![]() With shades of Donny Hathaway and Al Green, he is both gruff and vulnerable, hardened and naïve. But over three albums (including his second release, “The Phoenix,” which went gold), he has cultivated a loyal following outside the mainstream. A socially minded R&B singer, he is an anomaly. Jennings would these largely unapologetic odes to the street life constitute uplift. ![]() His show, he said, was “for all y’all who think positivity ain’t out of style.” Transitioning to “Warriors,” from his recent CD “Lyfe Change” “If we die before our time/Tell ’em it was glorious/We were warriors” he thanked the crowd. “Stick Up Kid” was one of its great songs, a dark chronicle of misspent youth, but the version he proceeded to deliver was vibrant and energetic in places, the crowd drowned him out completely in singalong, as if it were a particularly inspirational gospel number. A few minutes into his set at the Apollo Theater on Friday night, Lyfe Jennings stopped his band and said, “Let’s take ’em back to 19” dramatic pause “Hold up, I was in prison.” It was 2004 he was going for, the year when he released his often excellent platinum-selling debut album, “Lyfe 268-192” (Columbia), two years after a long stretch behind bars.
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