Sometimes a great voice is not enough.  Sometimes going through the motions does not guarantee a great performance.  Jazmine Sullivan has an outstanding voice and she went through the motions, however her show at London’s Jazz Cafe on Thursday night was a little underwhelming.

Jazmine Sullivan’s voice is amazing, strong and gravely, and just oozes personality.  One of the reasons her debut album, Fearless, stood out was because of this mix of forceful soul singing over tight R&B beats.

Starting her set gone 10pm (about 40 mins after the warm-up finished) she kicked-off with Bust Ya Windows and it got the firing response it deserved, things fizzled afterwards.  She belted out the album’s highlights with her superior voice, yet it felt like they didn’t really matter.  Her speeches in-between songs were not always relevant and very time consuming; at one point she told us London is her ‘spiritual home’… really????

Two covers, Kayne West’s Heartless and Seal’s Kiss From A Rose were nice surprises (the latter being pretty darn good).  When she finished with Need U Bad people headed straight for the exit with no prolonged cheer or call for an encore (extremely unusual for the Jazz Cafe) and I joined them.  This was definitely a show for her biggest fans.

Soulside Funk