The year 2002 has already brought us
plenty of quality soul gems, including
excellent tracks by Kloud 9,
Ledisi, Will Downing, Kathleen Bertrand,
Ola and Joseph Diamond.
OLA ONABULE - Still able to
create feel good songs Ola Onabule was
introduced to Soul Express readers in
1997 but he has only lately started to
get more recognition in his home country
(U.K.) after performing regularly in the
soul clubs and releasing his fourth CD Ambitions
for Deeper Breadth. Read the fresh
interview with Ola describing the strong
new album.
The Soul Scale
Will Downing is back in top
form, his latest CD being our album of
the issue - the
review also readable on our Website.
Other great new albums by Kloud 9,
Ola Onabule, Brenda Hillman, Ann Nesby
and Remy Shand. Instead,
the acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter
Glenn Lewis did not impress our editor with his
Stevie Wonder -influenced debut set. The
UK label Cafe De Soul continues their
excellent work by releasing a wonderful
compilation Cafe de Soul Volume One, with
15 superb soul cuts.
LEDISI - Is it neo-soul, neo-jazz
- or "modern timeless music"
Read the exclusive interview of the
number one lady of the much talked about
neo-soul genre. Still, like many other
artists whose music has been marketed as
"neo-soul" or "new classic
soul", Ledisi does not want to use
any of these marketing names herself:
"I don't want to put names to my
music. It's whatever I feel. I leave that
up to marketing and sales people and hope
the fans can make up their own minds as
to what they think it is. If I am forced
to think of what to call it, I will call
it soul music."
Ledisi also mentions she has another new
CD coming out soon - read about that and
much more of these great innovators of
modern timeless soul/jazz.
Jazz-Funk
A short section of smooth jazz this time,
including reviews of the latest eforts by
Kirk Whalum, The Chicago Project, Pamela
Williams, Paul Rozmus and Soulive.
THE SPINNERS STORY - Part 1: The
Tri-Phi Years
A 5-page opening part of The
Spinners Story continues Heikki
Suosalo's legendary stories of classic
soul vocal groups. Hours of interviews
with the original members of the group
again create the basis of the story,
added with Heikki's own comments about
each recording, single or LP. Full
discography included as well.
Deep
Telephone interviews with The
Dells and Floyd Taylor
(son of Johnnie Taylor)
are the main course of Heikki Suosalo's
Deep column this time.
Upfront Soul
Our editor surfs the Web CD shops and
finds some interesting soul-jazz albums
recommended by Amazon logarithms - based
on his previous bought CD's. Raymond
Jones, TC and Victor
Fields were the artists
recommended. Were they any good?
Other CD's featured in the Upfront Soul
column this time include Philip
Bailey's Soul on Jazz, Rachelle
Ferrell's Live in Montreux
91-97, Patti Austin's
For Ella and Cornell
Stone's debut set Stoned.
