Saturday night at Essence Music Festival, the evening closes with a tribute to Patti LaBelle including a Labelle reunion with Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx. I’m sure their reunion has at least a little to do with the upcoming Labelle reunion album, and that has given Sony/Legacy the occasion to go into the vaults for a two-disc Essential Patti LaBelle and Live in Washington, D.C., a show from 1982. The live album made me contemplate the role LaBelle played in developing the empowered woman – certainly the empowered African-American woman – market, and she may be the ultimate Essence artist. The magazine’s values – empowerment, spirituality, family, honesty, style and self-reliance – are written into her songs and performance from 1982, at which time Oprah Winfrey was still doing her show in Chicago. And after her showstopping version of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now,” those values never sounded more appealing.