Entertainment

Lauryn Hill mesmerising at Love Supreme Jazz Festival

The British jazz festival saw old and new talent come together in perfect harmony.
The British jazz festival saw old and new talent come together in perfect harmony. The British jazz festival saw old and new talent come together in perfect harmony.

Lauryn Hill cast aside memories of her troubled Glastonbury show with a mesmerising and emotional closing slot at Love Supreme Jazz Festival.

Arriving on stage half an hour late, the former Fugees singer told the huge East Sussex crowd “you’re making me emotional” before launching into a volley of hits from her 20-year-old album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill.

There was a treat too when 10-year-old dancer Princess K followed her Pyramid Stage performance with Stormzy by joining Hill on stage for the joyous Doo Wop (That Thing).

Days earlier, the youngster had recounted on Good Morning Britain how she had missed the opportunity to meet her hero at Glastonbury because a fly went in her eye as she walked past.

Hill reworked many of the songs from her classic album, infusing jazz and gospel into the likes of Forgive Them Father and Andy Williams cover Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.

However, the sound issues that plagued her Worthy Farm show were not in evidence and a highly charged vocal performance throughout had the crowd rapt.

Elsewhere, the line-up at a sun-soaked weekend was dominated by London’s thrilling jazz revival.

Tenderlonious and Kamaal Williams commanded massive audiences, while one of the highlights of the festival saw singer Asheber give a powerful Grenfell Tower tribute as he fronted the end of Joe Armon-Jones’s dance-filled set.

It has been a while since British jazz has felt so urgent and relevant, and the excitement was apparent in the crowds young and old grooving to the nation’s new wave of talent.