Live In Paris + [CD/DVD Combo] [Deluxe Edition] (Includes DVD)

The DVD includes bonus material of performances from her four night SRO concerts at the House Of Blues in Los Angeles, CA and a wonderful documentary featuring her fans in Paris. The LIVE IN PARIS+ DVD features an extraordinary 5.1 audio mix and Hi-Def footage. A Deluxe Edition is also available that includes the complete DVD and an audio CD of the LIVE IN PARIS concert.

In the final days of Jill Scott's European tour in support of 2004's Beautifully Human -- her No. 1-charting R&B follow-up to Who Is Jill Scott? -- the Philly-bred neo-soul diva had an idea -- an improvisation worthy of her jazz-inflected stage show -- to record that fine-honed, red-hot stage show at a sold-out venue in Paris with only two days' notice.

In the next 48 hours, as Jill enjoyed the Christmastime ambiance of Paris, recording equipment and video cameras assembled at Elysee Montmartre, a legendary venue tucked in the narrow bohemian avenues of northern Paris' most famous district.

The resulting magic captured over those two nights has surfaced after three years of shelf-sitting and post-production mixing, editing, tuning and tweaking, in the form of the DVD (and bonus audio-only CD) Jill Scott Live in Paris.

Featuring live versions of tracks from her first two studio albums, the end-of-tour form of Scott and her backing band, Fat Back Taffy, was aching to be preserved for posterity. The chemistry between her and her nimble ensemble of keyboards, drums, guitar and bass, two-man horn section and male-female duo of background singers -- is evident from get-go ("The Way"). By the fourth track into the DVD, the re-worked and expanded 13-minute centerpiece "Golden" (a Top 40 R&B hit in 2004), that chemistry is nothing short of spine-tingling, jaw-dropping.

Describing herself to the sold-out crowd of Parisians from the stage, as an "artist" not an "entertainer" ("There's no dancers [up here]... it's just voices and musicians," she says) she pours herself into her self-expression, taking risks with her musical improv and emotional intimacy, feeding off the rapt audience and connecting on every level with her diverse assemblage of adoring fans.

The package also includes bonus live footage of Scott performing more recent tracks (singles from 2007's Top 5 Billboard album The Real Thing) at the House of Blues in Los Angeles.

In total, the DVD features over 100 minutes of Jill Scott in concert on two continents supporting two different top-selling albums, and also offers fans a look at the artist as a younger woman, mingling with her fans in Paris and discovering herself in Europe's greatest city.

As alive and serendipitous as Paris itself, Jill Scott Live in Paris shows this artist not only on top of the world, but on top of her game -- intimate, undeterred, and electric. Philly soul burning from the stage of the racially eclectic, espresso-fueled Montmartre.

By Todd Spencer