Liquid Spirit (2013)
Gregory Porter – or more accurately the nattily dressed baritone’s legion of fans – will soon receive a lesson in the advantages of major label affiliation. Porter released his two critically acclaimed albums – the 2010 Water and the 2012 Be Good – on the Motema record label. Motema is known as the Blue Note Records of the […]
Chosen (2013)
As rabid music fans, industry insiders, and artists are more than aware of by now, award shows have saturated the television airwaves and local communities in bigger doses. In the North American gospel industry, the U.S. boasts the Stellar Awards, The Dove Awards, and the choir competition, How Sweet the Sound. Canada’s gospel music achievements […]
A Place Called Loveland (2013)
Poetic, passionate and prolific: separately and collectively, those words describe the musicianship and the marketing strategy of Raheem DeVaughn. A renaissance-level soul provider with a velvety tenor, lyrical skills and a classically-conveyed approach, the performer has amassed an impressive resume in his first ten years as a pro, including three Grammy nominations, BET & BET […]
Now, Then & Forever (2013)
No matter what gender, genre or generation one aligns themselves with, you would be hard-pressed to find a music lover who remains unmoved by Earth, Wind & Fire. For nearly half a century, this self-contained band has enthralled audiences around the world with sophisticated arrangements heavily steeped in jazz, funk, soul, gospel and even African […]
R.E.D. (2013)
A humble posture, solemn countenance and eyes concealed as he stands among strategic splashes of scarlet—to those who know about the personal and pastor-related dilemmas that Deitrick Haddon’s wrestled with in the last couple of years, the CD’s cover art is revealingly symbolic. It isn’t everyday, after all, that a popular gospel performer with lifelong […]
Live From the Detroit Jazz Festival (2013)
The city of Detroit has been making headlines lately for all the wrong reasons. Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history last month. The city was an epicenter of the manufacturing and housing meltdown during the Great Recession and its population has plunged from a high of nearly two million a half century […]
Soul Biscuits (2013)
I might have given up on Soul Biscuits, the new recording by Randy Muller’s funk-hop collective the Brooklyn Soul Biscuits, after the second song if I wasn’t reviewing the album. However, I had to hang in there until the end. Soul Biscuits started out with a nice instrumental smooth jazz cut called “Beautiful Day.” The […]
Greater Than (2013)
The last time we left groundbreaking contemporary gospel artist, Tye Tribbett, he had completed his first project without his dependable, former music family, Greater Anointing (G.A.), and backing band/production team, Sound Check. Undoubtedly, Tribbett still maintained his creative genius in the studio with his 2010 post-G.A. effort, Fresh, a very revealing personal insight concerning personal […]
Love Uprising (reissue) (2013)
Tavares – Love Uprising The is an arc to virtually every musical career. The length of that arc may vary from artist to artist, but most R&B artists enjoy a relatively brief commercial peak before beginning a ride downward that continues for the remainder of their career. The five brothers from New Bedford, Massachusetts known as […]
The Love Town Allstars (2013)
In recent years, a select group of soulfully minded independent producers and arrangers have collaborated with unsung R&B vocalists and songwriters to create some remarkable compilations of fresh, new, and funky tunes. Germany’s SedSoul Records has given us the consistently reliable Cool Million, a duo of studio wizards which has featured such stellar talents as […]
