Listen Up Records is a label on a mission and the mission is to put Chicago back on the soul music map. Back in soul music’s halcyon days, the Windy City was of course famous for the creative output of Curtis Mayfield, Gene Chandler, Jerry Butler, Major Lance, or Billy Butler. In the mid-80s Chicago was the birthplace of house music. Unfortunately most of the soul impetus got lost over the years while house music became the new disco and simplified said, New Jersey Garage became the heir of soulful uptempo music.
In the 90s R.Kelly emerged to conquer the charts. But what started as soul soon turned into urban/R&B and leaves the question what has happened to the soul of Chi-Town?
Soul music in Chicago is still alive it just has gone underground. And thanks to Listen Up Records we can now enjoy twelve songs from six artists.
Cherisse (Scott) is featured with two songs from her wonderful album Moans, that she has released on her own in 2003. I Can’t Make You Be A Man is a flowing midtempo groove with a fine vocal performance, Hopeless is one of the killertracks here, a great downtempo groove that oozes soul thanks to Cherisse’s rich voice.
The Kevin Chandler Band contributes Gilding The Lilly and When Ya Lovin’ Me, both are classic pieces of relaxed and smooth soul.
Judging You and Brazilian Love Affair (not a cover of the George Duke tune) by the McKenzie Burns Project can best be described as perfect marriage of soul and smooth jazz, the latter song with a pleasant dose of latin jazz.
The two songs by Kaialexander (Don’t Play and Too Kold) fit nicely into the context of this compilation although they are a little too smooth-jazz-like if judged on their own.
Much better is Teddy Austin with his neo soul/hip hop influenced Eye No (anyone remembering Prince and his Lovesexy album using the same song title?) and Under Stand.
The sixth artist featured on this compilation is Chester Gregory, whose Konfuezd is a little bit too, er, konfuezd for my taste. But he really hits home with his ballad Til U Come (Back To Me).
Overall this is a great compilation of the soul underground of Chicago and since it’s labeled Volume I, there will hopefully be a Volume II, III…

Tracklisting of Chicago Soul Sessions Volume I: 1. I Can’t Make You Be A Man/ 2. Gilding The Lilly/ 3. Judging You/ 4. Don’t Play/ 5. Eye No/ 6. Kunfuezd/ 7. When Ya Lovin’ Me/ 8. Hopeless/ 9. Brazilian Love Affair/ 10. Too Kold/ 11. Til U Come (Back To Me)/ 12. Under Stand | released 2005 by Listen Up Records

For more infos visit chicagosoulsessions.com, cdbaby.com, cherissescott.com, mckenzieburns.com, chestergregory.com.

[If you want to discuss the music on this compilation, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

Suns of Cosmic Consciousness by Solar will be reviewed in a few days. It just depends when the album will be in my mailbox :-)
To learn more about this project by Eli Yamin and Adam Bernstein you can visit cdbaby.com, eliyamin.com and adam-bernstein.com.

The Reverend suffers for us. Like AL Green has always done. 2003 saw him back in music biz after an endless hiatus with I Can’t Stop. He even gilded Simple Beautiful on Dana Owens/Queen Latifah’s album last year, making this the one stand-out song.
And it’s good to see him back recording albums regularly.
Everything’s OK has everything we love about Al, i.e., soulful and funky grooves spiced with contributions by the Royal Horns and the New Memphis Strings that sounds like he has never stopped recording secular music since the 70s.
Produced and recorded by Al and Willie Mitchell at Royal Studios, Memphis TN, it’s hard to pick a stand-out song here. Take the beautiful ballad Real Love, which makes you remind why it’s called soul music and why Al is one the epitome of this music genre, the bluesy I Can Make Music with some solid harmonica playing by Bobby Rush or the uptempo funky Build Me Up.
Actually, this is a recommandable album, but since it will be released on a major label, there isn’t just the music to be considered when writing a review these days.
As you can see on the other reviews here, I don’t give points, but just to illustrate what I think about record labels trying to regulate the listener’s joy of music (and EMI/Blue Note is notorious for it), I’ll do it this one time: Everything’s OK would get 9 out of 10, but if the CD comes with copy protection it will get a mere 0 out of 10. So if Blue Note keeps going on releasing CDs with copy protection like they did with the latest releases by Cassandra Wilson or Dianne Reeves in Germany, don’t buy it. Copy protection kills music and is a violation of the buyer’s rights!

Tracklisting of Everything’s OK: 1. Everything’s OK/ 2. You Are So Beautiful/ 3. Build Me Up/ 4. Perfect To Me/ 5. Nobody But You/ 6. Real Love/ 7. I Can Make Music/ 8. Be My Baby/ 9. Magic Road/ 10. I Wanna Hold You/ 11. Another Day/ 12. All The Time | released 2005 by Blue Note Records

For more infos visit bluenote.com.

[If you want to discuss Al Green’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

With vocal jazz enjoying a renaissance these days it’s a little bit odd that this genre is mainly left to young females. So, where are the “new”, hungry, gifted, male jazz singers? They make themselves scarce and mainly release albums independently like Buford Powers or James Love.
James Love’s decision to pursue a career in the musical arena has a rather oblique origin. James has a Masters Degree in clinical psychology and it was during a sessions with a client that the conversation switched to music. James knew from that point on that his passion was music. That makes me really wonder who was the client and what was conversation about but that’ll certainly never been known due to professional discretion.
Luckily James didn’t stuck to his job as psychologist but explored the genre of vocal jazz. The first result is his album Invitations, which offers seven standards. Doing a album full of cover versions may not be the most original idea, but James really has the ability to adopt each song and to make it his own. He has a warm, rich voice that is greatly supported by talented musicians like Mark Bridges (piano), Ralph Gibson (tenor sax), Charles Small (guitar) or Cornel Fauler (drums).
James’ interpretation of Blue Moon is one of my favourites. The initial yeahs/scatting sound to me as if he wants to re-do Pharoah Sanders’/Leon Thomas’ The Creature Has Masterplan before the lyrics unveil that he’s actually covering Blue Moon.
Stella By Starlight starts with a beautiful vocal guitar-accompanied intro before James and his band really start swinging on this song.
Another highlight is Sack Full Of Dreams with its fine guitar solos and James whistling toward the end.
I really love the wailing of James’ voice when he sings “Don’t ever go, don’t ever go” on Burt Bacharach’s Look Of Love.

We all know these and the other songs like My Funny Valentine because they are standards, but yet it never gets boring to listen to this album. You discover new aspects of these songs through James’ rendition and that’s what makes this album a winner.

Tracklisting of Invitations: 1. Invitation/ 2. The Look Of Love/ 3. Blue Moon/ 4. My Funny Valentine/ 5. Stella By Starlight/ 6. Unforgettable/ 7. Sack Full Of Dreams | released 2004 by Jazzin Productions

For more infos visit cdbaby.com.

[If you want to discuss James Love’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

Now this is a little bit different from what is usually recommended on this site. And I must admit that I wouldn’t have looked for this album in a record or online store since it’s not the more traditional vocal or free jazz I usually prefer.
But it’s never wrong or too late to broaden your musical horizon, not even for yours truly :-)
Got You On My Mind by William Galison and Madeleine Peyroux can best described as a melange of jazz, blues, folk, and Parisian cabaret songs.
Like indicated I haven’t had a connection to the type of music created by William and Madeleine and thus have never heard of both of them before. A glimpse at wakingmusic.com shows that Madeleine isn’t really a no-name, in fact, she had some success with her album Dreamland in 1996 on Atlantic Records. And William is quite famous as harmonica player, having been featured in the themes of Sesame Street, The Untouchables, Bagdad Cafe, and performed with Chaka Khan or Ruth Brown too.
The eleven songs on Got You On My Mind are a nice mixture of original compositions by William Galison and obvious and not so obvious cover versions.
At her best Madeleine sounds as a young, white version of Billie Holiday like on J’ai Deux Amours, a cover version of a Josephine Baker tune, The Way You Look Tonight or Heaven To Me. And she does a very good job with a swinging version of Billie’s Back In Your Own Backyard and on Playin’, an ode to her (and William’s) former life as street musicians.
Flambee Montalbanese with its French influences reminds me of Henri Mancini’s soundtrack Pink Panther. Well, not the title song but some of the songs that where played during the scenes in the chalet with Claudia Cardinale as princess Dala.
Shoulda Known finds William Galison on lead vocals of this story-telling blues song with a cameo appearance by Carly Simon.
Cover versions of Heaven Help Us All, The Way You Look Tonight an Jealous Guy round off an interesting and worthwhile album.

Tracklisting of Got You On My Mind: 1. Back in your Own Back Yard/ 2. J’ais Deux Amours/ 3. Flambee Montalbenese/ 4. Got You on My Mind/ 5. Jealous Guy/ 6. The Way You Look Tonight/ 7. Rag for Madi/ 8. Playin’/ 9. Shoulda Known/ 10. This is Heaven To Me/ 11. Heaven Help Us All | released 2004 by Waking Up Music distributed by Morphius Records

For more infos visit wakingupmusic.com, williamgalison.com, madeleinepeyroux.com and morphius.com.

[If you want to discuss Madeleine’s and William’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

Watch this site for a review of Subaro by Speak In Tones to come in a few weeks. Subaro means “evening conversation” in the Bambara dialect of Mali (West Africa). From what I’ve heard so far this appears to be a fine, inspiring fusion album, that features amongst others Mike Ellis and Daniel Moreno, the latter is also known for his collaborations with the Spiritual Life label.
For more infos until the review will be online have a look at
mikeellismusic.com,
alphapocket.com,
speakintones.com,
danielmoreno.com, and
cdbaby.com

What a real pleasant surprise. A few days ago while browsing on the internet I’ve stumbled across a band named Greenlaw Ave. who has already released three albums, their latest Time And Energy was just released these days.
Greenlaw Ave. is a duo which evokes memories of Groove Theory or Sample This! (although only few may recall this band from their 1993 release on Elektra). But Skyla J and Michael Anthony Osbourne (aka MC Ozzie) have their own sound, which is an earthy, raw mixture of groovy beats, street soul and jazz. Time And Energy was recorded in London, which may explain why their music is done in a way you’d expect more to come out of the UK than Greenlaw Ave.’s home-country Canada.
The title track Time And Energy is straight out of the nu soul department but it has that special something that seperates it from the masses of nu soul songs and that is Skyla J’s magic flute.
Colour Blue (note the British spelling of colour) is a mellow, relaxed song with warm keys, guitar chords, a fine vocal performance by Skyla and again her flute playing. A great, timeless song.
Things get even better with All Around Me, a soul song that oozes class with cello and trumpet adding further variation to Greenlaw Ave.’s sound.

These Streets is a beautiful downtempo song with extra-added flugelhorn, while Just Haven’t has a slight hip-hop feeling (remember James Brown’s The Funky Drummer as blueprint of most early 90s street hip-hop/soul records?). Another reminiscence of the early 90s is Strength that sees MC Ozzie delivering a short rap over what sounds like an early Soul II Soul influenced groove. I’m surprised how good and not at all dated this sounds.
The album’s closer Do You Feel The Same Way has an interesting improvised feeling, as if Skyla, Michael and their guitarist John Landau would do an impromptu performance in a street near you.

Touring in the UK and Europe at the moment, they may be coming to a street near you soon.

So don’t miss Greenlaw Ave. if you like your music original, with heartfelt and honest energy.

Tracklisting of Time And Energy: 1. Intro/ 2. Time and Energy/ 3. Colour Blue/ 4. All Around Me/ 5. Interlude/ 6. Powers That Be/ 7. These Streets/ 8. Just Haven’t/ 9. Strength/ 10. Do You Feel The Same Way ? | released 2005 by Greenlaw Avenue Entertainment

For more infos visit greenlawave.com and cdbaby.com.

[If you want to discuss Greenlaw Ave.’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

To complete my review of Ola Onabule’s fabulous new album In Emergency, Brake Silence here’s an in-depth interview with Ola about his music. Many thanks to Ola for going into details.

Q: Your album In Emergency, Brake Silence is available for a few months now. How are the reactions from critics and fans so far?

Ola Onabule: Firstly may I say thank you to Dirk for asking me to do this interview. It’s good to have you back on the scene. [thanks, Ola :-)]
In answer to your first question, I think it would be fair to say that reactions to ‘IN EMERGENCY…’ are the best they have been since my first album MORE SOUL THAN SENSE, almost ten years ago! The ‘old’ fans seem to be discovering new favourites and the new ones are attracted to older albums because of this one. The critics have been very kind to us in confirming almost unanimously that this is our finest work to date. It’s a good time to be.

Q: Your new album will be released in continental Europe by ZYX, a label that on the one hand issues records by jazz labels like Fantasy and on the other hand throw-away dance trash. Please tell us how and why you’ve hooked up with them.

Ola Onabule: The album is actually licensed to Blue Cat for Germany, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg and will be distributed via ZYX. They have such expansive ‘know how’ and expertise regarding the European market in all aspects and genres of the biz. We are very excited about their involvement.

>>>continue

onthe-verge.com is an internet radio station that features some interesting artists, some of them you might know from this website :-)

In 2002 I was really impressed by a record from a then-unknown singer named Conya Doss. A Poem About Miss Doss was a welcome breath of fresh air. While Conya’s input then was somehow limited to singing, vocal arrangements and co-writing some songs, she has really evolved with the release of her new album Just Because. This time she took her fate in her own hands and wrote or co-wrote all songs, produced everything (together with Rodney Jones, Myron, Tony Pulizzi or Chris McNeal, was executive producer, supervised the whole album project and released it on her own imprint ConyaDossSongs Inc. Quite impressive and congratulations to Conya’s new found state of independence!
The result, Just Because, is one hundred percent Conya Doss and a fine selection of modern soul music.
Listening to the album it’s obvious that Conya has studied her musical influences attentively and her sophomore album can compete with all the Jills, Erykahs, Vivian or Angies out there.
Day By Day for example is stunning with its simplicity of sparse keys and guitar chords, fully emphasizing Conya’s vocal arrangement and voice.
Sweet Love (I Don’t Know Why) is another reason that makes this album so good, drenching of classic soul harmonies this could’ve easily been released on a rare 70s soul album.
Equally appealing is Ain’t Given Up, which is shows Conya’s talent with vocal arrangements. A great piece of simple soul music with interwoven vocals/background vocals that reminds me of the things Marvin Gaye used to do.
Damn That is interesting for the fact that it tries to marry nu soul with urban/R&B influences. Songs like Missing You, Just Because or What Should I Do? are obviously influenced by the nu soul genre, while The Wind, a duet with Chris McNeal, adds further variety to an overall fine and complex album.

Tracklisting 1. Just Because/ 2. Stay/ 3. What Should I Do?/ 4. Day By Day/ 5. Sweet Love (I Don’t Know Why)/ 6. Missing You/ 7. The Wind/ 8. Damn That/ 9. Sixth Of June (Miracle)/ 10. Here We Go Again/ 11. Ain’t Givin Up | released 2004 on ConyaDossSongs Inc./ Uniquebeatentertainment

For more infos visit conyadoss.com, cdbaby.com and domerecords.co.uk.

[If you want to discuss Conya Doss’ music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

If you’re a frequent visitor of jazz-not-jazz, you may recall my rave review for Jangbalajugbu by ‘Segun Akinlolu aka Beautiful Nubia and the interview on this website.
Released independently, Jangbalajugbu was very successful, selling over 250,000 copies in Nigeria. And regarding Beautiful Nubia’s political conscious lyrics this makes his success even better than just judging the sheer number of copies sold. Since this proves that there is obvious are market for music that not only moves your body but offers you food for thought as well.
It’s good, that Beautiful Nubia still continues his mission of addressing drawbacks in everyday life and in the political life with his new album Awilele. The musical world really needs a conscious voice like his.
Like his previous albums Awilele was recorded full analogue giving it a rough, pristine feeling.
In these trying times the song Awilele has a real global approach. Beautiful Nubia says “This is a call to people to awake from their lethargy and speak out against bad leadership and the ills in their society.” With neocons in power in most western society and politicians, who are more interested to fill their own pockets and fulfill lobbyist’s desires instead of their voters’ wishes, bad leadership isn’t happening in Africa only.
Matters Arising is, again, a song with a universal meaning, warning us against “greed, selfishness and religious extremism/…/ And you, now you are in a position of power, you’ve forgotten your history and responsibility/ living the wasteful life of the affluent while children of the poor root in garbage for their daily bread/ True friendship and love is hard to find here, there is so much bigotry, so much hatred, how can there be progress in the midst of all this?”

So is there any hope in Beutiful Nubia’s music that things get better you may ask? There is, most songs have a more uptempo vibe giving the afore-mentioned Awilele for example a positive musical background. And then there are songs in which ‘Segun tells us how important a well-working community can be, a community, that respects the elderly (Awon Agba), to whom you can turn when you need insight and advise. A community, where you’re not afraid to ask your mother when you’re in trouble (Ominira). Preserving and evolving such a community wouldn’t work if you don’t teach your children their roots (E Ko’mo L’ede “Please teach the children our language/ Please teach the children our culture/ Please tell them our stories/ Please clothe them in our native dress“). Listening to Oke Bola, an homage to Beautiful Nubia’s past, it sounds like he had had this great and peaceful community then.

There’s much more food for thought here like O Ya O!, which again is a call to people not to let politicians run one’s life but to take a stand for their desires, or Come Warrior, that plays on a Yoruban metaphor that life is war. And there’s also happy-go-lucky dance song (S’o wa Pa?).

Beautiful Nubia has also released three volumes of poetry, a novel, writes and arranges his songs, speaks English and Yoruba, and plays acoustic guitar and percussions, which makes him a modern Renaissance man in some ways.

Awilele is another fine example of Beautiful Nubia’s creative powers and of modern African music with a meaning.

Tracklisting of Awilele: 1. Intro - Iba F’Olojo/ 2. Awilele/ 3. S’o Wa Pa?/ 4. Ominira/ 5. E K’omo L’ede/ 6. Ma Fo’ya/ 7. Come, Warrior/ 8. Awon Agba/ 9. Matters Arising/ 10. Oke Bola/ 11. Each Time You Turn/ 12. Oruko Rere/ 13. Lekeleke/ 14. O Ya O! | released 2004 on EniObanke Music

For more infos visit beautifulnubia.com and cdbaby.com. You can also read an interview with Beautiful Nubia here.

[If you want to discuss Beautiful Nubia’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

I’ve just added a newsletter subscription service to this site. If you like you can subscribe to it although the rss feed will certainly inform you more regularly about updates.
You’ll find more infos about the subscription here. It’s some kind of double-opt-in, you’ll get a mail with a link to activate the subscription. Just to make sure, nobody wants to play a trick on someone by adding a false e-mail.

According to Monica Dillon’s manager Stephanie R. Burns, Jhelisa Anderson, niece of Vicki Anderson and Bobby Byrd, cousin of Carleen Anderson and sister of Pamela ‘PY’ Anderson (not that one, the one that sang with Incognito on 100° And Rising), is currently in New Orleans and doing a tribute to the late Nina Simone.
Since I haven’t found an official website by Jhelisa, I’d be glad if anyone who knows more, adds a comment or uses the forum.

[edit: I’ve just searched it on yahoo and the result was this:

source: infracom-records.de]

This just came in via e-mail, the tour dates of US3 whose latest album Questions also features Alison Crockett.

Oh, and if someone provides me with a ticket for the concert in Hamburg/Germany, I promise to go :-)

Some of you have asked me what I have listened to when this site was in hibernation. Well, I re-discovered some of my “old” records and some songs from artists, who had me their records, has really grown on me and became something like an all-time-favourite. Ok, the list would be very, very long anyway. If you have a large record collection you know what I mean. You go through the piles of records and think ‘oh, that was such a great tune, how come I haven’t heard it for a long while?’ So, if you should come up with a list of your all-time-favourites you’ll end up somewhere in the thousands.
Anyway, here are a few songs I’ve listened to and that now mean a lot to me:

Julie Dexter Walk With Me
Fay Victor: Zootoon
Joanna Pacale: Too Marvelous For Words
Myron: Heaven
Dee Daniels: A Song For My Father
Emma Hutchinson: Altea
Monica Dillon: My Baby
Carmen Lundy: Windmills Of Your Mind
Harvey S.: Momentano/Before
Kipper Jones: Better
Frank McComb: When You Call My Name
Juliet Kelly: Too Late Now
Ledisi: Feeling Orange And Sometimes Blue
Maiuko: Breakdown The Walls (reprise)
Tom & Julie: Like Ours
Fertile Ground: Yellow Daisies

Eventually there was a kind of musical revelation to me: the music of Alice Coltrane.
The odd thing is that the first time I’ve heard a song by Alice Coltrane (A Love Supreme, that appeared on the bonus CD of Red Hot + Cool Stolen Moments) it meant nothing to me then and I was like “mmm that sounds strange, more punishing than rewarding, oh my gosh, the widow wanted to punish her late husband John with this recording and spolied it”. Well, that was in 1994 over ten years ago and I guess you really have to evolve your taste in music before you are able to understand spiritually influenced music like Alice Coltrane has recorded.

Years later I really discovered instrumental jazz through releases by McCoy Tyner, Archie Shepp, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Courtney Pine. And it was McCoy Tyner’s Extensions album that re-introduced me to Alice again. I just fell in love with Message From The Nile and I really liked the harp you can hear on it. Looking at the CD showed me that this was Alice Coltrane playing the harp, an instrument used rather seldom on jazz recordings.
The next step was of course lookin for releases by Alice in the records stores in Hamburg/Germany. From her Impulse years there were only a few available over here. So I’ve purchased three of her albums Journey in Satchidananda, Monastic Trio and Ptah, The El Daoud.

I really liked Ptah then (especially Turiya And Ramakrishna and Blue Nile) - and still do it now. Turiya And Ramakrishna is still the most soulful instrumental jazz song I know. But I guess in the meantime I really understand the title song Ptah, The El Daoud.
The real revelation and a great journey into Alice Coltrane though were the albums Huntington Ashram Monastery, Universal Conscousness, Lord Of Lords and most of all World Galaxy. Yes, the album that features her version of A Love Supreme, the musical icon by John Coltrane, that only few people dare to touch. Will Downing did a clever thing with his debut album by adding vocals to the song and turning it into a soul song.

The addition of strings to songs like Galaxy In Turiya or Galaxy In Satchidananda adds real depth, drama and spirituality to the songs and thus makes World Galaxy one of the best jazz albums of all times for me. I would even dare to say that Alice has outdone John with her version of A Love Supreme. After more then ten years (remember 1994?) I finally love this song with the introductory narration by Swami Satchindananda about love and the organ Alice plays throughout the song.

I’ve never been into classical music, but I must admit I like Alice versions of Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird. In the liner notes to her Lord Of Lords album there’s an oblique explanation by Alice about The Firebird:

“On March 20, 1972, I was blessed with the good fortune of receiving a visitation from the great master composer, Mr. Igor Stravinsky, whom I had never met before in life. After a warm and intimate discussion on the subject of music, he said: “I wanted you to receive my vote.” I did not fully understand his meaning. He then presented me with a small glass vial containing a clear, colorless liquid. He was seated in a comfortable armchair; he held me close and said, “Daughter, this vial was for your grandmother, but instead, I kept it in reserve for you.” He then asked if I would like elixir, I said yes. As he walked away for it, I began to drink from the vial. To my surprise, it was difficult to swallow. When it was finished, Mr. Stravinsky returned. Since that time, I have kept the album photograph from Mr. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in my room. As opposed to this photograph, he had the appearance of an elderly man, but none of the weariness or age lines shown on this face.
Since that time, it has been incumbent on me to proceed forthrightly into the great master Stravinsky’s works. Divine instruction has been given to me throughout the entire arranging of this music, even down to the smallest detail. Ohnedaruth, when he was John Coltrane, seven years ago, introduced to me the music of, as he termed it, “a Universal musician and composer,” Mr. Igor Stravinsky.”

If you have the time and want to experience great spiritually moving music, that even moves an atheist like me, I recommend that you start with these albums:

Ptah, The El Daoud
World Galaxy
Huntington Ashram Monastery
Lord Of Lords
Universal Consciousness

And to close this excursion into the music of Alice Coltrane, here’s a quote a friend of mine once said when I played him some of Alice’s songs “Who needs drugs when you can appreciate this music”

[more infos about Alice on the internet: jazzsupreme.com, silent-watcher.net, theglobalist.com, allmusic.com]