Since first opening its doors in January 2009, hundreds of illustrious artists have performed under the Howard Assembly Room’s magnificent barrel-vaulted ceiling, though there will not have been many whose pedigree is quite as impressive as that of Judith Hill.
The daughter of Japanese classical pianist Michiko Hill (née Yoshimura) and Los Angeles’ funk musician Robert Lee “Pee Wee” Hill, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Judith Hill has collaborated with many luminaries, including Stevie Wonder, Elton John, George Benson, Prince, and Michael Jackson.
In 2009, Judith Hill sang the wonderful duet, ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ with Michael Jackson on the film, This Is It. Prince then mentored her for two years and co-produced her 2015 debut album Back in Time at his Paisley Park studio in Minneapolis.
It would be perfectly understandable if Judith Hill were to become frustrated that her career is always framed in the context of her past creative contact with such pop royalty. She has, after all, released five successful solo albums, the last of which, Letters from a Black Widow, was released in 2024 to widespread critical acclaim. And if any further proof were needed, tonight’s performance affirms that Hill is a hugely talented artist in her very own right.
“Sometimes you gotta light that match,” Judith Hill tells us. “Pour on some gasoline. And burn it up.” She is here in Leeds on the third and final date of the English leg of her tour of the UK and Europe and is three songs into an already incendiary set before offering us this sage advice. Hill and the three other members of her band – bass, drums, and keys – then proceed to lay waste to ‘Burn It All.’
Judith Hill has never played in this West Yorkshire city before and clearly intends to leave an impression. She opens on piano with ‘Wanderer’ – from her 2021 album, Baby, I’m Hollywood! – before shifting to electric guitar for ‘The Pepper Club’ from her second album, Golden Child.
By then Judith Hill has already shown her versatility, embracing funk, jazz-fusion, soul, and R&B as she dives deep into her back catalogue. She hasn’t yet gone anywhere near Letters from a Black Widow but does so next when she lays down a dirty rock guitar riff for ‘Flame’ from that record. And this is all before we have even spoken about that voice. It is an incredible force of nature, one that just suspends disbelief as it hangs in the air with such defiance and a decibel-defying volume all of its own.
‘Angel in the Dark’ – the final track on Back in Time – concludes the first half of the show. A short intermission follows during which Hill must surely draw breath such is the energy she has already expended. But there is to be no letting up after the break as the four musicians launch straight into ‘Give Your Love to Someone Else,’ with Hill’s voice once more on fire as she blazes through the blues.
A supremely emotive ‘Dame De La Lumière’ follows before ‘Fire’ by 70’s American funk band Ohio Players is given the full Hill treatment. Is there anything she cannot do? Well, she is certainly not scared to expose her more tender, vulnerable side as she returns once more to Letters from a Black Widow with the poignant ‘More Than Love’ ahead of the heavyweight finale of ‘Cry, Cry, Cry’ where the intensity is dialled up even higher to skyscraper levels. It is potent, life-affirming stuff.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos from Judith Hill at Howard Assembly Room in Leeds
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