'I LEFT MY smell on you and my lovin' too," soul singer-songwriter Sakai oozed in a breathy mezzo near the onset of a sold-out Monday-night gig at Yoshi's. Stylishly color-coordinated in dark gray slacks, a pink top protruding from beneath a black satin coat, and a black watch cap, the Oakland-bred, San Francisco-based vocalist swayed sensuously in time to her nine-member band's tight mid-tempo funk groove. The song, "I Like" – written by Sakai and producer Kevin "Darkside" Smith, as are most of the other tracks on her exquisite debut CD, Dream Big, on Smith's Family Tree Records – got a jazzier treatment from the live band than it did on the recorded version, which sports Smith's cleverly syncopated drum programming and Dwayne Wiggins's rippling rhythm guitar.

Sakai carried herself like a seasoned pro during the 80-minute performance, playfully interacting with the instrumentalists and using her pliant multi-octave pipes to blend with and hover above her three background singers' rich, churchy harmonies. At times she punched the air with her fist to drive home lyrics, as when she angrily wailed, "I don't want your pity / I don't want your cash / I just want my half" during the hard-socking "1/2."

Sakai scatted on occasion and wordlessly sailed in high, pitch-perfect sustains – at one point waving the microphone in front of her face to create volume warps – but her phrasing was surprisingly free of the syllable-splitting melismata generally associated with the art of soul singing – more Patti Austin than Patti LaBelle, to use a couple old-school references. Though she has chops to die for, there were no gratuitous displays of technique. Instead, she used her mouth in the service of her messages of strong, self-assured womanhood.

The Yoshi's date was only the second performance Sakai has done with her band since the release last summer of Dream Big. Her bio is short on dates and other details, but her credits as a background singer for Narada Michael Walden and other producers are most impressive – they include recordings with Celine Dion and Aretha Franklin as well as live performances with Austin and Tramaine Hawkins. The large turnout at Yoshi's was due in part to a growing fan base generated by airplay locally on noncommercial FM stations KPOO and KALX and nationally on satellite XM Radio. And then there were members of the Friends of Faith, a breast cancer awareness nonprofit founded by the late KTVU, channel 2, reporter Faith Fancher. Part of the proceeds from the show benefited the organization.

The strongest song of the night – and on the CD – was "Leap of Faith," which Sakai composed for Fancher and performed at the broadcaster's 50th birthday celebration. (Fancher died in October 2003 at age 53 after a long, very public battle with breast cancer.) It's one of those perfect, quasi-religious inspirational pop ballads – akin to R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" and Fantasia's "I Believe" – that rock critics loathe but middle-class Americans, particularly the sentimental sort, can't seem to get enough of. "I'm gonna take a leap of faith / I'm gonna give one more try / I'll close my eyes and trust the wind / I know I have the strength to fly," she sang in sumptuously rounded tones, the harmony singers adding choirlike response to her soaring call. Such songs, however, are currently out of favor with commercial radio, as evidenced by the fact that Fantasia's "I Believe" received very little airplay, despite being the top-selling CD single of 2004. Fantasia, of course, managed to overcome the radio freeze because she has Simon Fuller of American Idol and Clive Davis of J Records behind her. Sakai, in contrast, is with a fledgling San Francisco indie label and will need more than faith to move the corporate media mountains standing in her path.

Before the show had ended, Sakai appealed to members of the crowd to phone KBLX and other Bay Area radio stations and request they play "I Like." "They have it," she pointed out. As a recording artist and as a live performer, Sakai is a vocalist of the first order. She's the latest in a long line of great Bay Area soul women, including Jeanie Tracy, Rosie Gaines, Nikita Germaine, and Ledisi, who have been largely ignored by commercial radio yet have managed to draw adoring fans to their shows on the strength of their considerable talents. Sakai performs Mon/14, Kimball's East, Emeryville. (510) 658-2555. (Lee Hildebrand)