Brianna Coble peered out through the red spotlight to the small but energetic crowd at Cafe Nine on Tuesday night.
“Hi, I’m Brianna,” she said.
“Yes! Yes! Absolutely!” someone said from the audience.
Coble may have been soft-spoken at the microphone. But as soon as she started singing, her voice filled the room.
The Tuesday night bill at Cafe Nine had been put together by The Quest Presents, which has staged hip hop and R&B shows from Cafe Nine to the State House to Stella Blues for a few years. This latest bill, featuring Coble, Jarick Giles, and Chefren Gray (formerly Chef the Chef), exemplified the way The Quest keeps bringing new artists into the scene.
The Somerset, N.J.-based Coble came to the stage at State and Crown having just released an EP, Love Languages, that showcased her ability to write atmospheric, emotional material that still made people bob their heads. At Cafe Nine, she brought that material further to life, injecting it with passion and energy that brought her audience to her side at once. They cheered her through her verses, supporting her each time she took a breath.
“This is off my EP,” she announced, to introduce the song “Gifts.”
“What’s it called?” someone said from the crowd. She told them the title of the record.
“Where can we find it?” the audience member persisted.
The crowd gave a cheer that seemed double its size near the end of Coble’s set, while a call of “I love you!” rang above the applause.
“One more!” someone shouted.
“This is the last song, actually,” Coble said.
“What’s your name?”
She told the audience again.
“What’s your sign, what’s your sign?” someone else shouted. This drew a laugh.
“I’m a Libra,” she announced with a smile. It was occasion for another cheer.
Giles, currently a student at the University of New Haven, next took the stage with a powerful voice of his own. While Coble’s songwriting let her voice soar, Giles dove into a more complicated flow, keeping the microphone close to his mouth to regale the crowd with songs of love and desire, some from among his latest releases. As he prowled the stage with mic in hand, he built drama and tension, drawing the audience a little closer with every minute.
He told the audience that one song was from an EP he hadn’t released yet. It was called Waves in Motion, he said.
“Uh-huh,” an audience member said suggestively, as Giles charmed the people in the place one by one. It worked. Toward the end of his set, two folks in the middle got out their cellphones to make spotlights for him with their flashlights. When he was finished, Giles went from table to table, shaking hands with about half the audience their and expressing gratitude for them coming out to hear him.
After a short break, the New Haven-based Gray strode the stage, took the microphone in hand, and checked it, like an old pro.
“I don’t want to leave y’all wanting. I got work in the morning. So let’s get it,” he said.
Gray then hit the crowd with his own brand of hip hop, big-voiced and funny, big-hearted and unabashedly personal. As he poured energy from the stage, the audience responded in kind, leaping from their seats to gather in front of the stage without having to be asked. Gray was all smiles as he called out to friends and to the club itself, which he called his “boys and girls club.”
“This is where I work on my game,” he said.
Humor shot through his speech both ad libbed and prepared. “Now’s the time for self-reflection,” he said to introduce one number off his 2017 album Demonzzz. “This one is called ‘I Hate Me.’” Later in his set he called the back, asking the soundperson at the board to turn up his mix a little more. He wanted it loud. “It’s pretty sensual, pretty emotional,” he said.
Gray’s set ended with yet another round of big applause. He was beaming. “Have fun,” he said by way of closing. “I love each and every one of you.”