One of the good things about having this website, is that from time to time artists contact me to tell me about their music just like Yolanda Charles did to introduce her project Mamayo.
If you are an eager reader of CD booklets and study carefully who played on a record, you’re certainly familiar with Yolanda Charles. She was featured as bass player on Carleen Anderson’s Blessed Burden, Misty Oldland’s Supernatural, Urban Species’ Listen album and also appeared on records by Aztec Camera, Robbie Williams or Paul Weller (but that’s hardly the music featured here, so you are forgiven if you don’t know about that, I didn’t know it myself before I had a look at Yolanda’s website).
Yolanda is not only a talented bass and guitar player. She can also write, arrange and produce good songs. Thanks to her previous session work she also knows some of the UK’s best singers and invited Carleen Anderson, Shaun Escoffery, Vanessa Freeman and Mandy Lecointe to join her to present an album “recorded today that has some of the qualities of old, where you can hear the people on those records, giving the songs real character and a place in time.”
The album’s opener is the programmatic Intro that sees the Liegeman rapping about this album (”It’s time to liberate yourself and feel free/Whether or not success is gauged commercially/ True success is in the end product musically/ And then u broke the chains which restrained it“). And then things start to become really good with the funk-rock of The Game featuring Carleen Anderson as singer. Carleen also sings on the warm and mellow soul song Born To Love, which just happenes to be one of the best songs Carleen has ever recorded.
Shaun Escoffery also captures us with a memorable performance on No Tomorrows. Although this beautiful ballad was written by Yolanda she actually isn’t playing on this song. Instead her husband Miles Bould can be heard on percussion, Scott Futh on guitar and Spencer Cozens on keys.
Shaun appears on Hey Hey as well and this time Yolanda’s irresistible bass play can also be heard.
Yolanda not only knows how to charm fine vocal performances out of Carleen and Shaun but also out of Vanessa Freeman. Just listen to Civilized with its horn section, that gives this funky groove a nice live feeling, or the midtempo soul of The Wheel, a great song that has all the right ingredients striking bass play, real drums, horns, warm keys and inspiring vocal input.
Last but not least there’s Mandy Lecointe on Waiting and Goodbye. Though Mandy has sung with Faithless, Urban Species, Artful Dodger and Lisa Stansfield, I haven’t heard of her before. I really like Mandy’s performance on Waiting, a song that reminds me of all the more or less obscure Brit soul songs from the early 90s from bands like Esperanto, Metropolis or Perception with an organic sound long before this term became fashionable. As a bonus there’s the hidden bonus track Fantasy that features Katie Kissoon on vocals.
All in all Yolanda has surpassed herself with this highly recommendable album and she’s really a musician, songwriter and producer to watch out for.

Tracklisting of The Game: 1. Intro/ 2. The Game/ 3. The Wheel/ 4. Hey Hey/ 5. Goodbye/ 6. These Times/ 7. No Compromise/ 8. Civilized/ 9. Waiting/ 10. No Tomorrows/ 11. Don’t Step In Time/ 12. Born To Love/ 13. You Heard It Right | released 2003 by Yolanda Charles

For more infos visit groove4dayz.com.

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

The question, whether Eric Benet’s career is over, appeared last month in the search results for this page. Actually his career isn’t over. You can hear him on George Duke’s new album Duke and according to amazon.com his new album Hurricane is scheduled for a release on Warner Bros on June 21, 2005.
As jazz-not-jazz has grown over the years and I have digged deep into the soul underground, I must admit I’m not really excited about a new release by Eric on a major label. That was actually different some years ago before I had the internet.
I’m sure there were some A&R people eager to get him to sing this or that tune on Hurricane to have a hit record. And in retrospect I wasn’t too impressed with his sophomore set A Day In The Life.
Let’s face it, there are so many talented musicians out there, who don’t compromise themselves to keep label’s executives happy, that we can do without the output of a major label. Well, maybe I’m wrong and Hurricane will be the best soul album of 2005…we will hear it soon.

Coming soon on jazz-not-jazz is a review of Choose the Experience Vol.1: Ready for Love the debut album by Monique DeBose. For more information have a look at her website moniquedebose.com.

You won’t find a more renowned producer, songwriter and musician in the intersection of the soul and jazz music world than George Duke. Not only is he known under his own name with an impressive catalogue from the 60s on but also he’s known as a producer for amongst others Dianne Reeves, Rachelle Ferrell, Gabriela Anders, Natalie Cole, Phil Perry, or Anita Baker.
In 2004 George finally thought it was time to establish his own label Big Piano Music (BPM) and released the label’s debut album Face The Music. Yes, even for a veteran musician, who’ve seen and heard it all, there can be a first time.
Duke is his second release for BPM and is released by Dome Records in Europe.
It took me a while to get into the album as a whole. There are some songs I liked at once and others that at first listen were a little too smooth jazz like for my taste. But after continuous listen to Duke, I must admit all eleven song fall into place very well.
One of the songs I liked instantly is the flowing, Brazilian influenced groove of Sausalito. Just like my other favourite tune with Sausalito in the title (i.e. Camelle Hinds’ Sausalito Calling) this song has written summer all over it. With Christian McBride (bass), Airto Moreira (drums ) and Grecco Buratto (acoustic guitar) supporting George this really makes me long for a warm summer night.
The killer cut on Duke is the epic Hybrids with over 18 minutes length of time. Like George says “Hybrids is not for everybody” but if you like an improvisational jazz-funk groove that just builds and builds and lets you hear the fun the involved musicians (e.g. Sheila E., Ndugu, McBride, Moreira, Everette Harp, Gerald Albright) had while recording it, than Hybrids is a dream come true. Even though there are no lyrics to emphasise George message to Hybrids, you’ll certainly recognize it while listening i.e. that the song is a, er, hybrid of jazz, funk and even rock. “All of us are hybrids,” says George. “As human beings we are all mixed with something, we are all hybrids. Would that I could live long enough to see a day when people would realize this and laugh at the absurdity of prejudice against another because of skin color or ethnic origin.”
Other highlights include the soulful Somebody’s Body with vocals by George and a fine muted trumpet by Michael Stewart, the jazzy downtempo groove of No One with Rachelle Ferell on vocals, or the funky Trust with great piano play by George and a tight brass section.
We also get a good cover version of Stevie Wonder’s Superwoman. Although I could’ve done without the dated sample of “hear the drummer get wicked” at the beginning. And, yes, I would’ve prefered it if Eric Benet had sung the whole song instead of just two verses.
If the music on Duke isn’t enough for you, then you can also enjoy two vintage live performances on video. Sweet Baby and Shine On were recorded in 1983 at a gig in Tokyo, Japan, and are featured on the enclosed DVD.

Tracklisting of Duke:
Disc One: 1. Trust/ 2. I Wanna Know/ 3. Superwoman/ 4. No One/ 5. T-Jam/ 6. Somebody’s Body/ 7. Sausalito/ 8. Saturday Night/ 9. In Between the Heartaches/ 10. Hybrids/ 11. Homeland
Disc Two (DVD): 1. Sweet Baby (live)/ 2. Shine On (live) | released 2005 by BPM Records and Dome in the UK/Europe

For more infos visit georgeduke.com and domerecords.co.uk.

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

While I like the idea of helping others through music (which means that the money you spend on a record will be donated), I’m usually not very fond of multi-singer projects where every singer has one or two lines to sing. But if it’s a song written and produced by Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick and Graham Harvey from Incognito and one of the unsung heros of Brit Soul, Noel McKoy, is featured as well, then things are a little bit different. Learn more about the Hope Collective on giveandletlive.com.
And I hope Noel McKoy will come up with a new album soon as well as Don-E and Omar.

We all know the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”. The same can be said of a record. But I must admit it was the cover of Michael Adkins debut album Infotation that attracted my attention first: a lonely house with the a bird’s silhouette in a blueish green coloring that looks lost and abandoned. Or in other words this looks like a promising jazz album that may contain rewarding songs. And I wasn’t disappointed with this album, quite on the contrary.
Michael was born in Sarina Ontario and began playing saxophone in his childhood and by age 15 already played in various local bands. He was influenced by the usual suspects of Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins or John Coltrane. After a stay in Boston Michael eventually moved to New York to pursue his career as jazz musician.
One of the fruits of his labor is the Infotation album, which was already recorded in May 2000 but has only been released this year.
Infotation features eight original compositions by Michael Adkins which he had recorded in the classic jazz trio setting of (tenor) saxophone (Michael Adkins), bass (John Hébert) and drums (Ian Froman).
The result is great piece of instrumental jazz that grabs your attention and - if you’re willing to - lets you get lost in the trio’s sophisticated, complex and beautifully constructed songs.
Michael’s saxophone playing is vivid and invigorating whether on the more swinging Juxtapiece or the slow introspective groove of A Gate In Spring. It’s really hard to pick a single song here, because for me this albums works best a whole piece of music from start to finish.
It’s a brave move from Michael to debut with an album full of original compostitions but that and the tight, excellent playing of Michael and fellow musicians John Hébert and Ian Froman is what makes this album so impressive.

Tracklisting of Infotation: 1. Infotation/ 2. Code 2/ 3. Juxtapiece/ 4. Close At Hand/ 5. Loop/ 6. A Gate In Spring/ 7. Trés Olive/ 8. Stir | released 2005 by Semblance Records

For more infos visit michael-adkins.com, cdbaby.com and semblancerecords.com.

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

Watch jazz-not-jazz for a review of When Sleeping Giants Wake, the debut album by soul singer Vonyse. In the meantime check her website vonyse.com and listen to sound snippets of her album on cdbaby.com

Again, this is an album that has been released last year…just like the Val Watson or For KJM albums reviewed recently. But good music is really timeless and somehow I’ve missed Alice Russell’s debut release on Tru Thoughts last year. You all know Alice Russell as the voice of Bah Samba and Alice has a life outside of Bah Samba with contributions to songs by Quantic, the Quantic Soul Orchestra or Natureboy. Under The Munka Moon comprises some of these collaborations with new material. The result is an exquisite selection of soul songs and lounge and jazz inspired grooves.
The album’s opener is worth the price for the album alone. Hurry On Now feat. TM Juke is a great piece of soul music with strings, saxophone and tight background vocals. Who ever said they don’t make records like they used to anymore? You can also download a video of this song here (Quicktime required; right click and choose “save link as”.)
Tired Little One is another highlight. This is of course a song from Bah Samba’s debut album but featured here in the acoustic version which has previously only been available on the 12″ release. Sometimes you just need a great voice and a guitar to give you goose pimples.
With Something That’s Real, Search The Heavens, Take Your Time, Change Your Mind and Sweet Calling you also get the tracks that featured Alice on the Quantic album Apricot Morning respectively The Quantic Soul Orchestra’s Stampede. Plus there’s a new song Alice did with Will Holland (aka Quantic), the funky Somebody’s Gonna Love You. A great uptempo song that starts with an acapella intro until a James Brown inspired groove kicks in that’s topped by a violin solo and listen to the handclaps taking over the groove and finishing the song with adlibs by Alice.
Another new song for Under The Munka Moon is Peace Resides, a fine piece of neo soul inspired music with vibes and a mesmerizing trumpet by Dan Friend. A further favourite here is the releaxed soul jazz groove of Sweet Is The Air, Alice’s contribution to Natureboy’s album Whoever You May Be.
Alice gives you everything that Joss Stone had promised with her first album, The Soul Sessions, but somehow failed to deliver with her sophomore set. If this world was a just world, Alice should have the same success. But I’m afraid, this world isn’t just at all. So spread the word and make sure that you don’t make the same mistake like me and that is miss this great album. But now you know about it, I’m sure you won’t.

Tracklisting of Under The Munka Moon: 1. Hurry On Now feat. TM Juke/ 2. Someday/ 3. Hard Times/ 4. Sweet Is The Air feat. Natureboy/ 5. Tired Little One (Acoustic Version)/ 6. Peace Resides/ 7. Taking Hold/ 8. Something That’s Real/ 9. Search The Heavens/ 10. Take Your Time, Change Your Mind/ 11. Sweet Calling/ 12. Somebody’s Gonna Love You feat. Quantic/ 13. Get Ready In The Morning (Song In The Bath) | released 2004 by Tru Thoughts

For more infos visit tru-thoughts.co.uk.

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

It’s Danny Krivit’s fault that I bought this compilation. I really fell in love with Da Lata’s Ronco Da Cucia which he included on his Danny Krivit In The House compilation. But - alas - this version was a mixed one on the CD and if I like a song I prefer an unmixed version. And this particular song was recorded as a tribute to the tenth anniversary of the Kyoto Jazz Massive in 2004.
Shuya Okino and Yoshihiro Okino aka KJM produced their first self-titled compilation album in 1994 released by For Life Records, Japan (and in 1999 by 99 Records, Germany). They’ve worked on five singles (including Nacel Do Sol, Eclipse and Substream), four compilation albums, 13 remix albums and released their debut album Spirit of the Sun in 2002. This may not be the most impressive output if you just look at the number of full-length releases. Nevertheless likeminded DJs, producers and musicians are so impressed by KJM that they’ve contributed exclusive songs to this anniversary compilation.
The list of contributors reads like a who’s who of modern soul-house and broken beats. Not only the afore-mentioned Da Lata track is a winner but also Tomorrow Never Comes by Reel People. Sung by the ubiquitous Vanessa Freeman this is an epic peace of postmodern soul.
Other favourites include Aphrodite by Louie Vega & The EOL Band. This is classic latin instrumental jazz straight out of the 50s/ 60s. Old Cal Tajder songs or the Billy Taylor Trio’s version of Mambo Inn springs to my mind.
Phil Asher and Mike Patto aka Restless Soul do what they do best in the shape of the funky house groover Time To Fly with Rasiyah on vocals, while Orin Walters teams up with Alison David and Mark De Clive-Lowe for the complex grooves of Now Or Never.
Kyoto Jazz Massive’s own contribution to their birthday album is Endless Flight, a pleasant jazz fusion song with vocals by Carol Crosby.
Tracks by Domu, Dego & Kaidi Tatham or Markus Enochson round off a very good tribute album for Kyoto Jazz Massive. If only every anniversary/tribute compilation would offer such a musical diversity.

Tracklisting of For KJM: 1. Restless Soul feat. Rasiyah - Time To Fly/ 2. Face - No Fear/ 3. Kyoto Jazz Massive - Endless Flight/ 4. Da Lata - Ronco Da Cuica/ 5. Aphrodite - Louie Vega & The EOL Band/ 6. Afronaught feat. Alison David - Now Or Never/ 7. Domu - Taking Flight/ 8. Lars Bartkuhn - First Friendship/ 9. Markus Enochson feat. Ingela Olsson - Listen 4 It/ 10. Dego & Kaidi Tatham - Come With Me/ 11. Reel People feat. Vanessa Freeman - Tomorrow Never Comes | released 2004 by Quality Records/MCJP

For more infos visit musiccopyright.jp.

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

I’m sure you all know how much I like Mark De Clive-Lowe’s new album Tide’s Arising. I’ve mentioned it often enough :-)
Here’s a detailed interview with Mark about his move to London, his music and future projects. Can’t wait to hear the debut album of Lady Alma (Horton) he’s talking about.
You can catch Mark live in the next weeks:

13 May - Paradiso, Amsterdam
25 May - Jazz Cafe, London
22 July - Boca Boranca, Italy

Also check out his next Freesoul Sessions at Notting Hill Arts Club, London on May, 23rd.

Q: You grew up in New Zealand, traveled most parts of the world and now you’re living in West London. What makes London/the UK so interesting for you that you moved to Europe?

Mark De Clive-Lowe: It’s funny, growing up in NZ, especially playing a lot of acoustic jazz and really loving what people like Kenny Kirkland and Jeff Tain Watts were doing, I always thought I’d end up living in NYC, and aspired to playing with people like Betty Carter, Branford, Kenny Garrett… but then in 1998 I spent a year traveling the world on an award I got in NZ, basically a pilgrimage around the planet checking out music hot spots and places I’d always wanted to go. I started off in San Fran and from there headed down to Cuba. Afro Cuban music had been a real passion of mine since hooking up with Danilo Perez in Boston when I was studying at Berklee there in 94. Cuba blew my mind. The vibe, the people, the culture, the music and most of all, the rhythm and the pulse. It left a pretty indelible mark on me as a person and a musician. After that I went to london - it was only for a month to see a friend en route to spending the summer in NYC - the destination I’d been holding in mind the whole time. London freaked me out at first - I was staying way out of the centre, hardly knew anyone and I couldn’t believe how expensive it was. I wanted to make the most of the opportunity though, so I started reaching out to the people I knew. The first hook up was doing a session for Dave Angel - I met Dave briefly in NZ 5 years earlier and he’d said to look him up if I was ever in London. so I called him up and we did a crazy techno-jazz track that’s still heavily under wraps! After that I caught up with Nathan Haines - we knew each other from NZ and had played together there, so it was great to catch up with him and we renewed our musical collaborating starting with a track for Metalheadz (Sci Clone ‘Hold On’). Nathan introduced me to a DJ/producer he’d started working with who was none other than Phil Asher! It was down at Phil and Patrick Forge’s inspiration information clubnite. Nathan told Phil i was a keys player and I think it was pretty much the next day we went into studio and cut our first collaboration - I dropped keys on the Restless Soul remix of Fini Dolo’s ‘Blow’. From there it was only a few days before I was in studio with Seiji, the Bugz and IG Culture. It was really dope - here were all these DJ/producers making music that was informed and inspired by all the music I’ve ever loved, and they were putting it all together in a way that had never been done before. It was a really special time not just for me, but for the West London scene in general. So that pretty much made the decision for me - it wasnt that I wanted to live in England, or London, it was that I came across a community of inspired individuals and crews making dope music that inspired me and that I knew I could bring my own creativity and flavour to.

Q: Please tell me what has changed for you since your debut album Six Degree (released on major label Universal) and where do you see your progression as an artist with the new Tide’s Arising set?

Mark De Clive-Lowe: Six Degrees was an experiement for me - I’d just bought an MPC2000 on the way back to NZ from my year travelling around the world. Having seen Phil and Orin rocking the MPC in london, I thought I’d give it a go. So I was back in NZ writing music inspired by my experiences from the previous 12 months in Cuba, London, NYC and other spots, and mashing together the live playing and elements with the MPC. It was my first attempt at production in the beat-head sense of the word and conceptually was about jazz blending with the dancefloor and my take on that. Since then so much has happened. I made Six Degrees in early 1999, so that was 6 years ago now. A long time! Where I was experimenting and at the start of my learning curve making Six Degrees, Tide’s Arising though, I know I’m an experienced producer and I know how to get the sound I want. Between the two albums, I’ve had the good fortune to work with so many great producers - all the West London crew for starters, and then people like Kenny Dope, Spinna, Wajeed, Megashira, Lemon D…the list is pretty long if I list everyone. I learnt something from every experience, so now the collaborations number over a hundred tracks, that’s a fair amount of learning! Getting a chance to do some different remixes taught me a lot as well - I got to experiment as a producer on each remix and try different things - the Danilo Perez remix (Pan Africa) and the remix I did for Verve Remixed 1 of Shirley Horn, those were the two that I could feel like a new production concept and style was starting to come out. I think that it was really solidified on Relax Unwind. On that one I knew there was something special going on and something totally fresh. Once Kenny and Louie were bugging out over it and wanted to release it on MAW, I knew it was bonafide. So it’s been a pretty crazy journey, and the logical conclusion was to say what I’ve got to say now through a new album, that’s what Tide’s Arising is. I really went back to a lot of my soul roots as well over the past few years - getting deep into Marvin, Minnie Ripperton, Don Blackman, Bernard Wright - lots of different artists, so I guess the result is that Tide’s is more of a soul album to me where Six Degrees was more of a jazz album.

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Olu? Olu? I see you thinking. Yes, that’s the same Olu who released the album Soul Catcher in 1999 on Gee Street Records. The single release Sister Why from that album was quite successful with discering music listeners and included remixes by The Roots.
Six years have passed and Olu’s back with his sophomore set. Whereas Soul Catcher featured co-producers Ed Tuton and Stuart Matthewman and a notable number of guest musicians Beautiful Place is more or less a one man show with Olu having written, produced and recorded everything on his own with Angola Red helping him on four songs. The result is an album that’s not as easily to digest like its predecessor. Beautiful place is an album that demands your time to discover its beauty and thus it’s a real grower something like love at second sight.
At first listening you may be put off a little by the widley used synthesizer on this album. After all Soul Catcher featured real strings, percussion, bass, organ etc. but it had a bigger budget as well.
I’m sure you’ll see Olu’s vision after continuous listening. Here you have Byzantine and elaborated grooves that thanks to Olu’s voice offers enough soul to keep any soulboy and soulgirl satisfied. And what’s more important Olu offers a well-balanced mixture of down- and midtempo tunes to keep the album interesting (something I’ve criticised about Michael Johnson’s The Servant Master album).
One of my favourite songs is Under The Sun, a beautiful ballad with just Olu singing and playing an accoustic guitar. Another hightlight is the album’s title track, Beautiful Place, a great piece of modern underground soul and the perfect soundtrack for this summer. Meant To Be is another downtempo pleaser that oozes soul.
Olu’s music also offers food for thought like the description in Sugar Veins about the hopelessness of drug abuse (Life passin’ him by, while he’s high like a bird in the sky/ He said “You know I can’t get no higher…Feels like my soul’s on fire”/ The twinkle in his eyes, a reflection of the night/ When the freaks come out and get down, it’s a one-way ticket right out of sight/ Sugar veins wanna feel no pain and ride up on an astral plane, it’s all in the game/ And I bet you that tomorrow it’ll be the same“). Angels Call deals with the loss of a beloved person killed by a young fool.
Add to this soulful slowburners like Love = Sunshine or Middle Of The Night and modern R&B songs that still has more of a soul than an urban feeling (Harlem On My Mind, The Prize, Luv The Girl (Mary Jane), or Doin’ The Damn Thing) and you have a very good album. All you need to do is just listen carefully and let it grow on you.

Tracklisting of Beautiful Place: 1. Love = Sunshine/ 2. Harlem On My Mind/ 3. Winna Fa Life/ 4. Movin’ On/ 5. Luv The Girl (Mary Jane)/ 6. Middle Of The Night/ 7. Mornin’ Light/ 8. The Prize/ 9. Sugar Veins/ 10. Angels Call/ 11. Under The Sun/ 12. Beautiful Place/ 13. Meant To Be/ 14. Doin’ The Damn Thing | released 2004 by AXS Multimedia Corp.

For more infos visit olumusic.com or cdbaby.com.

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

As already mentioned here George Duke has recently released his new album Duke in the USA on his own Big Piano Music (BMP) imprint. Good for the folks in Europe to hear that Dome Records will release Duke on May 16, 2005.
Vocal and instrumental guests on this album include Eric Benet, Rachelle Ferrell, Phil Perry, Howard Hewett, Sheila E, Hubert Laws, Jonathan Butler and Gerald Albright.
A 10-country European tour begins in July, taking in the North Sea Jazz (July 9), Montreux (July 11) and Copenhagen jazz festivals, as well as dates in Spain, Luxembourg, Germany (15 July Jazz an der Donau), Sweden, France and the UK.
Oh, and watch jazz-not-jazz for a review and an interview soon.

It looks like interviews following a review are becoming a regular feature on jazz-not-jazz. Well, I can’t argue with that. Here’s an interview with the singer/songwriter/musician Anthony David about his debut album 3 Chords & The Truth, the music scene in Atlanta and his neighbourhood. And yes, it makes me a little envious…I have worse weather here in Hamburg and no Julie Dexter living down the road.

Q: Please tell me where you’re coming from musically, who has influenced you, and how do you describe your music to someone who haven’t heard of Anthony David yet.

Anthony David: I have recently come across a description for my music that I like that someone gave to me. They described it as Millenium blues. I think that is very fitting because learning guitar I quickly realized that all music is based on blues. Even though I deal with different rythyms and styles, my aproach to it is to find the “blues” in it. Me being from the south, the blues came quite naturally and everything else I attempt to do is spoken with a blues accent so to speak. My favorite influences are Anita Baker, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder - pretty much all the typical ones. Can’t really go wrong with certain people, and alot of rappers cause I grew up on mostly that. Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, folks like that.

Q: How come you have started singing in public relatively late in your life?

Anthony David: I started singing in public later because that’s how long it took me to have something to say. At least in music. Also being from a small town (Savannah GA) it’s not a common thing for somone to want to be a musician for a living and mean it. It took a while for me to accept it and pursue it. But, mostly it wasn’t until I started to put things together that I didn’t think I had heard out there. Thought maybe people could benefit from it somehow.

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Chillifunk is a label that hasn’t disappointed me yet. They always offer quality music on each of their releases and their latest album release is no exception to this rule.
You know Verna Francis from the club-überhit-anthem Earth Is The Place that appeared on Nathan Haines’ Sound Travels album in 2001. You may also have recognized her as Miss Sherman in the musical Fame as shown in London’s West End.
Last year saw Verna’s debut solo single Sunshine on Chillifunk. After the release of Look as second single we finally get the album Down To Earth.
Earth Is The Place is featured on this album as well but in a real different version to the version on Nathan’s album or all the remixes that were available. This time Earth Is The Place comes along as uptempo modern funk/soul gem with muted trumpet, trombone, piano and wurlitzer. Everybody who thought that this tune has had its fifteen minutes of world fame should listen to the new version that really adds a new dimension.
This instrumentation with horns, piano, wurlitzer, organ, guitars and other real instruments is what makes Down To Earth so vivid, real, straightforward and, er, down-to-earth. And of course there’s Verna’s voice that’s deep and rich and doesn’t lose itself in vocal acrobatics.
Take the opener Never Too Late for example. It’s a great piece of soulful funk again with horns, wurlitzer and organ. Like all ten songs it was produced, arranged and mixed by Felix Hopkins, who also co-wrote most of the songs with Verna and co-producer Scott Baylis.
All ten songs on this album are very good so it’s hard to pick a favourite here. But you should listen to the interlaced midtempo groove of What Kind Of World. With its laments about over-crowded inner-cities and its longing for a better kind kind of world this song stands lyricwise in the tradition of social-conscious songs from the 70s while the music is 21^st century soul.
Another must-have on this album is the downtempo song Twilight, the muted trumpet by Scott Baylis gives this song a great bluesy feeling and the result reminds me of Fay Victor in a modern jazz/lounge setting. Pause is an equally appealing jazz-house song that again inspires thanks to Verna’s voice and Scott’s trumpet.
With the musically uplifting title track Down To Earth or the afore-mentioned Look and Sunshine Verna gives us modern, house inspired dance grooves that certainly will be favourites on every discerning dancefloor.
To sum it up in five words: simply a great debut release

Tracklisting of Down To Earth: 1. Never Too Late/ 2. Earth Is The Place/ 3. Rimes/ 4. Down To Earth/ 5. What Kind Of World/ 6. Pause/ 7. Keep On Dreaming/ 8. Twilight/ 9. Look/ 10. Sunshine | released 2005 by Chillifunk Records

For more infos visit chillifunk.com.

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

Watch jazz-not-jazz for a review of the album The Game by MamaYo, a project of bassist Yolanda Charles. The Game features vocal inputs by Shaun Escoffery, Carleen Anderson, Mandy Lecointe, Vanessa Freeman, and poet/rapper The Liegeman.

Live At The Funk Lounge features some songs of Val Watson’s debut album Urbal in a live setting with her so-called Urbalites Trendsetters & Funkateers band plus a few extras and new songs. Again Val called her friends to join her. This time she is supported by George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Gerald Albright, Marcus Johnson, Frank McComb and The Earth, Wind And Fire Horn Section.
It’s always a good sign when the music you’ve only heard as studio version before also works in a live recording. And it’s even better when a live version outdoes the studio version. That’s what happens here with High (It’s My State Of Mind). The live version has more verve thanks to the horn section and Val’s background vocalists.
Do What Come Funky (P-Funk Vamp) is a fine example of what makes live performances worthwhile with its interaction with the audience, ad-libs and much more spontaneity than a studio recording could offer.
The sole bad thing about the live versions here is Earth, Wind & Fire which is only the faded-in last two and a half minutes of what sounds like a great live performance. I really would like to hear the complete recording of this song.
Val delivers a decent version of Jimi Hendrix’ Wind Cries Mary, but I’ve never been a great fan of this song anyway and even Val can convince me to like this song. Much, much better in my opinion is the original compostion Where U B? that finds Val talking/ad-libbing over a nice midtempo funk-jazz groove, my personal favourite on this album. I really like the way Val vamps about her musical influences and friends, her producer Gerald McCauley and God knows who else.
The two remixes of The Real are fine since they stay close to the original version, although I notice only a slight difference between the Cue Da Co-Co Remix and the B Movement Remix.
Wind Me Up (Wiggle, Wiggle Remix) is a fast, pleasant electro funk song with vocals by Bootsy Collins.
Overall Live At The Funk Lounge is a fine album that shows Val’s talent in a live and studio setting but due to the mixture of live songs, remixes and new stuff the album lacks some coherence for me.

Tracklisting of Val Watson Live At The Funk Lounge: 1. Introduction (Live)/ 2. Alright (Live)/ 3. The Real (Do-Do)(Live)/ 4. High (It’s My State of Mind)(Live)/ 5. Earth, Wind & Fire (UTF Band Vamp)(Live)/ 6. Do What Come Funky (P-Funk Vamp)(Live)/ 7. That’s Funked Up (Live)/ 8. Wind Cries Mary/ 9. The Real (Cue da Co-Co Remix)/ 10. The Real (B Movement Remix])/ 11. Wind Me Up (Wiggle, Wiggle Remix)/ 12. V-Boppers & Fingerpoppers: Where U B?/ 13. Funk Jazz Lounge (Get Yo Groove On) | released 2005 by 215 Records

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