The Hot Summer Jazz Festival might be smoldering red this week, but color the Dakota Blue when Bettye Lavette takes the stage this week (June 21-23). Just five months since her Dakota debut, she returns to inject some heart-wrenching soul into our Minnesota Nice.

Lavette was raised on the blues in Detroit, where she recorded her first record at age 16. “My Man - He's A Lovin' Man” was quickly purchased by Atlantic Records and reissued as a big soul hit. Soon she was touring with James Brown and recorded another hit single, “Let Me Down Easy.” Through the 60s and 70s, Bettye Lavette made a number of highly regarded recordings, toured extensively, and had runs at a number of clubs including Smalls in New York. Then, for six years, she starred on Broadway opposite Cab Calloway in “Bubbling Brown Sugar.” In 1979, her recording of “Doin' The Best That I Can" became a disco hit. Lavette continued to tour and record through the 1980s and 1990s, appearing with Smokey Robinson on “Soul Train,” working in New Orleans and extensively in Europe. Despite her popularity abroad and critical acclaim, she was relatively unknown in the US until material recorded in the 1970s was finally released 20 years later (as “Souvenirs”), and her second full-length recording, “A Woman Like Me” (Blues Express), was released in early 2003.

Described in the New York Times as having “pure, magnificent soul: passion carried by an eloquent voice and exquisite timing,” she was the hit of last year’s Chicago Blues Festival. Said Chicago Tribune critic, Kevin McKeough, “Lavette sang in a raspy, sultry voice that resembled Tina Turner, filling her soul ballads with murmurs, growls and cries.” Recalling her January stint at the Dakota, Star Tribune critic Jon Bream noted, “She's old-school in sound and attitude, singing with her entire body, and without compromise.”

Be ready to feel as well as hear every note when Bettye Lavette returns to downtown Minneapolis for three nights of pure soul. Tickets at www.dakotacooks.com or (612) 332-1010.