Eclectik Soul – Eclectik Soul
It’s Saturday evening and you’re looking for somewhere to go. Not the club, or movies, but something different. So fellas: call up your boys and ladies: call up your girls and let’s meet at the Jazz Café where Eclectik Soul is playing. Eclectik Soul is from Mississippi, and they are putting it down in Mississippi. In the mist of all the Southern rap that’s going on, there’s finally a group that appeals to all kinds of people, not just the jazz savvy. Eclectik Soul is comprised of Tawanna Shaunte’ (vocals), Gregory Stewart (Drums and background vocals) and Symeon Robins (keyboards) and they have put together an 18 track jazzy/soul/spoken word cd, that has caught me by surprise.
The cd starts off with the introduction of the band members, and then it goes into the soulful song
“1-Achord”. In-between each song is a nice little jazz snippet that sets up the next song. Other great songs on this cd are “The Messenger”, “Time”, “Snatchin Measures”, “To be”, “January”, “Music”, and “Junkyard Mix”.
The band takes a pause for the cause. By that time you’re on your third L I I T, (Long Island Iced Tea) and you’re talking to this fine woman, and the conversation turns to what you’re doing after the club. And for the next twenty minutes you’re trying to get her to your house, breakfast, her place or something. The lights start to dim and Eclectik Soul returns to the stage.
The second set starts out with “Fill Me Up”, and other songs that fill out the rest of the cd are “Smashin”, “Everythang”, “Outro” and instrumentals to “Time” and “Mama”. The three songs that did it for me were, “Keep Going” because of the “Summer breeze” vamp and “Phone” which I picked up vibes from Erykah Badu’s “Tyrone” and that dial tone from Midnight Star, and “To Mama”, where Tawanna sings about Greg’s mother’s bout with Cancer and her father’s death. The soulfulness and the passion in which this song is sung, is truly heart wrenching.
Well the night is over, (for some it is) and for that woman you were talking to, well she gave you her number and she agreed to go to breakfast with you. And the music of Eclectik Soul has left an impression on you just as it did me. This group is talented and I know they will go a long way musically.
You can find this album for song samples & purchase at CDBaby!
Marv D
The Urban Music Scene