Currently browsing category

Video, Page 18

K’Jon | Moving On

K'Jon - Moving On
 
K’Jon | Moving On
Up & Up Records
By Peggy Oliver
 
It is fair to say that extreme talent and intense perseverance have not always expedited opening music industry doors. Many well-deserving vocalists and musicians strive to find their niche before they strike a chord with an audience and land their first major radio exposure. Singer/songwriter K’Jon’s story is like many who dream to touch others with their music. Since he was eight years old, K’Jon figured that music was his way of life.

SWV | I Missed Us

SWV - I Missed Us II
 
SWV | I Missed Us
(Mass Appeal/eOne Music)
By Brent Faulkner
 
SWV (Sisters With Voices) was a popular 1990‘s female R&B trio comprised of Tamara “Taj” George, Cheryl “Coko” Clemons and Leann “Lelee” Lyons. SWV return with 2012’s I Missed Us, their fourth studio effort and first new album in fifteen years since 1997’s Release Some Tension (excluding 1999’s A Special Christmas). Remarkably, middle age has done nothing to curtail the trio’s magical voices.

Anita Wilson | Worship Soul

Anita Wilsonm - Worship Soul
 
Anita Wilson | Worship Soul
(EMI Gospel)
By Peggy Oliver
 
On most live gospel recordings, it is customary for the church’s pastor or gospel music luminary to introduce the artist to the congregation.  During the introduction for Worship Soul by Anita Wilson, her mentor Donald Lawrence pays this worship leader and singer/songwriter a significant compliment: “With a style all her own and a tone all her own.” 

Ryan Shaw | Real Love

Ryan Shaw - Real Love
 
Ryan Shaw | Real Love
(Dynotone)
Bu Susan Mutharia
 
When he started singing in the church choir at the age of 5, Ryan Shaw may not have understood the full potential of the seed he was sowing. The Decatur, Georgia native did not listen to secular music growing up so his influences were all deeply rooted in Gospel. In 1998 when the seed was budding, Shaw joined the cast of Tyler Perry’s stage play ‘I Know I Have Been Changed’. His journey after that is a combination of hard work and divine connections. Now the seed has blossomed into a two-time Grammy nominated singer that can undoubtedly engrave his name next to great soul singers like Raphael Saadiq, Lenny Kravitz, Anthony Hamilton and even Sam Cooke.

Bob Baldwin Presents “Betcha By Golly Wow – The Songs Of Thom Bell”

Bob Baldwin - Betcha By Golly Wow
 
Bob Baldwin Speaks On “The Spark of Magic” of Thom Bell
by A. Scott Galloway
 
Once upon a time, a ubiquitous Bell tolled throughout the land.  It was the sound of music at its creamy dreamiest, crooned hearts-on-sleeves by groups with mystical monikers like Stylistics, Delfonics and Spinners.  T’was a time when real men feared not to sing of love and romance in phrases like “You Are Everything” and “You’re as Right as Rain.”  Their inescapable signals were carried on the wind by the multitudes, massaging the magic in their own inimitable ways. In this time of soul-warming enchantment circa `70, hearts throbbed to the pulses of true love and romance…the symphonic soul soundscapes of Maestro Thomas Randolf Bell.

Esperanza Spalding | Radio Music Society

Esperanza Spalding - Radio Music Society
 
Esperanza Spalding
Radio Music Society
(Heads Up International)
by Brent Faulkner
 
Esperanza Spalding, then relatively unknown to the masses, accomplished a feat previously unaccomplished by any jazz artist in 2011; she won the Grammy award for Best New Artist. Spalding’s victory could be viewed shocking considering she defeated more visible popular artists including Justin Bieber and Drake. While the Grammy could be considered Spalding’s ‘crowning’ achievement, it logically accompanies a rich, captivating biography, highlighted in its entirety on her website (http://www.esperanzaspalding.com).

Clarence Milton Bekker | Old Soul

Clarence Milton Bekker - Old Soul
 
Clarence Milton Bekker
Old Soul
(Playing for Change/Concord)
by Brent Faulkner
 
Clarence Milton Bekker (formerly known as CB Milton) is an R&B artist who has endured career highs and notable lows. A native of Suriname, CB grew up in Netherlands loving music from an early age. In the late 1980s, Milton became a member of The Swinging Soul Machine, a band that backed The Trammps. Milton left the band to focus on a solo career. The 1990s yielded three albums beginning with It’s My Loving Thing, with each successive effort proving less notable…even lesser so in the U.S.

Incognito | Surreal

IncognitoSurreal600Sq
 
Incognito | Surreal
(Shanachie)
By Peggy Oliver
 
How does one band with a revolving door of contributors for over three different decades manage to obtain incredible longevity without missing a beat? What has kept Incognito – the multi-cultural, multi-personnel phenomenon that was highly responsible for sparking the eighties’ acid jazz movement – sounding so fresh, remaining so relevant and making it look so effortless? It all lies in the architect of Incognito, Jean-Paul Maunick a.k.a. “Bluey” – the group’s main songwriter and arranger – who refuses to change his musical stripes and feeds off of an indescribable energetic kick from his extended musical family.

J.J. Hairston & Youthful Praise | After This

J.J. Hairston & Youthful Praise - After This
 
J.J. Hairston & Youthful Praise
After This
(Light/E-One)
By Peggy Oliver
 
When I first stepped foot in church during the early sixties, my attention focused on the precious, riveting harmonies of the choir. It did not matter if the choir embodied a hymn, spiritual or the Psalms, this part of the weekly church service was my absolute favorite moment. As I started taking my relationship with Christ more seriously, choir ministries took on a slightly different meaning, equivocating more than just some pretty voices that have sheer technical skill.

Carmen Lundy | Changes

?????
 
Carmen Lundy
Changes
(Afrasia)
 
A Record Reflection by A. Scott Galloway
 
Singer/Songwriter Carmen Lundy’s twelfth album, Changes, is the kind of jazz vocal album that does more than entertain. It enhances your very existence. This is music that soothes your being, uplifts your spirit and quiets your mind – music you can use. It has a very strong Afrocentric foundation and an overflowing of warm musical sunshine to light your way. Ms. Lundy composed 8 of the 9 numbers herself, making for an album truly classifiable as “one from the heart.”

You cannot copy content of this page

Hide