The Albums of the Year
Our critics' picks for the albums of 2000.
Ledisi received four
nominations, two for the number one
album.
The Soul Scale Ian (Martin)' debut set One
is the album of the issue - Ian himself
introduced and interviewed elsewhere in
the same issue. Our reviewer also warmly
recommends Gladys Knight's
latest CD entitled At Last.
Instead, the latest CD's by Lina and
Driza did not excite our
reviewers. In our Archive Material /
Reissue column, the 1978 original, Randy
Brown's Welcome to My Room
gets the highest points.
Quality Time Top 30 of
2000
Quality Time best of countdown of 2000 is
a delicious mix of veteran soul artists
like The Dells, L.J. Reynolds,
Freddie Hughes, Jeffrey Osborne
and Phil Perry, late
80s/90s quality soul heroes like Will
Downing, Freddie Jackson, Chanté Moore,
Rachelle Ferrell, Renee Diggs, Maysa Leak
and Rosie Gaines, plus
some of the brightest talents of the
current quality soul scene:
Ledisi, Fertile Ground, Tim Kepler, Tommy
Sims, Darwin Hobbs etc.
The Sound of the New Millennium
Every decade a new form of black music is
born. Our editor suggests that the The
Sound of the New Millennium has already
been born, although there's no name for
it yet. The new sound is jazzy soul with
lots of real musicians. Artists like
Erykah Badu (with her latest
set), Ledisi, Karen Bernod and
N'Dambi represent this
new sound at its best. In this article,
we take a look at Badu's career thus far,
plus introduce two great new talents of
the new jazzy soul scene: Karen Bernod
and Ian Martin.
Both of these artists are interviewed and
they describe the current battle between
real artists and record company
executives, who mainly want to "copy
what's hot" and rather give room for
"pretty, model type, young naive,
hungry artists who don't have a clue as
to what they're really in for". As a
result, the current R&B market is
full of puppet-like artists with no
longevity. Like Karen Bernod puts it,
"we'll never be gray with dentures
sittin' in a rocking chair popping our
fingers to a `Puffy artist´ or `Jermaine
Dupri artist´. Read the excellent
interviews - they are one of the best
ever featured in our magazine!
Soul Express Poll 2000
The results of our readers' poll - only The
Temptations managed to renew
their win in their own category (vocal
groups). So, who were the winners in the
Male singer, Female singer, Jazz-funk,
British act and Newcomer categories? And
which were the albums of the year - read
the top 25 dountdown voted by our
readers!
Jazz-Funk
The five albums that receive excellent
reviews from our jazz-funk specialist
this time are the new CD's by Chris
Bangs, Gregg Karukas, Marcus Johnson,
Brooklyn Funk Essentials and Guru.
SOLOMON BURKE - The complete story with
an interview, part 2 In this issue, Heikki Suosalo
continues his in-depth story of one of
the living soul legends, Solomon
Burke. Read the detailed story
of Solomon, featuring his own comments on
his most important moments of his great
career. The second part of the story (8
pages!) includes the years 1969-2001.
Deep Freddie Scott, one of
our Deep columnist's all-time soul hero,
has released a new album entitled Brand
New Man. Other new albums reviewed
this time include the new CD's by Robert
Tillman, Little Milton, Kenne Wayne,
Marva Wright, Freda Payne and Marvin
Sease. In the reissue section, a
pile of new CD's to be reviewed as well,
and then we take a closer look at two
indie labels, Ecko and High Stacks. The
last minute arrivals were Little
Johnny Taylor and Swamp
Dogg's Westside CD's.
Upfront Soul
The quiet time of the year on the new
releases front give us a chance to review
some rare quality soul CD's raved by
other soul specialists. Kay Cee from
Düsseldorf brought artists like LaTanaya,
Nichelle, Chris Simpson and
Tiorah into our notice, and all
of these were worthwhile artists. Also,
the new gospel-soul sensation Tarralyn
Ramsey is well worth checking,
as is the comeback album by Eloise
Laws.
