gospel!” she shouted, and mix them she did in an exceptional set that brought an overflow crowd to its feet multiple times and raised the bar for this year’s festival to dizzying heights.

Foster’s voice is nothing short of phenomenal: expansive and powerful, brilliant as sunshine and unstoppable as a typhoon. Rising again and again from a soulful groan to a glorious shout, Foster channeled tunes from Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Son House, Lucinda Williams and her own repertoire into an intoxicating, groove heavy spectacle that roamed from the churchyard to the barrelhouse, from the back porch to the mountaintop.

But while Foster could have sung a cappella and enthralled the audience, her killer band added even more juice, forging uplifting grooves with a soulful sweep and a Texas twang. Foster’s jangly acoustic guitar made excellent counterpoint to Hadden Sayers’ tough electric and Tanya Richardson’s solid yet nimble work on 5-string bass. Scottie Miller had a barroom swing on piano and brought the gravy on organ, while Samantha Banks drove the ensemble ever higher with her forceful drumming.

But beyond the skill and power of the musicians lay another secret to this band’s success on the Monterey stage: the total joy that Foster takes in the music. Watch as she plants her feet, arches her back and belts out with a vast holler, or the way she grins and dances as her bandmates solo; how she revels in it all, and it’s easy to see how swept away she is. This is her entertainment as much as ours, and it’s impossible not to get caught up in the spirit.

Midway through the set, Foster channeled all of that power and soul into a feminist affirmation of indomitable strength and resolution in “Remarkable Woman,” adapted from a Maya Angelou poem. Later, “Real Love” took a simple reggae beat to higher and higher levels, guitars and organ merging into a hypnotic swirl. In the end, though, this set was not about individual moments or tunes. It was about Ruthie Foster, who reached way, way down, tapped into something deep and spiritual, and emerged in utter triumph.

Filed Under: MJF/52 - 2009 • Monterey Jazz Festival

Tags: Hadden Sayers, Monterey, Ruthie Foster, Samantha Banks, Scottie Miller, Tanya Richardson