This tour celebrates 25 years of Gray’s On How Life Is album, a genuinely distinctive slice of R&B whose smash single, “I Try,” was impossible to avoid around the turn of the century. It sold many millions of albums and then the pop public moved on. And then a funny thing happened: She started making really interesting records that toed the line between jazz and R&B, edging over into the former, and took full advantage of her singular voice. And that instrument is still a wonder. – Joe Gross
