World Premiere: Tahirah Memory takes over on “All The While”

tahira_memory_all_the_while

(March 8, 2019) Here at SoulTracks, we called 2015 our “Portland Year.” That’s because it was in that 12 month period that we went all in on Rip City’s burgeoning soul music community, featuring the incredible Bespeak Love compilation as well as talented young artists like Ronnie Wright, Jarrod Lawson and singer and songwriter Tahirah Memory, who wowed us with her solo album Pride.

It had been near four years since I first heard Tahirah, then she stepped out of the crowd on the Capital Jazz Supercruise in January and killed it on a guest performance with fellow Portland artist Lawson. We will have the pleasure of hearing more from her next month, as she releases her new album Asha, due on April 5. Tahirah tells us about the collection, “Growing up I was always called by my middle name. Those that know me most intimately, and prior to my career still call me Asha. The name reflects intimacy that I don’t always have with those who meet me post 22 and have only known me by my first, and professional name, Tahirah. Both my names, both different reflections of me. The songs on this record are deeper, more telling, and the vibe is simply more Asha than it is Tahirah. I thought it was appropriate to reveal to the world who I am at home. What I think on. Where my soul dwells. Off stage.

We have the even greater pleasure of presenting the World Premiere of the first single from Asha. Lawson’s gentle Rhodes opens “All the While,” slowing leading into a nighttime groove fed by Tyrone Hendrix (drums) and Dylan Sundstrom (bass) and Tahirah’s lovely, absolutely recognizable voice. The song has the inexorable feel of a tune that would have fit on a late 70s Quiet Storm show or even an underground acid jazz club in the 80s. Tahirah wraps her sweet vocals luxuriously around the sparse arrangements, ironically giving the song both air and gravitas. However you categorize it, it is just great.

Check out “All the While” below, and see if you’re as excited as we are to hear the rest of Asha.

By Chris Rizik

World Premiere!
Tahirah Memory – “All The While”

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