LIVE: Ester Rada @ WAMC-FM’s The Linda, 6/26/14

Photographs by Andrzej Pilarczyk

Twenty-something Ester Rada is a thoroughly captivating Israeli singer-songwriter of Ethiopian heritage who made her Nippertown debut last month at WAMC-FM’s Performing Arts Studio, The Linda in Albany in support of her recently released self-titled debut album.

And the lucky audience was enveloped in a marvelous cross-cultural hybrid of jazz, soul, funk and more, as Rada and her band evoked echoes of such jazz greats as Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald, as well as more contemporary song stylists as Eryka Badu and Lauren Hill.