"Gwen Sampé is, without any doubt, a living legend." • Roland Torres, Le Grand BaZART
— Helen Mayhew, Jazz FM, London
With the acrobatics that the singer performed on that evening, memories were evoked of jazz greats Bobby McFerrin and Lauren Newton. Sampé played with her voice as if it were an instrument which has a range covering a thousand tones of colour and a sheer boundless register. 'Emotional,' the word has an unpleasant ring to it in this modern day, but it is of course so important because real experiences mirror themselves in it. And in this sense an emotional and even ecstatic effect was created by the singing of this artist from Houston, Texas, a true 'Orpheus', whose appearance must be rated as the high point of the festival.
— Christopher Schultz, Lüdinghausen Festival
— Jonathan Abbott, Jazz Express, London
THE RESONANCE OF SUFFERING
Gwendolyn Sampé Ensures a Jazz Club Atmosphere at the Castle
Had it not been for the lack of cigar smoke, the quiet clink of glasses and an undercurrent of whispering, the main hall of the Burg Lüdinghausen could, for a short while, have been a match for any trendy jazz cellar; that is, of course, with any where inspired talents are to be heard. For what was laconically given the title 'Spirituals and Jazz' in the programme of the international festival 'Orpheus '91,' proved to be a most professional excursion into the realms which were sometimes far from 'classical.'
Gwendolyn Sampé is the name of the frenetic, celebrated star of this evening who, with her songs (sometimes blues, sometimes ragtime), made it easy to forget in which august surroundings one was actually sitting.
With the neck-breaking acrobatics which the singer performed on that evening, memories were evoked of jazz greats such as Bobby McFerrin and Lauren Newton. Sampé played with her voice as if it were an instrument which has a range covering a thousand tones of colour and a sheer boundless register.
It was, however, not so much the jazz club atmosphere which gave this unusual 'Orpheus' evening the seal of approval; no big bands, no combos! Only Daniel Thorstensson (piano) and Sigurdur Halldorsson (E-bass and cello) who produced vast still tones or just complete silence. For with regard to that which calls itself 'spiritual,' Sampé goes back to its very roots, the unaccompanied song/singing of a group. Sampé brushed aside European commerciality of the 'spirituals', regardless of the wrong way in which they have been arranged, reciting in song, texts which are imbued with memories of those who are unjustly oppressed and murdered, of the history of control- and not only of blacks. There are experiences of suffering testified in the bible, as well as the hope which nameless people relate through. This contains nothing sentimental, but rather the greatest reality, and ever more when Sampé, in a self-created contribution, strikes up a monody which uses people to whom she is close, as content.
Traditional-the word has an unpleasant ring to it in this modern day, but it is of course so important because real experiences mirror themselves in it. And in this sense an emotional and even ecstatic effect was created by the singing of the artist from Houston, Texas, a true 'Orpheus', whose appearance must be rated as the high point of the festival.
With regard to such an experience, enthusiastic applause is perhaps inadequate, but lacking other alternatives, may well be the only possible expression of empathy on behalf of the audience in the sold-out hall of the Burg Lüdinghausen.
— Christopher Schultz, Im Walde, 12 June 1991