(January 11, 2023) The Valentine Brothers were equal parts R&B, jazz, blues, and gospel. They could come with the romance, or they could get gritty and real, as their hit “Money’s Too Tight to Mention” demonstrated. Billy Valentine shows that he can keep it real with on this jazz infused remake of Curtis Mayfield’s classic “We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue.”
The polemical classic is a tune that Mayfield himself remade on his 1996 album New World Order, and Billy Valentine does the tune justice with his powerful reinterpretation. The version plants feet firmly in the jazz side of town with an opening that features a dance between an upright bass and saxophone. Valentine’s tenor soon follows, sweet and melancholy as it dances around a jazzy piano.
The vocal and instrumental arrangement sets the appropriate tone for the song’s reflective lyrics, which thematically are as relevant as the post 1960s civil rights era when Mayfield penned this polemical number. Check out Billy Valentine’s excellent cover of “We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue,” here.
By Howard Dukes
Billy Valentine
“We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue”
