KAREN BERNOD
SOME OTHANESS FOR U
US TBA 6767, 2000
1) Endangered Specie 2) Chillin'
on the DL 3) Pray 4) Spirit 5) Do You Wanna Do 6)
The Rest of My Life (Wedding Song) 7) Lookin for
Love 8) Reminiscing on Yo Kissin' 9) The Pocket
Produced by Greg Spooner, Norman Hurt, Karen
Bernod & Elliot Wilson
When "new classic soul" - or should we
say "new classic jazz-soul" singers
like Erykah Badu and Jill
Scott gain more and more commercial
success, probably the best part of the situation
is that it also opens great new opportunities for
both established and fresh jazz-soul singers. Rachelle
Ferrell already made her comeback to the
charts, the Bay area talent Ledisi received
huge critical success with her stunning debut,
and now there seems to be a new vocal soul-jazz
album released every other week. Karen Bernod's debut set is one
of these, and while I can imagine someone to
shout out "oh no, still another!" - I'm
certainly not complaining: there's always room
for another classy soul-jazz album like this!
Karen already created quite a buzz last year when
she delivered the elegant lead vocals on the Incognito
gem Marrakech. So, she
definitely deserved a chance to show her
brilliance as a solo artist as well.
Again, already the cover pictures reveal that
Erykah Badu is one of the main sources of
inspiration, and the lyrics on the closing song
refer: "hip hop & trip hop, with a
little bit-a-jazz, you just can't stop, add a
pound of soul / sweet smelling of harmony, and
some melody, rhythm comes to a boil and ready to
serve". Thus, Karen's music is
unashamedly utilising the current trends, but I
hasten to add that like Ledisi or Erykah Badu (on
her brand new set), Karen uses lots of real
instruments and the overall style is much more
closer to soul and jazz than hip hop.
A thing that is in common to all these new school
soul-jazz singers is that their music often has a
groovy feel both in their upbeat cuts and
ballads. Also, real, down-dirty funk is not a
strange style to either Erykah, Ledisi or Karen:
just take a listen to the slowly grinding but
altogether meaty funk intro of Chillin' on
the DL. The following cut Pray is
also very funky, although the tempo of the song
is dead-slow.
On the other hand, the best ballads featured here
have the same kind of refined, ethereal
atmosphere as the best tracks on Ledisi's Soulsinger
CD. Prime examples of this are Spirit,
The Rest of My Life and Looking for
Love, all of which combine old and new
sounds in an admirable way.
Finally, the last two tracks are excellent
mid-tempo groovers which also demonstrate Karen's
ability to sing in a jazzy mould.
Another real winner of a CD, and although not a
huge commercial success, an essential collection
to anyone who appreciates first-rate jazzy soul
music. (9) -IT
