“I was singing R&B back in ‘62, before you were born, and your mama too,” Bettye LaVette wailed on 2007’s Scene of the Crime. LaVette’s four decade career serves as a master class on pain, perseverance and refusing to be pigeonholed. Her voice is a precision scalpel that slashes, guts and reinvents, effortlessly going from spine-tingling to heartbreaking in just a few bars. On her genius 2010 release Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook, she makes Ringo Starr‘s “It Don’t Come Easy” deep, the Moody Blues’ “Knights in White Satin” soulful, and ignites the Who’s “Reign O’er Me,” Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” and McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” to a level almost too beautifully painful to take in. With Jon Cleary. MA’CHELL DUMA LAVASSAR

Feb. 3-6, 7:30 p.m., 2011