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Soul Express CD Review


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REGGIE CALLOWAY
Bring Back the Love
US Bungalo/Spiral Galaxy CD, 2009

1) Bring Back the Love 2) I'm the Very One 3) Walking Between Raindrops 4) Sabrina 5) Man's Gotta Do 6) Going the Wrong Way 7) It's You 8) Hotel Lonely Room 9) My Lady 10) So in Love 11) You Are My Music [Inspirational Bonus]

Reggie Calloway is the 5 times Grammy nominated songwriter and producer who was also the founder and former leader of the funk aggregate Midnight Star on Solar records, before turning into a successful soul/funk producer together with his brother Vincent Calloway. The Calloway brothers producer major hits for such artists as Teddy Pendergrass, Gladys Knight, LeVert and The Whispers.

As a performing artist, Reggie's success has been much more modest after leaving Midnight Star. The duet group Calloway with his brother Vincent started with a top ten hit I Wanna Be Rich, taken from the album All The Way, which I personally considered as major disappointment and gave it a 3 out of 10 rating. I described it as a mild, pop and rock inclined album that was more aimed at pop than soul market. Some of the more soulful tracks were nicely floating mid-tempo tunes, but I did not regard the guys as strong vocalists, and thus the low overall scores. The group's second album Let's Get Smooth (from 1992) was not reviewed in our magazine, but it included a couple of soulful tunes.

However, when Reggie started his solo career, and released a solo CD 2000, I rated the album Walking through Rain Drops in a much more favourable manner. I mentioned that some of the tracks fell into Lionel Richie -type of soft pop-soul category, but the best tunes represented refined quality soul, and some tracks were included in our Quality Time column. The album was originally released in the U.S.A. on Reggie's own label but it was released in UK by Expansion. You can read Barry Towler's review of the album here.

This 2009 CD Bring Back the Love has been advertised as a new release, but it's practically Walking through Rain Drops with a new title, album cover and different sequence of the songs. So if you missed the album for the first time, now you have a chance to get the CD.

As mentioned in my 2000 review, the classiest instrumentation can be heard on It's You, which boasts a typical quality soul intro with Gerald Albright's sax colouring the stylish keyboard lines, and Reggie delivers the melodic tune with his refined style. Other quality soul tunes include the alluring sax-laced mid-stepper Man's Gotta Do, the smoothly floating Hotel Lonely Room.

The musicians on the album also include Scott Mayo, Don Bynum, Paul Jackson Jr, Freddie Washington, whereas Valerie Pinkston and Marva Hicks are featured on backing vocals.

The only brand new song on the CD is the closing track You Are My Music, which is a mellow trumpet-laced (played by his brother Vincent) mid-tempo ballad. (Rating 7/10) -IT

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