Tony Adamo and the New York Crew (2015)
Tony Adamo – Tony Adamo and the New York Crew (2015) In 2015, where an always-connected generation screams for attention through new, often contrived definitions of “cool” and surprisingly predictable proclamations of uniqueness, singer and spoken word artist Tony Adamo arrives seemingly from nowhere as a true anachronism: a performer who is authentically “cool” in a […]
futuresoul (2015)
A studio and stage veteran with an enviable talent for composition and finesse on the tenor sax, Boney James’ musical dexterity has carried him far beyond the realm of contemporary jazz. Ever since his 1992 debut, he’s become a stylistic chameleon of sorts, tweaking a pop ditty here or weaving in Latin-flavored grooves there with […]
Sound & Color (2015)
If you’ve never heard of Alabama Shakes, don’t feel totally bad. To set the record straight, it’s not some newly drummed-up Southern spiced milkshake. They are a rock band hailing from the small town of Athens, Alabama, only minutes away from Muscle Shoals – that rustic oasis known for birthing the organic soulful sound archived […]
Just a Mortal Man (2015)
Long before there was Chris Borland or Patrick Willis or Jason Worilds, Jerry Lawson could tell you a thing or two about the risks that came with playing American tackle football. The Florida native who grew up singing in church and listening to R&B and pop singers on the jukebox in his uncle’s night club, […]
Life Between the Notes (2015)
Closing in on almost forty years in the music industry as the leader of groove masters Incognito and as a successful producer, musician and songwriter, Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick has been around the world, back and then some. Bluey’s long-time musical family, who put jazz funk on the international map, have scored numerous U.K. hits through […]
Cause & Effect (2015)
Ty Causey is among the hardest working people in the independent soul music business, and considering the grind-or-die ethos that permeates this subset of the industry, that’s saying something. Causey’s base of operations is Fort Wayne, Indiana, a place that is far from being Mayberry but isn’t exactly the epicenter of the music business. Yet, […]
More Than Love (2015)
The band ConFunkShun reached the public’s ear starting in the late 1970s with the bass thumping and brassy party anthems “Ffun,” “Shake and Dance With Me” and “Chase Me.” By the time their decade long run at Mercury records was ending in the mid 1980s, ConFunkShun was equally known for their ballads that included the […]
The Past, The Present, The Future (2015)
The vocal quartet known as Jodeci has been called a lot of things since emerging in the public eye in the early 1990s, but prolific is not one of them. The group comprised of brothers Donald “Devante Swing” and Dalvin “Mr. Dalvin” DeGrate and Cedric “K-Ci” and Joel “JoJo” Hailey released four albums as Jodeci […]
Any Way You Like It (Reissue) (2015)
Amid discussions of classic 1970s soul, the names of any number of timeless female singers are inevitably brought up: Aretha, Chaka, Natalie, Diana and Stephanie…just to name a handful. Armed with vividly memorable material and consistent public exposure (read: promotion), each of these ladies were able to maximize their unique vocal prowess and repeatedly sculpt […]
Kind of New (with Ingrid Jensen) (2015)
By my estimation, keyboardist Jason Miles and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen titled their upcoming project Kind of New for a couple of reasons: The title is clearly a play on Miles Davis’s classic 1959 recording, Kind of Blue, but sonically the record has more in common with the music that Miles began releasing a decade later with the equally […]
