Bilal at Underground Arts: Jazzy, passionate, and cohesive

On Thursday, when Red Bull Sound Select brought Bilal to Underground Arts with fellow soul locals Son Little and Kate Faust on the bill, the Germantowner promoted his dramatic, recent release, In Another Life, which toys with futurist funk, free jazz, Low-era Bowie touches, and late-'60s/early-'70s soul.

Coming on after 11 p.m., Bilal and his quintet engaged the crowd immediately. An organ's whir and a snarling guitar accompanied him on "Love Child." "I see your mind's made up / I see you've had enough," he howled before his background vocalists kicked in with a choral sound that could have come from Hair.

"Sometimes" found Bilal singing with grit and grace. In the audience-participation tune "Levels," hand-clapped rhythms enhanced an already-pulsating R&B vibe that, combined with Bilal's Bowie-esque warble, made for something epic and theatrical.

There are always tired comparisons to be made with Prince - the out-of-nowhere, high-pitch screams, the fired-up psychedelic guitar licks. Yet with Bilal, any resemblance to Prince is fascinating and odd - for example, the baroque ballad "Astray," which sounded like a Sign o' the Times outtake.

Bilal crab-walked across the stage and went into a holy speaking-in-tongues reverie on the bubbling "Satellites." That overheated preacher's vibe carried on to the brash "Money Over Love" and its finer-things-diamond-rings chatter, but it cooled sufficiently for Bilal to capture the summery feel and poppy soul of "Back to Love," a longtime crowd favorite.

Throughout his 90-minute set, the singer was a dervish, a man possessed. Between the free, jazzy riffs he sang and the wild improvisations of his band, there was cohesion and connection. Amazing.

As smoky singer and as guitarist, Philly's Son Little was more subdued and subtle in his sound than Bilal, yet no less passionate in his rendering of knee-slapping, sexy psychedelia ("The River") and slow, stewing, harmonium-driven blues ("Joy"). With noir doo-wop touches, swooping bass sounds, and clamshell percussion, Little came across, elegantly, like Sam Cooke in space.

As for Kate Faust, her opening electro-pulsing set was even moodier and murkier than Little's, yet with the quirkiness of Björk (at her most relaxed) and a sensual rhythm to go with the Philly singer's deep voice and high yelps on tunes such as "In Bloom."