PPP, Melanie Fiona, Foreign Exchange and Maxwell top a list of 13 notable performances from 2009.
PPP (Platinum Pied Pipers)—“Abundance” from Abundance
“Abundance” begins with a Motown backbeat, draws in some boogie-woogie piano with big band flourishes and by the end it’s straight church. “Abundance” is the closing and title track of PPP’s sonic tour-de-force. The world that Waajeed and Saadiq (not to be confused with Raphael) conjure draws on the literal sonic history of Detroit, beginning with those rumpling automobiles. The cultural wealth of this so-called destitute city is way too often below the radar and when referenced it’s all too often about the “Sound of Young America” and the black mogul who changed the trajectory of American pop music. And Motown and Mr. Gordy are given their due on Abundance (see “Clouds”), as are Detroit based Hard Bop geniuses like Curtis Fuller, Donald Byrd and Paul Chambers, and the techno revolution that Detroit spurred in the 1980s via figures like Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. In many ways PPP are the progeny of that revolutionary moment (inclusive of the computer programmed Soul that Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam bequeathed as heard on a track like “Luv Affair”), a fact that they remind listeners of on the title track where they riff, courtesy of vocals by Coultrain “you’re a slave to tradition/if you don’t want have it all/If revolution ain’t your picture/ then you cease to exist at all”. What PPP has in “Abundance” is one of the richest musical legacies in the country and they are unafraid to exploit that legacy in support of making some of the most important R&B in more than a decade.
Melanie Fiona—“It Kills Me” from The Bridge
What first drew me to “It Kills Me” is the production—a lushness that simply fills a room, a car, a headset, reminiscent of some of classic R&B production of Luther Vandross, Hot Buttered Soul era Isaac Hayes and Gamble and Huff at their peak. This is production that is densely layered and filled with sonic subtleties that make every listen a journey into discovery. Kudos to Andrea Martin and Jay Fenix, for production that actually challenges a singer instead of enabling their mediocrity. Fiona is not a household name—yet—and at first listen your hear strains of Keyshia Coles (hoping this wasn’t a song she passed on). The Bridge is a solid debut from the Canadian born singer, whose parents are natives of Guyana, but “It Kills Me”—just listen to those Motown tinged “ooh, ooh, oohs” in the song’s chorus and that drama filled bridge, damn I love song craft—may be the best R&B ballad released in the last three years. And don’t sleep on the Ghostface remix, which is likely making Isaac Hayes smile from his grave
Foreign Exchange featuring Darien Brockington and Musinah—“Something to Behold” from Leave It All Behind
Most Negroes are oblivious to Foreign Exchange, largely because their brand of Cosmopolitan Soul—a touch of Holland in the American South—is well beyond the scope of anything that "Knee-gro" Radio (that’s for my man Bob Davis @ Soul-Patrol.com) can tolerate. Let’s hope the Grammy nod for “Daykeeper” featuring Musinah changes some of that though a nomination in a category called “Best Urban/Alternative” speaks volumes about where some of our ears are. Cards on the table, there’s a local connection; one-half of Foreign Exchange is Carolina’s Phonte, who is also part of the remaining half of Little Brother. And Phonte was real when he called Kanye out for trying to sing—Phonte is the real deal. Any number of the tracks on Leave It All Behind were Grammy worthy, including their brilliant take on Stevie Wonder’s “If She Break Your Heart” (from the Jungle Fever soundtrack), which features vocals from another Carolinian, Yazahrah and string arrangements courtesy of 4Hero. For my money though, it’s the playful “Something to Behold”—“I’mma need you to sing this one Anna-Mae”—with Musinah reminding us that she might be the most talented singer that nobody’s heard of. Thinking a Grammy might finally change that.
Listen HERE
Maxwell featuring Nas—“Help Somebody (Remix)” from BLACKSummer’s Night
Even before the late December release of the remix of Maxwell’s “Help Somebody” the track would have landed on this year-end list, for simply being one of the many standouts on Maxwell’s return BLACKSummer's Night. Off the scene for 6 years, a couple a of lifetimes in R&B, few knew what to expect. To put this in some perspective, some of Maxwell’s peers, D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill, have not recorded full length studio recording in nearly a decade—there’s literally a generation of listeners unaware of them. Would this be the Maxwell of Now (2003) or the Maxwell of Embyra (1998), since no one could expect to hear the freshness that was Urban Hang Suite ever again. That Maxwell gave us all of the above and else more speaks well of his artistic future and the value of taking some time away from the game. The beautiful “Pretty Wings” and “Bad Habit” are reminders that artistic integrity and support from urban radio aren’t mutually exclusive, but “Help Somebody”—with or without Nasir Jones—is evidence that R&B need not stay at home, to find a home.
Listen HERE
Leela James—“Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” from Let’s Do It Again
Leela James’ vocal instrument lies somewhere in between Betty Wright’s sass and Mavis Staples' gravitas and her musical sensibilities are not too far behind. Rather than court the radio support that she was denied for her fine debut A Change is Gonna Come (2005), James returned this year with a stellar set of covers—not that you could really call them covers. Even when the results missed the mark, as they did with James’ cover of Phyllis Hyman “You Know How to Love Me,” there was no denying that she had put her own stamp on the product. That James took on Bobby Womack, who in 2009 was finally inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, speaks a great deal about both her brashness and her musical IQ. Though Calvin Richardson recorded a fine, fine full length tribute to Womack, nothing on that collection comes close to the funk that James conjures on her version of Womack’s “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.”
Listen HERE
PPP (Platinum Pied Pipers)—“Abundance” from Abundance
“Abundance” begins with a Motown backbeat, draws in some boogie-woogie piano with big band flourishes and by the end it’s straight church. “Abundance” is the closing and title track of PPP’s sonic tour-de-force. The world that Waajeed and Saadiq (not to be confused with Raphael) conjure draws on the literal sonic history of Detroit, beginning with those rumpling automobiles. The cultural wealth of this so-called destitute city is way too often below the radar and when referenced it’s all too often about the “Sound of Young America” and the black mogul who changed the trajectory of American pop music. And Motown and Mr. Gordy are given their due on Abundance (see “Clouds”), as are Detroit based Hard Bop geniuses like Curtis Fuller, Donald Byrd and Paul Chambers, and the techno revolution that Detroit spurred in the 1980s via figures like Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. In many ways PPP are the progeny of that revolutionary moment (inclusive of the computer programmed Soul that Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam bequeathed as heard on a track like “Luv Affair”), a fact that they remind listeners of on the title track where they riff, courtesy of vocals by Coultrain “you’re a slave to tradition/if you don’t want have it all/If revolution ain’t your picture/ then you cease to exist at all”. What PPP has in “Abundance” is one of the richest musical legacies in the country and they are unafraid to exploit that legacy in support of making some of the most important R&B in more than a decade.
Melanie Fiona—“It Kills Me” from The Bridge
What first drew me to “It Kills Me” is the production—a lushness that simply fills a room, a car, a headset, reminiscent of some of classic R&B production of Luther Vandross, Hot Buttered Soul era Isaac Hayes and Gamble and Huff at their peak. This is production that is densely layered and filled with sonic subtleties that make every listen a journey into discovery. Kudos to Andrea Martin and Jay Fenix, for production that actually challenges a singer instead of enabling their mediocrity. Fiona is not a household name—yet—and at first listen your hear strains of Keyshia Coles (hoping this wasn’t a song she passed on). The Bridge is a solid debut from the Canadian born singer, whose parents are natives of Guyana, but “It Kills Me”—just listen to those Motown tinged “ooh, ooh, oohs” in the song’s chorus and that drama filled bridge, damn I love song craft—may be the best R&B ballad released in the last three years. And don’t sleep on the Ghostface remix, which is likely making Isaac Hayes smile from his grave
Foreign Exchange featuring Darien Brockington and Musinah—“Something to Behold” from Leave It All Behind
Most Negroes are oblivious to Foreign Exchange, largely because their brand of Cosmopolitan Soul—a touch of Holland in the American South—is well beyond the scope of anything that "Knee-gro" Radio (that’s for my man Bob Davis @ Soul-Patrol.com) can tolerate. Let’s hope the Grammy nod for “Daykeeper” featuring Musinah changes some of that though a nomination in a category called “Best Urban/Alternative” speaks volumes about where some of our ears are. Cards on the table, there’s a local connection; one-half of Foreign Exchange is Carolina’s Phonte, who is also part of the remaining half of Little Brother. And Phonte was real when he called Kanye out for trying to sing—Phonte is the real deal. Any number of the tracks on Leave It All Behind were Grammy worthy, including their brilliant take on Stevie Wonder’s “If She Break Your Heart” (from the Jungle Fever soundtrack), which features vocals from another Carolinian, Yazahrah and string arrangements courtesy of 4Hero. For my money though, it’s the playful “Something to Behold”—“I’mma need you to sing this one Anna-Mae”—with Musinah reminding us that she might be the most talented singer that nobody’s heard of. Thinking a Grammy might finally change that.
Listen HERE
Maxwell featuring Nas—“Help Somebody (Remix)” from BLACKSummer’s Night
Even before the late December release of the remix of Maxwell’s “Help Somebody” the track would have landed on this year-end list, for simply being one of the many standouts on Maxwell’s return BLACKSummer's Night. Off the scene for 6 years, a couple a of lifetimes in R&B, few knew what to expect. To put this in some perspective, some of Maxwell’s peers, D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill, have not recorded full length studio recording in nearly a decade—there’s literally a generation of listeners unaware of them. Would this be the Maxwell of Now (2003) or the Maxwell of Embyra (1998), since no one could expect to hear the freshness that was Urban Hang Suite ever again. That Maxwell gave us all of the above and else more speaks well of his artistic future and the value of taking some time away from the game. The beautiful “Pretty Wings” and “Bad Habit” are reminders that artistic integrity and support from urban radio aren’t mutually exclusive, but “Help Somebody”—with or without Nasir Jones—is evidence that R&B need not stay at home, to find a home.
Listen HERE
Leela James—“Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” from Let’s Do It Again
Leela James’ vocal instrument lies somewhere in between Betty Wright’s sass and Mavis Staples' gravitas and her musical sensibilities are not too far behind. Rather than court the radio support that she was denied for her fine debut A Change is Gonna Come (2005), James returned this year with a stellar set of covers—not that you could really call them covers. Even when the results missed the mark, as they did with James’ cover of Phyllis Hyman “You Know How to Love Me,” there was no denying that she had put her own stamp on the product. That James took on Bobby Womack, who in 2009 was finally inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, speaks a great deal about both her brashness and her musical IQ. Though Calvin Richardson recorded a fine, fine full length tribute to Womack, nothing on that collection comes close to the funk that James conjures on her version of Womack’s “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.”
Listen HERE
Me’Shell Ndegeocello—“Love You Down” from Devil’s Halo
Given the high-brow pop that Me’Shell Ndegeocello has consistently delivered for more than 15 years, forgive us for forgetting that most of us got our first taste of the Chocolate-Gurl-Wonder somewhere in the basement with a blue light on dragging to “Outside Your Door” or “A Fool of Me.” Taking the obvious balladeers out of the mix, few besides Prince and Ndegeocello can claim such a body of exquisite slow jams. With “Love You Down” Ndegeocello reincarnates the long forgotten and stylistically disparaged (talking about the Jheri curls, not the music) Ready for the World, who pound for pound, ran with the best that R&B produced in the mid-1980s, when the likes of Dreamboy and The Deele were Quiet Storm staples. No doubt Ndegeocello heard them all during her hang days in Washington, DC, the city that birthed the Quiet Storm format, courtesy of the late Melvin Lindsey. As such “Love You Down” is fine tribute to that last era when Blackness was still under the cover.
Georgia Anne Muldrow—“Daisies” from Umsindo
That Georgia Anne Muldrow resists categorization is an understatement; indeed I’ve yet to find a coherent thought that captures what I feel when I hear her music. This is just some other-ish and understandably so, when your daddy was the noted Jazz guitarist Ronald Muldrow, your momma, Rickie Byers Beckwith, is a disarming singer in her own right and your most common collaborators are exquisite Detroit beat makers like PPP (formerly The Platinum Pied Piper), and oh yeah, you write produce and provide instrumentation on virtually all of you music. There’s not an urban radio station that’s got the “balls” or the sense to get Muldrow on their regular rotation, and let’s be clear it’s their loss. Umsindo is more arresting than Muldrow 2006 debut, Olesi: Fragments of an Earth, and “Daises” is the most arresting track on the new recording. A riff off the old colloquialism for death (pushing daisies), Muldrow’s “Daisies” is what second-line music is supposed to sound like when tainted by the muck and murk of Post-Katrina New Orleans. The perfect follow-up to the dirge “New Orleans” from Olesi, this is second-line music for the generation that’s yet to come.
Listen HERE
The Jackson 5—“Buttercup” from I Want You Back: The Unreleased Masters
The Motown Records catalogue and the Jobete Publishing Company represent two of the most valuable cultural archives in the country, and this point was powerfully reinforced in the aftermath of Michael Jackson’s untimely death in June. At the time of Jackson's death, Universal (Motown’s parent company) was set to release Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection and the box-set, released under the direction of Harry Weinger, was a fitting tribute to Jackson. But Weinger wasn’t satisfied and went back to the archive where he discovered dozens of unreleased Jackson 5 master recordings, twelve of which appear on I Want You Back: The Unreleased Masters. Though the J5’s take on the Curtis Mayfield penned “Man’s Temptation” is a true revelation, it’s the collaboration with Stevie Wonder on “Buttercup” that is the true gem. Likely recorded in 1974, when the Jackson’s were working with Wonder on his Fullfillingness’ First Finale (they sing background on “You Haven’t Done Nothin’”), the song was intended to be part of a rumored full length album that Wonder was going to produce with the group. Given Motown’s difficulties in marketing the post-tween Jackson (one of the reasons, the family group shifted to Epic in late 1975), it’s not surprising that “Buttercup” and the project was canned. “Buttercup” gives an early inkling of the more mature Jackson that is heard on The Jackson’s Destiny (1978) and his Epic solo debut Off the Wall (1979); indeed the Stevie Wonder penned “I Can’t Help It” from Off the Wall sounds like it might have been intended for that initial session in 1974. “Buttercup” did find an afterlife before Weinger’s discovery—the late Carl Anderson recorded a nice version on his self-titled 1986 album.
Listen HERE
Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson—“Find a Way” from Suite for Ma Dukes—EP
Hip-hop is perhaps most compelling when it takes the time to mourn, and the death three years ago of James Yancy—J-Dilla/Jay Dee—has inspired the occasion of some breathtaking art. Yancy who died of at the age of 32 from complications from a rare blood disorder, inspired Erykah Badu’s poignant and beautiful “Telephone” (2007). Such is the case of Suite for Ma Dukes, where Nino and Atwood-Ferguson interpret four of Yancy’s compositions, including Slum Villages’ “Fall in Love” and Common’s “Nag Champa” as contemporary Chamber music. The project is yet another reminder of how expansive hip-hop continues to be, though it’s too bad that such recognition often occurs in moments of tragedy.
Israel Houghton—“Just Wanna Say” from The Power of One
Contemporary commercial Gospel music can often be as timid as the progressive politics of some of the black ministers who are the face of the Prosperity movement. As such Israel Houghton has always stood out—this cat’s simply one some other musical ish, breaking with musical conventions much the way Tonex issued a challenge to the Black Church’s regressive sexual politics. If the best of the Gospel tradition is about shaking your ass in the pews, Houghton’s got your ass on this track, replete with enough shifts, changes and transitions to remind you that this ish ain’t easy. This is not music for your cousin’s gospel choir, but the expressions of a musical genius who is never gonna get his due working within the insular world of Gospel music. And if Houghton, is solely concerned with saving souls, count me among the converted.
Mayer Hawthorne—“Maybe So, Maybe No” from the Maybe So, Maybe No—EP
Hat-tip to O-Dub (Oliver Wang) at Soul-Sides for putting Hawthorne on my radar. Hawthorne’s remake of New Holidays’ 1969 track served as the appetizer for Strange Arrangement, Hawthorne's full length recording that was released over the summer. Here Hawthorne taps into the retro movement that Wang has chronicled better than anybody and Hawthorne more than hangs with the big boys and girls like Amy Winehouse, Raphael Saadiq and Sharon Jones. Besides the Whurl-a-Gurls’ demands for repeats of “Maybe So, Maybe No” in the car, favorite moment with the song is hearing O-Dub’s own Whurl-a-Gurl put her own unique spin on it at Soul –Sides.
Tyler Woods—“Slow Jam—Relations” from The R&B Sensation
First caught the video for Woods’ “Prove Myself” on the burgeoning Centric channel and gave them glad hands for repping R&B that was way off the radio, I mean radar; nobody was gonna checking for Woods on their local Radio One station. I took a greater interest because of the local connection—Woods debut mixtape was produced by North Carolina’s own 9th Wonder (Patrick Douthit). But “Slow Jam—Relations,” which literally drew me from a light sleep one night, mesmerized me, as much for its Stepper-set aesthetics as for the brilliant change in the song’s middle where it shifts from a mid-tempo groove into a real Stepper classic. Woods vocals are earnest and sweet, but leave it to 9th Wonder to remind us that our humanity still lives on the dance-floor. And check the cameo from current NC resident Christopher Martin, riffing on the classic House Party.
Jay Z featuring Alicia Keys—“Empire State of Mind” from The Blueprint 3
It begins with a grand Soul gesture, the dramatic opening sequence from The Moments’ “Love on a Two Way Street.” It the kind of gesture that lets you know that this is Alicia’s song even before she sings a note of the chorus. That the song gave Jay Z the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 seems beside the point. This update of Billy Joel’s own love song for the Big Apple and Nas’s love song to Hip-Hop, seemed perfectly pitched for our still-in-progress responses to the 9/11 tragedy. Jay Z’s choice was to celebrate his city, with a perfect little piece of pop befitting the 40-year-old man he is and Keys was the perfect collaborator. Give them credit for that promotional coup that was the performance prior to game 2 of the 2009 World Series. Like Melle Mel said more than a generation ago, “New York, New York, big city of dreams…”
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