RACHELLE FERRELL
INDIVIDUALITY (CAN I BE ME?)
Capitol, 2000
1) Individuality (Can I Be Me?) 2)
Sista 3) Will You Remember Me? 4) I Forgive You
5) I Gotta Go 6) Why You Wanna Mess It All Up? 7)
Gaia 8) Run to Me 9) Reflections of My Heart 10)
Satisfied 11) I Can Explain
Produced by George Duke Rachelle Ferrell's comeback
album - her first since the excellent untitled
1992 set - has definitely been the most awaited
new CD release this autumn, especially after Chris
Wells on the Soul24-7.com site had
enthused about the forthcoming album since last
July and said it's the first serious contender
for Ledisi in the album of the
year nominations. Well, in my book Rachelle's new
CD can't rival Ledisi - which I rate a heavenly
10 points set - but this CD surely is another top
10 CD in my personal best picks for year 2000.
However, I have to admit that the first track
frightened me, and for a few seconds I though
that Rachelle and her producer George
Duke had chosen the Macy Gray
route for chart success: the title track
represents the Macy Gray-type of rocky
folk-tinged music, and while the real drums are
very funky and Rachelle is definitely a more
impressive singer than Macy is, the overall sound
veers into the kind of rock territory that leaves
me completely cold. Luckily, the sounds get
immediately more soulful on the following cuts.
The second track of the CD, Sista, follows
the Erykah Badu-N'Dambi-influenced
trend, but Rachelle's personal, somewhat Angela
Winbush-ish vocal style certainly sets
Rachelle apart from the other "jazz in a new
way" sisters.
The main course begins, however, on the following
tracks, and God it's great to hear real, meaty
drums laying the beat, coloured by funky,
jazz-inclined playing, while on the slower tracks
there's a misty, atmospheric late-night jazz-soul
feel, sometimes with cool programmed beats and
sometimes with real drums. Naturally, this
setting is ideal for Rachelle's unique jazz-soul
vocalising, and who would deserve to have success
with this style better than Rachelle, who's no
newcomer on the scene but a singer who has always
had her roots in jazz music but is no stranger to
soulful vocalising, either. Listen to tracks like
I Forgive You, Gaia (with Jonathan
Butler guesting on duet vocals and
guitar) and the divine I Can Explain to
hear Rachelle at her best, showing her unique
jazz-soul vocalising over an atmospheric ballad
backdrop, or the deliciously meaty mid-tempo
setting with real instruments on the pulsating
I Gotta Do or the utterly funky groover
Satisfied. The 8-minute-long I Can
Explain especially offers such
down-to-the-bone, terrific vocalising that you
won't hear more powerful singing this year, I can
guarantee it! Verse 3 of the song is sheer
ecstasy, and the murderous final moments are
mind-blowing. Reflections of My Heart brings another
new Will Downing soundalike (Vinx
was the first one on the Club 1600 set,
reviewed in our previous issue) into the
spotlight: Russ Barnes' warm and
tasteful reading perfectly replaces Will, who
duetted with Rachelle on her 1992 set.
And yet I have to praise individually my
favourite cut of the CD, titled Run to Me.
This track really has much of the same feel as
the Ledisi ballads. Thus, the atmosphere is very
cool and fresh, fusing real instruments to the
slick, rhythmic programmed beat with percussion
and coloured by jazzy licks by keyboards and
guitar. The sound is ethereal, relaxed, yet very
stimulating - should we start calling this
"the new sound of the 2000"? Rachelle's
vocals are really unique, ranging from soft,
whispery flare into a furious 15-second-long
scream!
By no means an instantly accessible album and I
constantly skip the first track while playing the
CD, but I'm genuinely delighted to see how this
new jazz-soul trend brings even the old masters
of the scene back. Now where's the new Anita
Baker album! (8) -IT
