Nothing stood in between Jilly and Philly during Jill Scott’s four-night stand at the Met
Scott played the third of her four shows on North Broad Street on Monday in a show where no phones were allowed. She's back for one more date on her "To Whom This May Concern" tour on Wednesday.
No texting, no photos, no distractions. With mobile devices locked away in Yondr pouches, Jill Scott’s four-night stand at the Met Philly is a phone-free experience.
In her run of sold out shows at the Broad Street opera house that kicked off last Friday and — with a couple of days off in between — finishes off on Wednesday night, there’s no intermediary technology to separate Jilly from Philly.
Which really is “The Way” — the title of one of her signature hits, from her 2000 debut Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1 — it should be.
When it comes to building community, Scott is up there with the best. Her staunchly loyal following has lived through trials and tribulations with the singer-songwriter-poet-rapper-and-actress from just ‘round the way at 23rd and Lehigh in North Philly for a quarter-century.
At Monday night’s 2-hour, 23-song show, that bond was evident from the get go.
Following an opening set by Camden trumpeter and bandleader Arnetta Johnson, who is also scheduled to perform on Wednesday, Scott opened with five straight tracks from To Whom This May Concern, her sixth album which is her first in 11 years.
The first, “Dope S—," featured a prerecorded spoken word piece by poet Maha Adachi Earth that offered a taste of what was to come: “I been manifesting visions, oh chile, I been making them all come true … I make love, I be good, I do dope s—.”
That was followed by “Be Great,” a horn-fired banger co-written with Adam Blackstone and Trombone Shorty that featured video screen images of HBCU marching bands while sousaphonist Adam Smith II — who otherwise played guitar — prowled the stage.
That song threw down a challenge, to her audience, and to Scott herself: “All my life I want to do good, wanted to be good, to feel free of a history that made me cry,” she sang over a rugged funk groove.
Then, she gave it a second thought: “I’ma go ahead and be great. Why not?”
The new songs were warmly received by an audience that has grown up with Scott, 54, since she emerged from the turn of the century neo-soul scene at the Black Lily nights at Old City club the Five Spot.
The crowd was approximately 70% female, and as almost entirely Black as, for instance, the crowds at Connor Barwin’s Make The World Better concerts this past weekend at the Dell Music Center were almost entirely white.
To Whom is a jam-packed, musically diverse return from Scott, of which she is justifiably proud. She wove 14 of the album’s 19 tracks into her set.
“Liftin’ Me Up,” which included a snippet of Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” was one To Whom highlight.
Another was “Pay U on Tuesday,” in which Scott, who now lives outside of Nashville, Tenn., excoriated deadbeats — “You in jail again this weekend? You ain’t got your child support, for real? — in the style of 1920s blues belters like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey.
The look was completed with Scott cooling herself with a giant faux ostrich feather fan in the style Rainey favored, while the video screen was lit to look like a roadside juke joint.
Scott keeps up a lively, theatrical but heartfelt rapport with her people, about love, loss, self-care and finding the way to fulfillment. And the audience is happy to talk back.
At different junctures, the video screen depicted a house with boxes of troubles outside labeled “Self Doubt” and “Ugliness,” packed up to be disposed.
» READ MORE: How to have a perfect Philly Day, according to Jill Scott
On “The Math,” the screen showed algebraic equations while Scott sang about behavior that does not add up to equal self-esteem. “Do the math, Jill!,” a woman standing behind me enthusiastically shouted out. “Do the math!”
As well as Scott’s new music went over, the crowd pleasers came from the benchmark albums that kicked off her career. All night long, she was in excellent voice, not only singing, but rapping on “Norf Side” and “BPOTY.”
She had plenty of help from fans who rose from their seats and joined in full-throated unison on the neighborhood stroll of “A Long Walk” and tender “The Way” from her debut, and “Cross My Mind” and “Golden” from 2002’s Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds, Vol. 2.
Scott’s 10-member band is of the highest caliber. The three male back up vocalists known as the Pipes supported her ably throughout. While the star left for a costume change — from one blue gown to another, with an added ankle length poofy white coat added for the second half — the trio kept the vibe alive with a winning version of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.”
“This is live music!” Scott intermittently stated throughout the evening, reminding the room that nothing they were hearing was canned. “This is live music!”
She added, before “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat),” that “Philadelphia keeps music alive.” The city continues to produce the world’s best musicians, said the singer who grew up less than three miles away from the Met, on the 2300 block of Oakdale St. Other artists come to her shows to lure players away for their own bands, she added, “But they always come back.”
With that, she introduced pianist Eric Wortham II, who’s also toured with Adele and Jazmine Sullivan. He played a delicate intro to “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat),” which came to a close with Scott’s show-stopping operatic vocal flourishes.
Special praise at the end of the showed was reserved for bass player Duane “DW” Wright, with whom the singer shares music director duties. Scott was sexually frank throughout the evening, but she got down got and dirty during the finale when DW was spotlighted.
She called him a “whisperer” with a specialty in women’s sexuality. Wright laid down a deliciously provocative groove just to prove her right, and the audience leaned in, paying particularly close attention.
Jill Scott with Arnetta Johnson and Freebird at the Met Philly, 858 N. Broad St., at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday July 29, themetphilly.com.
Set list for Jill Scott at the Met Philadelphia, July 27, 2026
“Dope S—“
“Be Great”
“Offdaback”
“Beautiful People”
“Liftin’ Me Up”
“A Long Walk”
“It’s Love”
“Disclaimer”
“Pay U on Tuesday”
“Gettin’ in the Way”
“Norf Side”
“BPOTY”
“Me 4”
“Cross My Mind”
“Don’t Play”
“Crown Royal”
“Lets Stay Together”
“Pressha”
“The Math”
“To B Honest”
“The Way”
“He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)”
Encore
“Golden”
