This soulful double-bill features two singers who have created astonishing new music by embracing the traditions on which they were raised. With a luxuriant voice redolent of the red soil that sustained her growing up in Georgia, Lizz Wright sanctifies every song she sings. While the 32-year-old Brooklyn resident first gained attention delivering Swing Era standards associated with Billie Holiday, she’s continued in recent years as a singer/songwriter whose music eludes definition. Her latest Verve album Fellowship is a gospel-drenched collaboration with another vocal powerhouse, Toshi Reagan, and Wright spent much of the last year touring with Dianne Reeves and Angelique Kidjo in a tribute to Miriam Makeba, Abbey Lincoln and Odetta.

Ethiopian-born San Francisco singer and songwriter Meklit Hadero returns to SFJAZZ following her triumphant sold-out show last fall. Hadero became a sensation with the release of her 2010 debut On A Day Like This, an enchanting album featuring her delicately luminous original songs and traditional Amharic melodies. But she’s also right at home belting out a version of James Brown’s “Cold Sweat.” Whether performing with her transfixing world-trance band Nefasha Ayer, grooving with classic R&B belter Quinn Deveaux, or breaking down walls with her new African hip-hop project CopperWire, Hadero cuts a regal figure as an emerging queen of soul.