He Loves Me EP (2013)
If Berklee College of Music is the formal training ground of America’s pop, jazz, and R&B darlings, The BRIT School (also known as London School of Performing Arts and Technology) is certainly the United Kingdom’s. Adele, Floetry, Jessie J, The Noisettes, Kate Nash, Kate Melua, Jamie Woon, Leona Lewis, Imogen Heap, Amy Winehouse, Lynden David […]
The Buddah Years (2013)
Phyllis Hyman’s death was a JFK moment for me because it’s one of those occasions when I remembered where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news. I was on I-94 heading from South Bend to Gary to watch a theater company rehearse a play that I had written, so I […]
The Monologue (2013)
There is nothing 21-years old about Jacob Banks’ voice. His baritone is molasses, smooth, thick, dark and inescapable. Like his UK brethren of even more oceanic and ancient depths, Kwabs, the Birmingham native is an unsigned wonder with a debut EP boasting a hit UK single, ”Worthy,” that’s already making noise and garnering Banks a […]
Rough & Fancy (2013)
Detroit native TaQuita Thorns gained notoriety through her attempts to become part of a unit. She was a contestant on the MTV show Making the Band. MTV must have seen some potential in Thorn, because after she was eliminated from “Making the Band,” the network created a reality show for her and fellow “MTB” alum […]
Land of CanAan (2013)
Marques Toliver is a young brother who knows how to work a violin. Theoretically, this alone should not be that novel, but while one can name a handful of female violinists working in jazz and soul, you’d be hard pressed to name one black male violinist working in these genres outside of session or orchestral […]
Jet Black Casanova (2013)
If Howard Johnson turned up on one of those One Hit Wonder shows that Vh-1 does from time to time, it wouldn’t be surprising. It would also – depending on your definition of “hit” – be wrong. Johnson’s “one” hit would be the 1982 funk jam “So Fine,” a cut that made it to number […]
The Serenade and The Sermon (2013)
The solo album of a beloved band’s front man is a tricky act to pull off. The annals of music history are filled with examples of successes, from Phil Collins and Michael Jackson to Beyoncé and Lauryn Hill. There are just as many who crashed and burned after having many in their ear telling them […]
Playlist: The Very Best of Donna Summer (2013)
When I was in grade school, every Summer I would fly from my adopted home state of Texas to visit my grandmother in our hometown of Cleveland. Many weekends would find us on porches, at cookouts and block parties, and what resonated with me the most, besides the familial camaraderie, was the music. And since […]
Blurred Lines LP (2013)
Oh, Robin. But, how you do know how to dance your way into our collective consciousness with earworm songs we can never quite seem to get out of our brain—no matter how often we bash it on that brick wall to try. Whether it was your gold-selling debut single, “When I Get You Alone,” 2005’s […]
Perception Against Reality
Ywada strives to make songs that are honest. “There’s nothing contrived about my music or my singing,” she says in the digital liner notes for her new album Perception Against Reality. Of course, artists who are about as deep as the Rio Grande in August also talk about their musical and lyrical depth, but, to […]
