Stronger (2014)
News that Tank’s sixth solo album went #1 on the Billboard R&B chart in its first week, his fourth #1 R&B album, is encouraging for those desiring more grown folks music, because it is unabashedly an urban adult contemporary album with a size 12 firmly planted in traditional R&B. With no attempts to appeal to […]
Paradise (2014)
The legendary dance party called Soul Train was a fun filled weekly event that elevated urban music to another level. Though the nationally syndicated show has not aired for several years, it lives on through various documentaries, the currently running Soul Train Music Awards, website/blog, and so much more. Host and creator, Don Cornelius was […]
Storytelling Side 1: The Simple Things (2014)
For Americans looking to sing what can be called Adult Urban Contemporary music, the path of least resistance often leads overseas. New Jersey native Gwendolyn Collins took that path, gaining a following in Europe in the run up to the release of her new project Storytelling Side 1: The Simple Things. “Share,” Collins’ definitely-for-grown-folks single, […]
Smokey and Friends (2014)
Everything about the new Smokey Robinson album, Smokey and Friends, warned me to have low expectations. There have been too many similar albums that have shown the formula — the pairing of a musical legend with younger singers on duet remakes of that artist’s biggest songs — is more about flash than music. However, I nonetheless […]
Naturally Me (2014)
“Wow!” — that’s the first word that comes to mind after experiencing Angela Johnson’s new album, Naturally Me. In fact, “wow” could even describe the sensation upon hearing the album’s very first song, “To Love Again.” When an artist has written, recorded, and produced a career-defining masterwork, as Angela Johnson clearly has, the “wow” moments […]
The Box (2014)
In a genre filled to critical mass with the flashy and the trendy, Eric Roberson is like a polished gem, honing a burgeoning fan base and cultivating his performance prowess with ambitious levels of study, stage work, songwriting and entrepreneurship. Around the mid-2000s, by the time Roberson had garnered several projects and the support from conscious […]
All the Pieces: The Complete Recordings (2014)
In the decade when funk music grew up, a number of self-contained bands made their mark on the music world, and none more than a seemingly out-of-place sextet from Scotland. With a self-deprecating group name, a great rhythm section and the tightest horns this side of Tower of Power, the Average White Band stormed onto […]
My Old Friend: Celebrating George Duke (2014)
If it seemed that George Duke played with everybody, it’s only because he can be linked to scores of major artists from the time he arrived on the scene in the mid to late 1960s until his untimely death from leukemia in 2013. Duke brought his classically trained jazz sensibilities to the experimental rock of […]
Slam Dunk (2014)
Contemporary jazz fans know Gerald Albright as one of the genre’s leading saxophonists. Less known is that Albright spent a portion of his career as a professional musician playing the bass. Albright started his music training on the piano and eventually gravitated to the saxophone when he received a sax that belonged to his piano […]
The One Percent (2014)
When an artist’s special gift immediately connects to an audience through one powerful song, the musical skies can open up to endless possibilities. On the other hand, if there is an uncontrollable situation that interrupts the gift, the storm clouds can roll in to block those skies in a mighty way. A then eleven year-old […]
