Ledisi, Raheem DeVaughn, Leela James
Majestic Theater
Dallas Texas
March 5, 2015

“This is The School of R&B; with me, Leela James and Raheem DeVaughn,” said a brilliantly-gowned Ledisi to the sold-out crowd at Majestic Theater last night. “It’s a good kind of nasty—-blues, spirituals, it goes all the way around. That’s why I like it.”

As the headliner and a full-blown show-stopper, Ledisi had fans co-signing her words and shouting ecstatically with her every note and scat. Her hour was stage was efficiently paced, full band versions and the acoustic spins on a full-range of hits (“Lose Control,” “Hate Me”) and a heartwrenching delivery of “Precious Lord” that reprised her Selma role as Mahalia Jackson and brought the house to a standing, stomping and cheering ovation.

Being serious about her craft didn’t keep Ledisi from cracking jokes and being provocative with fans: “Rock With You” was prefaced with some tongue-twisting scats and a proclamation of, “I feel like I’m Shug Avery up here and ready to tell Celie I’m ready to sang!” Her Jaheim duet, “Let’s Stay Together,” was playfully performed by Ledisi mocking Jaheim’s baritone and over-exaggerating her verses and “Like This” was accented with a knowing wiggle of the brows and hips (“I don’t want to spend time arguing when we could be doing it like this”). Ledisi closed out the evening with positivity, walking through the upper and lower levels while singing “”Pieces Of Me” and declared that “We women have got to support each other more!” *cough cough, Beyonce* “Alright” and “Bravo” wrapped up the set, with fans pumping fists and parroting the verses as she euphorically twirled and whipped around her cascading crown of locks.

Raheem DeVaughn mixed the passionate and the political, meeting the spotlight and instant screams while seated upon a golden throne and wearing a black crown that underscored his “Love King” persona. Demonstrating an enviable knowledge of the old school, the Washington DC native challenged fans into sing-alongs to various soul classics (Lenny Williams’ “Cause’ I Love You,” “Prince’s “Adore”) and segued a Curtis Mayfield verse into “Bulletproof” (“we can’t keep having our babies dying here in these streets!”), even grafting the Art of Noise’s “Moments In Love” into a backdrop for his early hit, “You.” Raheem’s displays of social consciousness, however, weren’t as frequent as the carnal aspects—he drove female fans into a frenzy with his buttery falsetto, bumping-and-grinding motions while lying on the stage and dirty-dancing with ladies in the front row as he sung—-what else? “Customer.” “I love you too Baby…” he told one fan who screamed his name from the balcony. “…touch yourself!”

With her kinetic energy and resonating, yet raspy vocals, R&B Divas’ L.A.’s Leela James also packed a lifetime’s worth of soul into her performances: if she wasn’t pouring out her heart into fan favorites like “Tell Me You Love Me,” “When You Love Somebody” and “Set Me Free,” she was inviting fans onstage to showboat along with her as she channeled classics like the Staple Singers’ “Let’s Do It Again.” Both she and DeVaughn also went straight to the merchandise tables to sign CDs and pose for photos after leaving the stage, grateful for all the support from their devoted fans and exemplifying why, indeed, ‘Indie is the new major.’