Waiting for Lauryn

Lauryn Hill is set to take the stage at two European jazz festivals this summer, and I hope this is an indication that she's not only returning to the concert stage, but the recording booth as well.

According to Billboard.com, Hill will play the Stockholm Jazz Festival and Montreaux Jazz Festival. She's set to play a total of 10 European dates in all.

Though she has no appearances scheduled stateside, one can only hope!

She rose to fame as a member of the Fugees, but achieved solo stardom with her sole solo album, 1998's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. It won five Grammy Awards, topped year-end best of lists, and established for Hill a place in the pantheon of great artists.

Then it was pretty much lights out, as she started a family and had five children.

It must be a testament to her prodigious gifts that people are still interested. After all, when someone releases an album, there's never a promise that they'll release another. But there is an expectation. And with Hill, expectations had been great. Miseducation had become a cultural hallmark, like Carole King's Tapestry a generation before. With its mix of love songs ("Nothing Even Matters") to heartbreak ("I Used to Love Him") to testimony ("To Zion"), I was captured by the first note and hooked until the last second of the bonus songs.

I'm ready for an encore.

Photo: The cover of Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill