Tiny Desk Concert Breakdown: Jhene Aiko Shines

“This is my studio, and these are my instruments. It took me a while to understand that one of my purposes as an artist is to help aid people in the healing process. And so I’ve just been studying how sound can be a form of healing, and I’m incorporating these healing instruments into the music so that I can really put that intention into my music to heal.”

Jhené Aiko Efuru Chilombo, known as Jhené Aiko, spoke these words in April of 2019 on an episode of Elle.com’s “Waking up With,” before the release of her third studio album, “Chilombo,” in 2020. In the episode with Elle, Aiko plays a crystal singing bowl in the key of C, explaining that the sound helps balance the root chakra, and that one can only play it if they are of pure heart.

This is the first sound we hear at the beginning of Aiko’s Tiny Desk home concert, hosted by NPR, before the video reveals Aiko in a stunning blue gown, barefoot, surrounded by a variety of instruments. Drawing circles at the edges of the singing bowls, she prompts us to listen, drawing our auditory attention to the ethereal tone (like one would tell an audience to quiet down). She sings as if beginning a tale: one of a woman born from a Lotus, whose heart was broken but has now “found her focus,” lines from the introductory song to “Chilombo.”

Aiko then takes us on a trip down memory lane, singing “Stranger” and “Do Better Blues,” songs from her 2011 Sailing Soul(s) mixtape. She closes her eyes often, singing of the turmoils of love. Her body language reflects this, where, in “Do Better Blues,” she holds out three of her fingers, as if counting: “In a relationship I want three things: eyes that won’t die, lips that won’t lie, love that won’t die.”

Aiko performs other songs from her older discography as well, including 2014’s “To Love & Die” and 2011’s “W.A.Y.S.” As she returns to her latest album, she weaves together two songs, “Born Tired” and “Down Again,” singing, “I’m in the midst of an ascension now / Lifted and I’m driftin’ on a cloud / Never comin’ down again, down again / Never comin’ down again, never doubt again.” This marks a shift, one that symbolizes Aiko’s growth and understanding of herself.

It is worth taking note of the variety of percussion revealed to us. Creating a radiant atmosphere, the percussion adds twinkling touches and subtle undertones to Aiko’s alluring vocals. From a harp to the keys, to chimes and Aiko’s four singing bowls, the concert feels like a spiritual haven, one that is projected from our screens at home to our spaces. This transcendent effect is further heightened as Aiko serenades us with “Summer 2020,” reflecting, despite how “times are changing, [and] strangers [are] getting stranger,” she’ll “take some rain with [her] sunshine,” urging us to do the same and “Take it easy, simple like summertime.” She smiles wholeheartedly, as if embracing the format of her performance, calling her concert, “Quarantine Edition.”

Surprisingly, Aiko ends on yet another 2011 song, perhaps as an acknowledgement to her most faithful fans, performing “Eternal Sunshine.” Instead of going backwards in time, however, the end of the concert feels as if she has brought us along on her own spiritual and romantic journey. Aiko rocks and snaps with the beats, gesturing with her hands as if cultivating her aura while simultaneously inviting us to listen intimately, the way she would to a friend. From “Eternal Sunshine,” she sings: “Is it strange for me to say that if I were to die today / There's not a thing that I would change, I've lived well / Maybe I have made mistakes and been through my fair share of pain / But all in all, it's been okay, I've lived well,” as if thanking us for listening and reflecting on what she is grateful for. She sings of “all of the good things” and “only the good things,” and ends the concert with the singing bowls once more, having both fostered hope by reminding us to stay grounded and transported us into a land of magic and auditory freedom.