'TAKE A RISK ," Ledisi exhorted the sold-out Bimbo's crowd as she wrapped her luminous, multioctave pipes around "Take Time." The Oakland diva saved the jazz-imbued number from her debut CD, Soulsinger – released locally three years ago and just picked up for national consumption in remixed, slightly expanded form by Tommy Boy Distribution – for the conclusion of a 90-minute performance that was in many ways as breathtaking as the one soul great Donny Hathaway gave at the cavernous club back in '71. Strutting the stage in a tattered, ankle-length faded blue jean skirt that was split up the front to mid thigh and a long-sleeve black blouse with a low neckline highlighting ample cleavage, Ledisi effortlessly alternated between scat and words of encouragement delivered with the urgency of a Pentecostal shouter on "Take Time." "Everything's gonna be all right; everything's gonna work out fine," the New Orleans native cried out over the loping grooves of her four-piece band, Anibade, and the churchy harmonies of her two backup vocalists.

Ledisi, who dedicated the tune to the working people in the audience, is taking quite a risk professionally at the moment. Until recently she was perhaps the hardest-working woman in Bay Area show business. But in January she ended an 11-year stint as a cast member in Beach Blanket Babylon. And in April she put her long-term weekly gigs at Bruno's and Cafe du Nord on hold. The Bimbo's show – her highest-profile Bay Area engagement yet as a headliner – marked the beginning of a national tour hooked up by the prestigious Monterey Peninsula Artists that will take her to New York, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and other cities.

Ledisi no doubt is counting on her upcoming tour to broaden the groundswell she's developed locally over the past several years through her effervescent performances. Much like those of Rachelle Ferrell, the awesomely innovative Philadelphia R&B-jazz vocalist to whom Ledisi has been compared, her recordings only hint at the emotionally transformative power of experiencing her in person. "I gotta whole lotta pain in my soul," she sang early on, but before the show had ended, she and the audience seemed to be feeling none.

Although the words and setting were secular, Ledisi and the effusive Bimbo's crowd interacted as a preacher and congregation might on an especially spirited Sunday. With little or no prompting, the audience often joined in on songs as a mass choir against which Ledisi wove playfully rhythmic improvisations filled with wondrous shifts of register and seemingly limitless inflections that ranged from open chest tones to raspy head tones. The emotional impact of such interaction, particularly during "Free Again," proved cathartic – for performer and audience – which, of course, long has been the test of a true soul singer.