Ledisi Anibade Young is an American recording artist, singer-songwriter, record producer, CEO and actress. Her first name means “to bring forth” or “to come here” in Yoruba (ethnic groups in West Africa). Ledisi is known for her jazz influenced vocals.
In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. After unsuccessfully trying to get the group signed to a major label, she formed LeSun Records with Sundra Manning. Along with her group Anibade, Ledisi released an album entitled Take Time. The album gained major airplay from local radio stations.
In 2000, Ledisi released her first album, Soulsinger: The Revival. Ledisi and her group toured in 2001, performing various shows. In 2002, Ledisi released her second album, Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue, which was also released independently. The album featured the singles "Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue", "Autumn Leaves" & "Sugar/Brown Sugar".
The album won her an award for "Outstanding Jazz Album" at the California Music Awards. During
her five year hiatus, Ledisi made appearances on soundtracks.
In 2007,
she signed with Verve and released "Blues in the Night" which featured
on the tribute album, We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of
Song.
In 2007, Ledisi signed a major record deal with Verve Forecast and released her third album entitled Lost & Found, which sold almost 217,000 copies and earned her two Grammy nominations, including one for Best New Artist.
In 2009, Ledisi released her fourth album, Ledisi explained the album's title reflected its musical diversity: "The title 'Turn Me Loose' is basically me saying : 'I don't wanna be boxed in! Let me be myself as a performer and singer, because I do EVERYTHING! Not just one particular style!'.
Ledisi toured with R&B/soul singer Kem on his North American INTIMACY Tour.
Ledisi's sixth studio album, Pieces of Me, was released on June 14, 2011. Ledisi has performed at the White House 3 times at the behest of President and First Lady Obama.
Special appearance on : Trombone Shorty – For True
In honor of all South African singers, I pick up this group to commemorate 1990, the official end of apartheid and my daughter birth "Léa".
With a sound shaped by urban South Africa and honed during incandescent live performances, the Johannesburg quartet Tumi And The Volume have quickly forged an identity as rising stars of new African music.
They have released three albums in six years, yet Pick A Dream feels like their first proper studio album. Following At The Bassline, recorded in concert, and TATV, which also had a ‘live’ feel, they have developed a precise sleek sound, pulling in a wide range of atmospheres.
With this new offering, the group have really opened up their music to embrace the world.
Styling themselves as headless men, their quest for identity takes them into hypnotic waves of strings and percussion ("La Tête Savante"), where butterflies gently break bad news ("Through The Sunroof"), things are tough, frustrations many, and life spools along as in a film ("Moving Picture Frames") and where rebellion meshes with hope ("Play Nice").
It’s Hip Hop – as on killer track "Asinamali" and the explosive "Reality Check" – with added dimensions.
There’s a South African flavor throughout, especially on "Limpopo", but the message is universal and delivered in stunning poetic force by master MC Tumi Molekane.
The album contains a few surprises too with Danyel Waro guesting on vocals and kayamb.
This new project extends beyond music - they asked Hippolyte, a young French artist living in La Réunion, to supply the artwork. The result is a great album cover and a little graphic story inside the booklet which tells a mythological tale about the group’s beginnings.
It’s a beautiful piece of work, and one which you can’t download.
With Pick A Dream, TATV take their place as the most powerful African voices for the new generation. Turn up the volume!
This dreamer observes as much the past as the present to better build and understand the future.
Charles Pasi is a French-Italian and if he grew in Paris, he spent many of his summers across the Atlantic to listen to Miles Davis, Otis Redding, Ray Charles or Bob Dylan.
Down from his 27 years, he speaks to us about a time that some less than thirty years should better known. When he begins the music at the age of 17, Charles doesn't choose an electric guitar but a harmonica.
Against the advice of all, he follows his idea and takes singing & instrument lessons. Having joined a Gospel group, then having studied music in Italy, he picks up several springboards and prizes, skims the jam-sessions and, having ended finalist of International Memphis Blues Festival in 2006, begin an international tour ( United States, Canada, Russia, Hungary, Benelux, Italy, Spain) with his first album, Mainly Blue.
If his first opus was tinged with Blues, his successor Uncaged, is unclassifiable.
Charles often delivers dark texts on melodies with diverse colors. Passionate and enthusiastic, the arrangements are a mixture of influences Blues, Funk, Jazz, Rock or Soul, following the example of Wild it up, title frank as an uppercut in tones Red Hot Chili Peppers or Fume Against the Hatches...
A happy marriage to discover with Better With Butter, generosity in the rough which will make you sway hips as well as on a James Brown and will tempt you to see again all Bertolucci or Ferreri.
The singer distills with talent his wide influences and invites in the passage the legendary Archie Shepp's saxophone for two titles!
The phrasing clashing of the saxophone mixed with the captivating voice of Charles Pasi not betrays a second that half a century separates both men. Once upon a time Charles Pasi, delivers with Uncaged a poignant testimony of what can be the music of yesterday handed back with current tastes and skillfully mixed by a current passionate person. Charles Pasi is a young talent to followed closely.
Archie Shepp
- Pioneer of the free Jazz, the saxophonist evolved towards a music merging the constituents of the Jazz since his origins,Superstar of the saxophone Jazz,Archie Shepp (born in 1937) is, since his debuts, a free musician!
An unforgettable voice, an unique way to treat the rhythms and the words. Terez is an atypical jazz artist, she has an incredibly disproportionate voice, which transcends and kidnaps you from the first measures with this hoarse stamp which moved sometimes in incredible howling. We often compare her with Janis Joplin, Edith Piaf and Ella Fitzgerald, all combined in a single person.
And nevertheless, she remains unique and original. She begins really young to play guitar with her brother, they were listening to any kind of music from Jimi Hendrix to Billie Holiday passing by Zappa, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, who remains at this day one of her favorite artists.
At the end of the 80s, she's in Alberta where she collaborates with a local theater. During this stay, she shares the stage with The Cowboy Junkies and Robert Charlebois. On returning to Quebec, she gives a series of shows and brings out her first album Risk, in 1994. She makes the promotion with hundred of shows in Quebec, in France, in Belgium and in Switzerland.
Her second album, Speaks not so hardly, goes out in 1997, followed by another big tour through Quebec. Her third recording, Térez Montcalm, goes out in 2002. After few months on the road, she decides to have a break to get fresh ideas. She spends some years to deepen her learning of the bass and to polish up her writing.
Voodoo, her most ambitious album, is the result of this introspection.
On this album, Térez Montcalm offers three original compositions of her own invention, several great classics of the jazz and also songs of Eurythmics, Elton John, Jimi Hendrix and Claude Nougaro. She restores life in these well known melodies by filling them with colors and with her particular jazzy accents. For this album, she teams up with legendary Michel Cusson, composer and musician of extraordinary jazz.
Don't buy this album...Don't go to her concert you will become addicted. Now you are aware...She is outstanding!
The
story of the surfing champion reconverted to songwriter … Sober
acoustic guitar, a languishing stalk of voice, a velvet rhythmic, ever
simplistic simple melodies, Johnson seems to have been inspired by some
warm sand to draw the inspiration of his ballads.
'Love
is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart', sings
Johnson, laying out the mission statement for In Between Dreams in its
opener “Better Together”. It tends to focus on
relationships.This could be a good or a bad thing as far as you’re
concerned, but it has never really been the substance that matters with
Jack Johnson—as the cliché goes, it’s all in the delivery.
First
single 'Sitting, Waiting, Wishing' is Johnson’s most well-realized song
and it contains plenty of the subtle chord changes and even subtler
wordplay that made that song great.
Highlights
are 'Better Together', the tune is infectious and his voice is dreamy,
'Banana Pancakes', because it's such a cute concept and such a rainy
summer day anthem, and 'Never Know' my favorite on the whole album.
The guitar sounds so amazing, it blows me away every singletime. I cannot get tired of this song.
It is a wonderful album with music that is mellow, fun, romantic and in general, just enjoyable. What I like best about his music is that it can be all of those things without being sappy, boring or repetitive. It is great music to listen to and relax while doing whatever :)
Jack Johnson I think is one of the rare artists that seem to be able to really paint a picture in your mind. And I mean a clear vivid image. It just puts you in such a happy and relaxed mood. My favorite time to listen to it… at the beach. Enjoy the Ride!
Neo-Soul vocalist Jill Scott known as a spoken-word artist, does everything in her own way. Jazzyfatnastess move over because here she comes! You can add her to the growing list of this movement which blends old school R&B, Jazz and Hip-Hop into an infectious mix…This time, I will talk about 2 of my favorite albums.
1- Who Is Jill Scott?
This impressive debut album guarantees that no one will be asking "Who is Jill Scott?" for much longer. A classic mix of Jazz, Hip-Hop, spoken word, and bluesy melodies makes of this record, the best in its genre. On the whole is just a beautiful and emotional experience of love. Everything that is in this album is sung exotically from the heart. Crammed with love and desire, Scott expresses her deepest, inner-most feelings in remarkable honestly and astonishing professionalism. Jill, where have you been?
Comparisons to Erykah Badu and D'Angelo, while accurate, fail to convey the power of Scott's expressive voice which can sound sensual or deeply spiritual on one track and have an innocent childish quality on another.
This Philly native's sometimes poetic lyrics are refreshingly honest and unique. Although much of the album is concerned with love, she brings to the listener that urban female perspective that is just now receiving airplay again after a long hiatus.
The album opens with "Jilltro," which is a fantastic intro to open such an accomplished album. She introduces herself with haunting vocals and echoing beats, before moving into "Do You Remember?" which is a classy and seductive slow-jam ballad.
This is a vivid and soothing song that sets the standard for the rest of the album, as Jill's thick vocals slide over the heavenly beats. "Exclusively" follows this up, and is a humorous insight into Jill's personality and how in love she is with her man.
The song only lasts for little over two minutes, but is an album highlight for sure. You don't hear many female artists singing with such honesty like this, so prepare to be stunned. & on & on… Just allow yourself to listen to the rest… Although I love every single song on this album, if I had to pick my favorite, I would choose 'He Loves Me'. It's simply amazing, and describes exactly how I'd like to be in a relationship ;)... I know I'm dreaming!
Artists like Scott are redefining soul music for a new generation and proving that one doesn't need a crew of backup dancers, a flashy image or vulgar lyrics to entertain.
2- The Light Of The Sun
With
this one, it sounds like Jill Scott is having fun making music again.
It's recalling an era when tempos were slower and voices less
Auto-Tuney. It's a welcome flashback. She has divorced, been left by her
subsequent partner and had a baby, all of which have left their mark on
this pained but triumphant record.
Having long preached resilience and self-empowerment, she's now practicing them, turning bruising experiences into uplifting sung-spoken pieces about being down but never out. Musically, she dips into Jazz, Hip-Hop, Funk and Soul, satisfyingly adapting each to her elegant vocals.
She and rapper Eve are fierce together on 'Shame'; contrastingly, a supple, 90-style R&B duet with Anthony Hamilton, 'So in Love' is simply sweet. Slipping and sliding around the fluttering beat on the sparing 'Quick', she vents her distress: "I thought you were special/I feel it in my stomach, I can't seem to move on."
Sonically, the most adventurous thing here is the long, spaced-out 'Le Boom Vent Suite', but it's Scott's warm womanliness over the whole album that makes it a must-hear!
Place to the British Soul and to the label Freestyle Records! To announce "This Time" album coming DJ / producer Adam Gibbons, also known as pseudo Lack of Afro, Alex Genn-Bash directed the video for "A Time For."
A tasty and delightful piece that involved the singer Wayne Gidden and that you can already buy in vinyl. The highly anticipated LP is itself expected to on September 26. So by then, it remains for us to salivate while listening to this first single in loop ...
Alice's demand as a vocalist has gained an enviable reputation as one of the UK's hottest singers, recording with the likes of Massive Attack, The Roots, The Quantic Soul Orchestra, Mr Scruff, Roy Ayres, and De La Soul . Blessed with a lavishly soulful voice, Alice's sound is modern, but firmly rooted in the past. Although her style is predominantly bluesy and soul lament it also encompasses everything from funk to Gospel to Jazz and beyond.
Her 4th album "Pot of Gold" is produced once more by TM Duke which is a serious credit in itself, but many of the songs could've been crafted by the Motown legend Berry Gordy when heard. Alice Russell shows off an impressive array of vocal chops, conjuring up the wails of divas like Chaka Khan and Patti LaBelle.
Russell isn’t afraid to use hints of her British accent as an asset and Russell’s band,from the horn section, to the bassist- Alex Cowen, to violinist- Mike Simmons truly feel what they are putting down on tape and have enough versatility to offer something more than your average Neo-Soul house band.
“Let Us Be Loving” grooves with an electronic beeping that recalls Grace Jones and is our first indicator that Pot of Gold strives to do more than rehash the mid-70s. One minute you’re wooed by the klezmer fiddle of “Lights Went Out,” and before you know it you’re bobbing your head to the Stevie-groove of “Hesitate” or sipping the Acid-Jazz juice of “Universe”.
From there, she jumps to a bit of Afro-beat on "Living the Life of a Dreamer". The varied production keeps Pot of Gold fresh for its duration as Russell’s consistent yet still stylistically eclectic vocals ensure that the album never feels scattered.
Perhaps the highlight of Pot of Gold is what should be a head-scratching cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” I mean really, isn’t covering a song as overplayed as “Crazy,” almost like covering the “Macarena”?
But Russell’s performance turns the whole track on its head, slowing down the tempo even more than the original to crank out a gradually burning hurricane that’s barely recognizable as the “Crazy” we all overplayed a few years back.
Will this album have any staying power for years to come? Who knows? But for an alternate musical pill to the Joss Stones and Adele's of the world of British “Soul", Pot of Gold is mighty tasty for now. And damn can that girl sing ;) If you ever read this Miss Russell…Thank you and please don't stop !!!
This article explains the overlooked but always present genre of trip-hop. The origin of trip-hop and the present use of trip-hop from the clubs of Britain to the media of the states.
Trip-Hop is the true opposite of the Pop genre. Trip hop originated in the United Kingdom and became trendy during the mid-nineties. If you think you've never heard a trip-hop song before I can guarantee that you absolutely have but didn't know it.
The usage of Trip-Hop music throughout
the media reaches from almost every episode of the CSI franchise, to commercial ads, and even to movies. The black comedy Fight Club is an example because the entire score was composed by the trip-hop duo The Dust Brothers now known as The Chemical Brothers.
The unique sound of trip-hop employs the usage of jazz instruments and melancholy themes mixed with the world of keyboards to create break beat rhythms. The sound of a trip-hop artist is very laid back "Somersault" by Zero 7 comes to mind when I think of a laid back trip-hop song.
But there are times when trip-hop can me upbeat and catchy "Trip Like I Do" by The Crystal Method is one source for upbeat trip-hop music while Soulstice's "Fall Into You" is another. Sometimes this genre can be very haunting an example is Zero 7's mix of Radiohead's "Climbing Up The Walls" or Sia's "I Go To Sleep".
Tricky's "Excess" is a song that's been used numerous times throughout the entertainment media it even served as the theme song for the short-lived television series "Glory Days".
This song was also used during the films "13 Ghosts" and "Queen of the Damned".
Trip-hop has slowly crept into the American consciousness. Many times a trip-hop song is used as transitional background music. If a character is doing important computer work or doing important lab tests trip-hop and split-screen montages are used to make the scene more entertaining.
If you want a closer listen into the trip-hop field a few staples of this underground musical base include Massive Attack, Morcheeba, Portishead, Thievery Corporation and Gorillaz.
