Nikka Costa

Years before British soul divas like Adele and the late Amy Winehouse were scoring chart success and critical accolades for making music that hearkened back to the classic era of '60s and '70s R&B, American funk siren Nikka Costa was laying the foundation for what some might term a renaissance in vintage sounds. As the daughter of successful arranger/producer Don Costa, the singer grew up surrounded by music and meeting such influential artists as Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Sly Stone and Sammy Davis Jr. in her father's studio.

Singing professionally and recording albums since a early age -- she sang in front of 300,000 people opening for The Police in Chile at age 8 and had scored a #1 hits in Europe before she was 10 -- Costa would eventually develop her own gritty style of soul songwriting as a young adult. After first making noise with her mix of funk, soul and rock in Australia in the late '90s, Costa made her proper U.S. debut with her incendiary album Everybody Got Their Something which included the hit title track and the popular tune "Like a Feather." The effort also featured production work by Mark Ronson a full five years before he helmed Winehouse's smash recording Back to Black.

Though championed by the likes of Prince (who tabbed Costa to open for several of his O2 Arena shows in London in 2008) and Lenny Kravitz, Costa remains something of a cult phenomenon to loyal fans who flock to her explosive live performances. Her soul-drenched 2008 album Pebble to a Pearl  was recorded the old fashioned way -- live to tape in an analog studio with the musicians all playing in the same room. The collection spotlights the work of '70s-era funk legends like drummer James Gadson (Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters to name a few) and modern soul production maestros like James Poyser (Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Common, The Roots, Al Green) while offering up some of Costa's most dazzling songs yet.

The singer returns to the Bay Area to promote her latest effort PRO*WHOA! which takes Costa in a more modern electro-pop direction while still maintaining some of the gritty edges (particularly on the guitar-riff heavy single "Nylons In a Rip") that have always marked her recordings. 

Nikka Costa
Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 11-12, 9 p.m. $25
Red Devil Lounge