CHAZZ DIXON - CAN I TALK TO YOU

Only two more to go for Chazz and then he can start sending invitations to the grand release party of his 20^th album. A prolific writer and recording artist, we can enjoy new music from Chazz practically on a yearly basis, and as long as he keeps making observations of different twists and turns in relationships, we can rest assured that soon we can listen to a new episode of his “soul soap opera” in the most positive meaning of the expression.

On his latest CD, Can I Talk to You (www.soulklub.com), moods vary from anger on a mid-tempo funky number called I’m Your Victim and frustration on a metronomic slow burner named Can I Talk to You to the sense of relief on the serene and sunshiny I’m over You and to optimism and joy on a downtempo number titled Rock Yo Body.

 About the background and the concept of this album, Chazz reveals that “social media shorts on narcissistic and or toxic relationships. I was looking for a way to expand how we or I write about romance, how to take the theme of love that most crooners sang about in the day and modify it in to how we address dating in this age of social media. Almost 70 years ago Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers introduced a change in the way we sang our silly love songs. How? By asking a real question: Why Do Fools Fall in Love? For a time, writers accepted an unofficial challenge to pen songs that said more than ‘I love you’ or ‘I want you.’ Don’t get me wrong. I like silly love songs as much as the next person, but I also appreciate writers who serve up material that helps us tackle the universal reason why we create romantic music – relationships.”

 A slow and beautiful swayer called Hey Baby, a rhythmic ballad titled Nothing but You, as well as the melancholic How Can I Get Closure and the sorrowful Code for Goodbye all reveal that this time Chazz is musically more in a smooth state of mind. Chazz: “I recorded several hard-edge rock slammers but they didn’t compliment the CD’s overall feel. Lyrically they were spot-on - in fact maybe too much – but musically they altered, offset, the mood, the groove of the project.”

 Chazz wrote all twelve new songs on the set, albeit on the peaceful and dreamy Turn and Walk away he shared the production and writing with his son, Barope “DJ-Payday” Dixon. Personal top-three on this CD consists of a gently flowing ballad called Love Don’t Mean Anything, which could have excelled as a 1960s pop song, the first single titled I Can Make You Feel Good and the concluding sweet and tender ballad named You Look So Beautiful. Chazz: “Music is therapy, emotional therapy. I hope this CD is that and more for you.”

© Heikki Suosalo