The Badass & The Beautiful

Ms. Lisa Fischer

Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 8:00 PM at SOPAC

At this intimate performance Ms. Lisa Fischer will be accompanied by Taylor Eigsti on piano, highlighting the beauty of her extraordinary voice.

“Lisa Fischer in concert is addictive. Every performance is so enriching, so exciting, so transcendent that you want more. With remarkable vocal range and vocabulary, Fischer can sing Soul, Jazz, Rock, Gospel, Pop, Folk and Classical with equal facility and authority. She often mixes styles in the same song, sometimes in the same vocal line. Her approach tends to be intimate, artful and almost meditative, accompanied by her interpretive dancing, but she also can cut loose and funk with fierceness and Rock with abandon.” (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Her music is an organic gumbo of progressive Rock, psychedelic Soul and African, Middle Eastern, Caribbean rhythms and Classical influences. After decades of bringing raw Soul to the stage for The Rolling Stones, Sting, Tina Turner and Nine Inch Nails, Lisa is emerging as the most inventive and heartfelt interpreter of classic Rock songs working today.

Lisa won her first Grammy Award for “How Can I Ease The Pain,” from her 1991 album So Intense. With a hit song on the radio and a Grammy Award win, a major solo tour seemed inevitable, but Lisa was on the road, backing either her beloved mentor Luther Vandross or The Rolling Stones. Lisa was a legend in the music industry; everybody loved her sound. But she never put her own band together, never toured under her own name. Now, after years of supporting other artists, electrifying the world’s largest arenas with the power of her voice, Ms. Lisa Fischer has finally taken center stage.

The Oscar-winning 2013 documentary Twenty Feet From Stardom changed the course of Lisa’s musical journey. Featuring clips of Lisa’s legendary duet with Mick Jagger on “Gimme Shelter” and glowing testimonials from famous colleagues, the film showcased her virtuosity and vulnerability, earned her a second Grammy Award and left audiences eager to see and hear more. “Ms. Fischer has become the unexpected star of Mr. Neville’s film,” said The New York Times.

Ms. Lisa Fischer and her band, Grand Baton, first set out on tour in 2014, with no product to sell, no recordings or video to help book or promote shows, no t-shirts. Despite all that, based on Lisa’s reputation alone, they were invited to play in clubs, at the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals and at concert halls all over the globe, winning accolades from critics, devotion from fans and – always – invitations to return, soon.

Now, Lisa is exploring new territory. She is featured on new projects by Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Billy Childs and recently collaborated with the Alonzo LINES ballet.

New York-based pianist and composer Taylor Eigsti started playing the piano when he was four years old. Growing up in Menlo Park, California, Eigsti was quickly labeled a prodigy, and has since released seven albums as a bandleader, in addition to appearing on over 50 albums as a sideman. Eigsti has garnered multiple individual Grammy Award nominations over the years for his work as a recording artist and composer, including Best Instrumental Composition, and Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. Recently, Eigsti also co-wrote a featured composition with Don Cheadle for the 2017 Grammy  Award-winning soundtrack to the motion picture “Miles Ahead.”