Experience: Jill Scott 826+

Disc 1
1	Show Intro (Alright Man, It's Time for You to Move) 1:33
2	A Long Walk (Groove) 6:18
3	Love Rain (Suite) 12:30
4	Slowly Surely 3:50
5	One Is the Magic # Redux 6:19
6	Do You Remember 8:40
7	Gettin' in the Way 7:42
8	It's Love 7:36
9	The Way 8:26
10	Fatback Taffy 2:15
11	He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat) (Movements I, II & III) 9:02
Disc 2
1	Free (Prelude) 1:31
2	Gotta Get Up (Another Day) 4:58
3	One Time 3:55
4	Sweet Justice 5:20
5	High Post Brotha / Common 11:02
6	Gimme 3:41
7	Be Ready 3:33
8	Gotta Get Up (Another Day) Minnie Version 3:13
9	Free (Epilogue) 16:08

Barnes & Noble

Thought her debut answered the question Who Is Jill Scott? Well, think again, or better yet, listen to this two-disc set of live and previously unreleased material to get a more vivid picture of the Philadelphia fox's prodigious talent. While Scott's first album set her poetic lyrics atop smooth-jazz and hip-hop grooves, maximizing her literate wit and earthy, round-the-way soul, it's Experience: Jill Scott 826+ that delivers the rill Jill: that is, mountain-moving vocals, rough 'n' ready phrasing, and a preacher-woman's command of her audience -- in this case a lovestruck hometown crowd on August 26, 2001, and a similarly dizzy populace in Washington, D.C., the night before. The live disc finds Scott sailing through a buoyant rendition of most of the songs on her debut, with her nine-piece band, Fatback Taffy, stretching out the arrangements and vamping in time-honored chitlin'-circuit style. The sure musical foundation gives Scott the room she needs to sink into her lyrics, in some instances repeating them two or three times to drive her point home. Likewise, the new material presented on the "+" disc is equally engaging, if less cohesive -- running the gamut from the explicit yet riveting 11-minute poem "Thickness" to the 9-5ers' anthem "Gotta Get Up," a collaboration with U.K. drum 'n' bass lords 4Hero (sounds like a castoff from their excellent Four Pages album). The sum is staggering: Possessed of glorious voice, keen intellect, vivacious showmanship, and unearthly charisma, Scott seems worthy of all the praise. In this case, you best believe the hype. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

What you think of Jill Scott's second album, Experience: Jill Scott 826+, is going to depend on how you define the two-hour, double-disc set. Is it, as its title suggests, a live album (recorded mostly on August 26, 2001, in Washington, D.C., hence the "826") plus a bonus disc containing some new studio tracks? Or is it a new studio album with a live disc tacked on? There aren't many artists who can justify the release of a live album after releasing only one studio album, especially when the live album consists almost entirely of material from that one album. The draw here, however, is Scott herself. A performing poet-turned-singer, she clearly knows how to please an audience, and the Washingtonians seem primed, frequently singing along to her songs without prompting and cheering many aspects of the show that can't be appreciated on a mere audio recording of it. If Scott's debut disc found her still in transition from the spoken word to the sung song, she has long since made that shift, and the album is full of vocal pyrotechnics, though, as she herself acknowledges, she talks a lot, even coming off like a standup comic in her defense of her song "Gettin' in the Way." The conceptual unity that tied these songs together on Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1 is missing here, but there's no denying Scott's effectiveness as a performer. The "+" disc, however, sounds like a collection of demos for her next album rather than a stand-alone document, even before the extended hidden tracks at the end present alternate versions. (Don't believe the one-minute-and-48-second time listed for the last track; it really runs over 16 minutes.) So, let's call this a satisfying live album with some bonus tracks, a good seasonal stocking-stuffer. William Ruhlmann

Vibe

Scott's new double disc -- 11 tracks recorded live at Washington, D.C.'s historic Constitution Hall, plus 10 new bonus songs -- invokes warmth from the get-go. Considering how hollow most performances sound these days, it's heartening to hear an artist willing to forge deep connections with her fans. Sylvia W. Chan