My Soul (2010)
Leela James opens her third studio album, My Soul, with a Gerrard Baker production (Toni Braxton, Masta Ace) declaring "I’m Not New To This" with her requisite funky soul and something of a braggart’s rap. Indeed, she’s not. Ten years before her debut project, A Change Is Gonna Come, announced the scrappy soul belter to […]
Introducing
Brooklyn-born, musically-led and classically trained, Melanie Charles is an artist that doesn’t perform jazz as much as she literally exudes it: combining the time-tested approach of earlier, influential icons (Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughn) with contemporary edges of funk and soul isn’t as easy as it sounds, but the singer and songwriter does so with aplomb […]
Water (2010)
Gregory Porter knows the power of a mother’s words. His story also stands as proof that music can inspire and change lives. Porter wrote a song called "Once Upon A Time I Had A Dreamboat" when he was five years old. The enterprising kindergartner recorded himself singing the song and played it for his mother, […]
The Ballad of Purple St. James (2010)
Since 2001’s Hear Me, R&B soul singer and early Badu background vocalist Yahzarah has been bubbling just underneath stardom. With a siren image and a mezzo-soprano that reaches Nirvana, for eight-plus years Yahzarah seemed to be ready- made for "big lights" fame, each year seeming to get closer to her destiny than the last. Throughout, […]
Acoustic Love (2010)
Calvin Gary, Jr. was an aspiring songwriter/musician who wanted someone to notice that he was bringing a unique package to the R&B and soul music table. As the artist called Joonie was pursuing his lifelong dream at age twelve, he taught himself to master several instruments and perfect his songwriting skills. On the strength of […]
Yesterday You Said Tomorrow (2010)
If you believe that Mr. Scott’s fourth studio CD has a distinctly emotive, yet analog feel to it, then you would be right, because Yesterday You Said Tomorrow combines his modern-day expertise and societal awareness with the vintage recording process that harkens to his 1960s influences (Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Mingus, to name a […]
Soul Unsigned Volume 4 (2010)
Time flies by quickly; we are already onto volume 4 in the Soul Unsigned series. I remember listening to volume 1 and being pleasantly surprised by the collection of pretty good unsigned soul music. Winter has gone and spring is in the air, and Soul Unsigned Volume 4 is what is needed to help continue […]
Still Here (2010)
Though they have only rarely written or produced their own material, there is a reason why the Temptations are still recording and selling music after nearly a half century. Part of it may have been luck, but a bigger part has been an impressive knack for teaming with the right producers and songwriters over those […]
Earthglow (2010)
They’ll call Earthglow, the latest album by veteran jazz pianist David Benoit, a smooth or contemporary jazz record, and I have no problem with that. Some people might quarrel with classifying Earthglow as a contemporary jazz record — as that category has come to be defined. Contemporary jazz (or smooth jazz) is now viewed by […]
Come to My World / On the Line (Reissue) (2010)
Michael Wycoff is, unfortunately, one of a seemingly endless supply of talented male vocalists of the 1980s who have been largely overlooked since the end of that decade. Wycoff first came to the attention of audiences through his participation as a background vocalist on Stevie Wonder’s landmark Songs in the Key of Life album in […]
