If there’s one universal truth about Jill Scott, it’s that she contains multitudes. It’s been a recurring revelation across her discography, dating back to her 2000 debut, “Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1,” which radiated warmth and introduced her as a raconteur who embraced the comforts of romance while pointedly analyzing its complexities. Each Scott album has invited something of a similar experience: a flip through her diary, a journey across the human experience as threaded through her vision.
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Not much has changed thematically for Scott, now 53, who approaches her sixth studio album, “To Whom This May Concern,” with the same bravado that’s come to define her. She’s at once brassy and contemplative on her first project in more than a decade, poring over the wreckage of her two divorces (“I married a bitch,” she sasses on “Me 4”) while finding love where and when she least expects it (“A Universe”). But Scott finds her surest footing in the music: “To Whom This May Concern” is, artistically, her most experimental album to date, a project that paints with wildly broad strokes and continuously returns on its investment.
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Scott pulls from all directions here — cocktail jazz, big band, cosmic R&B, even diva disco — recalling the scope and ambition of longtime associate Erykah Badu’s pair of “New Amerykah” albums. She enlists a staggering number of musicians across the set’s 19 tracks, including Om’Mas Keith, Ab-Soul, Camper and JID, to name a few. (In the lead-up to the release, Scott thanked each artist with an Instagram post, totaling nearly four dozen contributors.)
Yet it all feels distinctly Scott, who flits between her signature singing, spoken word and rapping, invoking her inner B-girl on the DJ Premier-produced “Norf Side” featuring Tierra Whack. Her voice is as powerful as ever, yet is deeper and more seasoned than on 2015’s “Woman,” carrying the wisdom of the years in her mezzo-soprano. As always, she uses it to great effect, floating like a feather before blowing hard on the climax of lead single “Beautiful People,” a call for creating community with “caring, sharing people.”
Scott is reverential about the notion of family (see 2004’s “Family Reunion”), and here she traces her lineage to its roots. On “Offdaback,” she name-checks members down her family tree and thanks everyone “who came through the backdoors,” referencing “Nina” and “Ella” (presumably Simone and Fitzgerald). She contemplates lofty notions of self-worth on the stormy “The Math,” and appreciates the beauty of existence on “Àse.” Scott has long been considered a poet-in-residence in modern R&B; on “To Whom This May Concern,” that designation holds strong.
But Scott knows when to turn it on and off, and it’s when Jilly from Philly takes over that the album cuts loose. “BPOTY” — or “biggest pimp of the year” — coasts on funkdafied guitar chugs and pattering drums in an ode to the song’s namesake. (It’s fitting that Too Short, no stranger to rapping about his pimping pursuits, provides a guest turn here.) “Don’t Play” should surprise no one who has heard Scott’s albums, and she sets the tone right from the start: “You just been humping me, shallowly, superficially.” Later, she goes full disco queen on “Right Here Right Now,” proclaiming, “I am love, I can’ take it / I might get weary, but I won’t break it.”
There’s a lot to take in on “To Whom This May Concern” — the duration may be its most challenging selling point — but that’s part of its charm. Scott is never one to skimp on the details; she tells you exactly how she feels and does it directly. That she maintains that sense of self while pushing her sound in bold new directions is a testament to why she’s still here, an ever-evolving artist who knows who she is.
