antonio neal DAYS OF MY LIFE emi gospel

No greater love can I find beyond what I have gained in You.

Some foods eliminate your hunger temporarily and then the hunger returns – quickly. But there are some foods that satisfy your hunger slowly but effectively and you are full. Unfortunately, today it is difficult to satisfy that hunger for good music during a time where shock, samples and a lack of creativity are the norm. However, occasionally a musician comes along with an eleven-course menu that satisfies your hunger for good music and you are full.

Antonio Neal satisfies that hunger with Days of My Life - a personal odyssey that shows us many sides of a complex man. Neal, a former college basketball player is a singer/songwriter that has taken his influences from The Winans, Al Green, Andrae Crouch, Fred Hammond, Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway and created a musical art form that commands your attention.

With songs like You Don’t Know which gives you that modern, hip male singer vibe to So Good which will reach lovers of gospel and inspirational music as well as lovers of R&B. The music supports the message in a fulfilling but contemporary manner… If you were just like me, just looking for somewhere to be then you’ve come to the right place. If you were like me, longing for new air to breathe then Jesus is waiting to fill you up... With this combination of current musical forms with inspirational lyrics, one wonders if Antonio will influence a new group of listeners outside the gospel arena. Antonio believes, “it (my music) will influence a new group only in the sense that I hope to cross over into the non-gospel consuming audiences, but at the same time give the faith community something to bump also.”

As you listen to Days of My Life, you realize that it is just that, an exploration of the days in the life of a man as he examines his family life, his marriage and his faith. The joyful sound of his ode to his wife entitled Our Love (his favorite on the CD) is followed by So Beautiful, which was written for his daughter. However, there are some songs that just lift you when need to be lifted. Songs that inspire you when you need that inspiration. Songs that give a peaceful feelings when you sing them. It is with a song like that entitled The Only One that you truly understand Antonio’s spirituality as he sings… You are the only one I need. You are the only God for me. I cannot move, cannot breathe unless you exhale in me... This song is special. It has an air of love and praise and worship that will elevate your spirit on those days that you really need it most.

Telling us what he would like a listener to come away with after listening to his CD Antonio tells us that first, he “would like people to feel that they got a quality project from Antonio Neal”. Second, he hopes that…“Days of My Life was lyrically relatable.” Third, that the CD…“allowed you to get away from life for a few moments. I hope that it puts a smile on your face and nudges you to want to be closer to Jesus, your husband or wife, your children, etc.” With Days of My Life, Antonio has undoubtedly been able to accomplish his goals on each and every level. During the song Flashback tells you to step back and reflect on the good things that you have been blessed with and I consider getting to know Antonio one of those blessings.

billy porter

at the corner of broadway + soul “live”

sh-k-boom records

…come hell or high water got to let the truth be my guide; this is my life… got to make it right

And when it is time to get away, the truth is that the corner of Broadway + Soul is the perfect place to go. That is the place that Billy Porter gravitated to. It worked. He found himself and allowed THE higher power to guide him – got to make it right. And when comes to his talent; his gift – he has definitely made it right.

Use me Lord for your service… Lord I’m ready, I want you to use me up. Show me your master plan for my life

1997 was the year Billy Porter made his major label debut. A true talent, Billy has finally released another CD that is an absolute testament to his vision and his talent. At The Corner of Broadway + Soul are songs of meaning, beauty and purpose. From Songs For A New World to Dreamgirls to Myths and Hymns to Sunday In The Park With George to Smokie Norful to Kirk Franklin and his own self-penned tunes, Billy takes us on a trip that is well worth the price. And we get it all – Broadway, gospel and soul. If you appreciate good music, it is definitely for you.

Billy is at home when he sings the songs of Broadway. King of The World has that ‘big” Broadway song feeling that Billy sings with conviction, emotion and verve …once upon a time father said to me son, you are everything that you see in your dreams. That song was a perfect choice that unbelievably (only if you don’t know Billy) leads into a dead on reading (down to the intonations, breathing and pauses) of Jennifer Holliday’s And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going followed by Billy telling us, “I had to do it”.

The very special thing about the song choices is that they all make sense for the story that Billy is telling us about his life. They all have the same uplifting spirit. The two gospel covers toward the beginning and the end of this performance fit perfectly. Two minutes into his performance Billy sings Kirk Franklin’s Why We Sing, which tells us just that; it tells us why Billy sings.

I sing because I’m happy/I sing because I’m free/His eye is on the sparrow/That’s the reason why I sing/Glory Hallelujah/You’re the reason why I sing/And when the song is over/We’ve all said amen/In your heart just keep on singing/And the song will never end …You’re the reason why I sing

Towards the end of this CD a song goes back to what Billy has discovered as he covers Smokie Norful’s I Need You Now which seamlessly blends into a spectacular version of the Stephen Sondheim penned, Sunday. This song has the most amazing accompanying vocals you are likely to hear by Michael McElroy and the Broadway Inspirational Voices.

If you love Broadway, gospel and soul, treat yourself to this wonderful group of songs. The title of the theme song from the movie First Wives Club (that Billy sang years ago on the soundtrack) tells us what this CD delivers – Love Is On The Way – and that love is “live”. And Billy delivers.

Common – ‘Be’

Album review for The Music Experience

By Isaac Perry

We are a traveling people.

Since time began Black folks have walked this planet as if it were a necessary feat, exploring every corner of the Earth and leaving traces of an indomitable Black presence that—like a poltergeist that oppressors have systematically hidden for centuries—still exists in places as diverse as China, South America, and Western Europe. The enormous amount of knowledge and art found and created by so much globe trekking has been enough to sustain the world’s thirst for intellectualism and creativity by providing a foundation for all other institutions of art and higher learning to be built upon. But in this age, in a time when Black people the world over are more stagnant and immobile than ever, how is our collective knowledge being shared and spread today? How is the intellectualism and learning of our ancestors being deciphered and accredited? And, perhaps most importantly, how is our art being created and cared for? Are Black artists still able to capture the moods and wisdom of not only their people but of the places they dwell in and the times they define and are shaped by?

All important questions and Chicago MC Common seems to have at least considered them at one point or another, consciously or subconsciously, while recording Be, his sixth and possibly best album. It was Marvin Gaye who claimed that the job of an artist is “to wake up the minds of men” and although Be is not the innovative giant What’s Going On proved itself to be in 1971, Common’s latest effort is a work that captures, like Gaye’s work, the essence of a people’s mind-state, their worries and fears, loves and pains, rights and wrongs. Be is not an exceptional album because it breaks new ground in the fields of production or lyricism (although Common hasn’t lost an ounce of poetic strength). Be is exceptional because it is a collection of thoughts scraped and gathered from the streets bordering and creating Chicago’s South Side; it is a definitive piece of art derived from the spirit of the people and places that shaped the artist, a shining example of what happens when a Black artist seeks to morph the sounds of millions of Black souls, the lyricism of street corners, the rhythm of boulevards, or the emotion of ghetto kings and queens as they continue through life unaware of any ownership of thrones, into art.

Be begins subtly, persuasively, sneaking up on the listener with the patience and cool of bass strings. The first track is labeled an intro but although it is just over two minutes long it stands on its own as a full-fledged song. Within it Common announces his intentions from the get: I wanna be as free as the spirits of those who left/I’m talkin’ Malcolm, Coltrane, my man Yusef. The evocation of past revolutionaries and their freedom to initiate their revolutions is anything but accidental; it’s Com’s goal to present a work that, although definitely shaped by the past and honed fine enough to sustain itself into the future, is a product of the now—as all great art is, a divine presentation of the artist’s free state of being and the work he was able to create as a benefactor of that freedom. Common, despite his own claims that he is not a political rapper, is still the thought provoking scribe who has teased us with intellectual bait since he first entered the game over ten years ago. Consider a later lyric on “Be”: Bush pushin’ lies/Killers immortalized/We got arms but won’t reach/for the skies. This is a theme that is repeated often on Be: the failure of dreams based on the limits placed upon the dreamers. It is a predicament made for the revolutionary, a problem only he can solve, a system of enslavement only he can defeat.

That selfsame system of ghetto imprisonment is dealt a serious blow on Be’s next track, the beautifully gritty ode to a paradigm of Black culture: the street corner. “The Corner” (which notably features the Last Poets) is brilliant. While producer Kanye West utilizes an old Stax Records sample (“You Make the Sun Shine” by The Temprees) Common utilizes the fire and ice of his vocal talent, setting fire to curbside trash and igniting the euphoria that cools souls on hot summer afternoons. These are the stories told by Stony and Cottage Grove/The world is cold/The block is hot as a stove Com rhymes, giving credence to the fact that Be belongs as much to the South Side avenues that raised him as the album belongs to himself. The chorus of “The Corner” is a reflection of this ideal; West repeats I wish I could give you this feelin’ as a sort of humble offering, aware of course that giving the listener this feeling is exactly what Common is doing, etching into the souls of all who have spent time on the corner a sonic blueprint of its emotion, tragedy and wisdom.

It’s fair to say that, in some respects, Be is a collaboration between the ubiquitous West and the eternally underground Common. But the album falls short of being the sort of collabo Only Built for Cuban Linx or even Control (an album that, like Be, proves what enormous synergy between an artist and a producer can produce) were simply because Common’s voice and thematic etchings dominate every song. The music is great but it is continually enhanced and sculpted by Com’s poetry, brought to a level that could never have been achieved had these tracks been given to another MC. West knows this and, in turn, formulates songs strong yet supple enough to give the Windy City rapper space to move around in and build upon. “Go”, the song immediately following “The Corner” is an example of Common’s and West’s supreme understanding of one another’s talents. West induces a mellifluous background that Common paints over in aural majesty, splashing West’s beat with a description of carnal fantasy that leaves the track dripping with horny fulfillment. “Go” does just that, jumping from the quaking ashes of “The Corner” and starting a new fire, one that smolders with near-adolescent desire. The song captures the insatiable nature of good sex; Common readily admits to fantasizing even while he was hittin’ it, then follows by professing that like a car that I can’t afford/I would want it/then want some more. In the end sexual fantasy becomes a revolving door that you never quite exit from, a thirst incapable of being sated. As the song suggests, all one can do is keep going: chasing, fucking, and chasing again.

Be’s next two tracks, “Faithful” and “Testify”, are soul stirring songs that evoke spiritual ponderings (“Faithful”) and narrative drama (“Testify”). What if God was a her? Common asks over the equally winsome piano keys of “Faithful”. He attempts to answer his own question in a verse that brilliantly captures man’s conflicted and flawed soul. The song ends in a beautiful coalescence of voices provided by John Legend and Bilal. It’s street gospel; you can almost imagine Common and co. atop crates, preaching the virtues of loyalty from the corner.

“Testify” is the tale of a gangster Cleopatra, a puppet-mistress who watches as her mate goes down for the crimes she herself masterminded. She is, as Common spits in the song’s last line, the Queen-pin. It’s a furious track, maybe a perfect song; a brief interlude inside a hot courtroom where the law is as vindictive as ever and the tears of those who profess innocence are merely drops of water at the bottom of a deceptive well.

“Love is…” is the centerpiece of Be, a song that brings to mind Common’s unending wishfulness, a desire to take and drench the ghetto with the love that runs underneath its surface like gold trapped in sewers. Love was once the reason for all exploration, both inward and outward. On “Love is…” Common ponders a return to this sort of philosophy while a Gaye sample plays in the background, softly chanting God is love in an ethereal tone. The effect is haunting, sublime, and enticing; much like love itself.

“Love is..” fades into a sweet repose and then runs into a brick wall. That wall is a welcome one: the hard as bricks Chicago anthem “Chi City.” Not since Nas’s “N.Y. State Of Mind” has an MC lifted his city on his shoulders with a track so scathingly eloquent that it simultaneously salutes his crib and announces it’s dominance all in the same breath. I rap with the passion of Christ/Nigga: cross me Common spits at the beginning of “…City”. It gets prettier/uglier from there; in a few short lines Com wonders if wack niggas realize they’re wack, contemplates other MC’s preoccupation with car rims, and, most importantly, announces that hip-hop is Chica-goin’. Don’t get it twisted: “Chi-City” is a battle rap. It’s Com Sense versus the world, a world that has marginalized true art, true hip-hop: a culture currently being taken over by the denizens of the truest city under the sun.

The piano tinged and infectious “The Food (Live)” (recorded during an appearance by West and Com on Comedy Central’s The Dave Chappelle Show) is an exploration of the logic behind makin’ moves; an activity ghetto soldiers are acutely in tune with. The music is up beat, inspiring hand claps and head nods, but the underlying message is one of constant struggle. Common tells the tale of a friend who is trying to stay straight/But the streets is bendin’ him. The MC himself is left with a gnawing concern: going toe-to-toe with his life wondering if his effort is for the art or for the dough.

If Be is anything it is a result of decades of Black music that also points toward the future of Black musician’s many genres. Soul, R&B, and pop mix so subtly, so seamlessly throughout Be that the album produces it’s own sonic essay; unique because it is intensely honest, as real and honest as the corners and blocks it represents, as the people its words and tracks seem to have bled from.

“Real People” and “They Say” are songs naked and honest enough to walk the noonday streets in strides of jazz-induced riffs and gospel influenced revelations. Black men walkin’/with white girls on their arms/I be mad at them/as if I know their moms Common admits on “Real…”. Listening to Common’s smooth, slightly edgy flow as it is serenaded by an ongoing sax solo, you can almost see the Chicago MC strolling down the Windy City’s more illustrious boulevards (read: Michigan Avenue, where many Black men can regularly be seen engaged in activities that would make their mom’s mad) with pen in hand, translating exactly what he sees—the world’s real people—into compelling verse.

“They Say” is defiant, clever and, staying in line with one of Be’s dominant themes: true. John Legend sings the chorus with syrupy soul, laying out a red carpet for Common to walk to the pulpit on. They say a nigga lost his mind/But in the scheme of things/I never lost a rhyme/The thin line between love and hatred/I’m the black pill in the Matrix/who saturated life. The song is an acknowledgement of the doubt that fans expressed in Common during the years he was under the control of what they would probably term the Badussy Effect, the mystifying changes an MC undergoes after involving himself with the esoteric R&B singer Erykah Badu. Whether being Badussy-whipped is to blame (or, probably more correctly, to thank) for the artistic and personal evolutions Common underwent during the last several years is in truth irrelevant. Common has always been, if nothing else, his own man. History has taught us that every artist must evolve and be allowed the time and space to grow; whether we’d like to admit it or not, without Electric Circus there would be no Be. “They Say” is an emphatic ‘fuck you’ to anyone that mocked Common’s musical and fashion choices, but it is a song so enjoyably performed that haters will more than likely bend over with a smile.

“It’s Your World (Part 1 & 2)” ends Be after just forty-two minutes, an ending that comes at the perfect moment. The song is one of the only two tracks not produced by West (“…World” and “Love is…” were both produced by DILLA, with additional production by James Poyser on the former). It is a summation of sorts of the principles of Be, a statement of revolutionary intent, a poetic warning that the world is about to repossessed by those who first appreciated and claimed its beauty.

“It’s Your World” is a song designed to lilt into unrestricted territory; although it is eight minutes and thirty-three seconds long, it never ends. The soft voices of children that come in toward the end of the track, announcing what they wish to become, what they want to be, seems eternal: the background sounds of the cosmos. It’s proves that “…World” is the perfect ending and beginning to the principles of this album. When Common’s father, Lonnie ‘Pops’ Lynn, laces the track with instructional poetry after the children have faded away you become aware that Be was not an attempt to make an album, it was an attempt to create a journey. To just be, is what Common Sense, in the intro, says he desires. By capturing the soul and spirit of what defined and created him, he has sought to find his future by drowning, blissfully, in his present. It is a wise path, a brilliant path; it is, in the end, a revolutionary path. It is a road to being that many have created, including Common’s ancestors, as they traveled through themselves, all over the world.

A First Lady’s Second CominG

Record Review: The First Lady – Faith Evans By Isaac Perry

In the mid-90s Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs elaborated on the mythos of one Faith Evans by proclaiming that her voice sounded like rain. It was a celebrated comment, quoted over and over again in the articles subsequently written about the former Mrs. Christopher Wallace, and it was also something most comments made by record producers about their protégés are not: true.

On her new CD, The First Lady—an album that not only returns Faith to the pneumatic highs of her self-titled debut LP but, in fact, surpasses them—Evans becomes the storm, brewing with more emotion and spilling with more passion than she has ever shown on any one CD. First Lady is Faith’s best album to date, a sensual confection of joy and more joy that pauses only momentarily to revel in past pain or shed a tear over love. Mostly Lady pants and moans with a sweet, almost childish admiration for “good love” that will leave you swaying somewhere between that place where love amazes, and where it begins to cause a gnawing pain.

Having passed through her own trials and tribulations Faith has apparently emerged the stalwart we depended on her to be. When she first emerged in 1994 (initially as a songwriter and session singer for Combs’ Bad Boy stable) Evans drew immediate comparisons to Mary J. Blige. They were both hip-hop and R&B queens, women that straddled the line of the two genres and bridged the gap between them, in their music and in their lives. But from the beginning Evans showed that she had her own style. A perceivable distance has always existed between Faith and the rest of her peers. In one of her first major appearances—the video for the Notorious B.I.G.’s “One More Chance” remix—Faith was enigmatic. While the Who’s Who of Hip-Hop crowd posed for the camera in countless cutaway scenes, Evans appeared and disappeared like a dream: eyes hooded, the very model of cool, effecting a sly sexiness that would remain with her throughout her career. It’s that sort of confidence and swagger that makes First Lady so good; she sings most of the songs on the new album as if she couldn’t care less about what others think of her “childish dreams”. She’s too busy getting lost in them.

The First Lady is close to being a classic, but instead it remains ‘only’ an extremely good album due to a few flaws. The first occurs exactly one second into the album when the Neptune’s ubiquitous Pharrell Williams sings “I been on the road/but now I’m back again/and this time, I brought my little friend”. It’s disconcerting to hear a man’s voice begin a female singer’s album experience, especially when that voice is Williams’ strained murmur. But what follows is a welcome surprise. “Goin’ Out” is an admonishment anthem that defies the normal finger waving and soap box shaking nature of songs that rebellious women sing to their misbehavin’ mates. Faith grinds against the song’s bouncy rhythm then slows down long enough to sing a bridge that floats like reflection over the events that led up to her decision “to start a new life.”

Following “Goin’ Out” is “Again”; an appropriately titled rebirth/absolution joint with hints of gospel spread over a bumpy rhythm. It’s a pleasant enough song but it’s also one we’ve heard a million times. The theme is one every maligned hip-hop and R&B star pulls out when trouble has snaked its way into their seemingly glamorous lives. Still, Faith makes the track enjoyable and lighthearted, singing gracefully even as she sounds a little bitter, delving into lyrics that put too much weight on a forgettable incident (in January of 2004 Evans and current husband Todd Russaw were arrested near Atlanta and charged with possession of marijuana and cocaine. To keep the case from going to trial the couple agreed to enter a 13-week drug abuse intervention program).

After “Again” First Lady hits the stride that makes it the best R&B release so far this year. “I Don’t Need It” is a whimsical, although clearly stated message aimed at a workaholic lover. Here again Faith defies the stereotype: instead of crying woefully about her man’s negligence, she pines for him in delicate phrasings that request his presence instead of demanding it, making her plea one of comfort as opposed to distress. The up-tempo Karma Productions-produced track helps. The music inspires the sort of confidence prevalent in Evan’s lyrics and voice; she doesn’t need to beg her man to come home, she is simply letting him know that although she’s “grown so accustomed to our lifestyle” she’d “trade it all to have you around.”

First Lady’s next two tracks display the enormous strength and skill of Evan’s songwriting and singing ability. On “Stop N Go” Faith creates a radio-friendly ode to the art of teasing, rich with lyrics that would make any man worth his weight in ESPN ratings take notice. “I knew from the start/You were running game/You fade away like Jordan/Then you cross me over/when you come back again,” she croons. A moment later Faith describes her reluctance and submission in terms just as athletically sublime. “We’re in the fourth quarter/and I feel I wanna/But I know we oughta not/Cause if I pass it to ya/there’s a chance that you might mess around/and drop the rock/So you better make sure/in the clutch you’re the best I’ve ever seen/Cause I would hate to trade you to another team.” The song’s chorus is an airy pause between the desire to continue and the will to desist. It’s perfect solely because it captures the one persistent and often beautiful state of love: confusion.

With “Mesmerized” Faith goes left, way left. The song, produced by Chucky Thompson (who produced the lion’s share of songs on Evans’ ’95 debut), Andre ‘AJ’ Johnson, and Russaw, is a modern day Tina Turner/Lynn Collins jook joint, ass-shakin’ jam that will require Evans to put a choke-hold on the microphone stand and show a lot of well-shaped leg whenever she performs it live. Those who sit in the front row of said shows beware: there will be much hair flying and sweat drippin’—it’s that kind of a song.

“Mesmerized” is also ridiculously fun and daring. The basis of the song is a sly, aggressive stab at the depth of good, funky, sticky love. Women will hear it and remember the minutes immediately following a sexual experience where a man “put that thang” on them. Men will hear it and remember the satisfaction they felt after puttin’ that thang on a woman and knowin’ (read: knowin’) that the woman next to them was undeniably and unapologetically theirs. It’s a song about the unwritten contract between a woman’s sexuality and the man who not only controls it, but also holds the key to its release.

“Tru Love” and “Jealous” display the dual sides of Faith’s love and devotion. The Jermaine Dupri/Bryan Michael Cox-produced “Tru” is some of Dupri’s best work of late; it’s a contemplative look at the nature of a sometimes troubled but enduring love. Evans infuses it with the sort of honesty that marks a seasoned heart: she knows the truth of life and love but holds onto the golden apple of fantasy, occasionally taking a bite. Her love is reciprocated and together she and her lover are free to proclaim the still vibrant qualities of their affection.

“Jealous” shows the vigilance such affection can inspire while not crossing the line into mindless paranoia. First Lady is full of Faith’s truthful confessions and “Jealous” may be her most truthful of all. Singing with music that slips a velvet cloth over the edge of a dagger, Evans lightheartedly informs her mate that she’s “so jealous/that I can’t help it/I’m not the type who cares to share/because I’m selfish.” Although she “might check your Caller ID/just to see/who’s calling/other than me” she’s coy about it, singing in a voice that’s almost reassuring: the stalker with a heart. What’s most interesting on “Jealous” is First Lady’s continuous display of an attractive confidence. When she sings “I’m not trippin’/I know there’s no substitute/for what I’m givin’” you know that she’s put that thang on her man enough times to ensure he won’t stray.

First Lady is, thankfully, light on guest stars. Mario Winans weighs in on “Ever Wonder” and the under-rated producer/singer/songwriter proves a welcome visitor. The music begins warm and compelling as Winans questions the current state of his relationship. Evans’ voice meshes extremely well with his and together they tag-team a plaintive chorus that is both provocative and infectious. “Catching Feelings” slows things down as Faith details a strenuous and out-of-control affair between her and a younger man. As she implores him to “take his time” in loving her—playing the part of teacher—she also recedes into the role of pupil, admitting that there’s “something about the way that you touch me/it makes me glow.” The song makes it clear that her lover’s age is the only thing that stands in the way of a full-blown romance but by the time it ends (and despite Faith’s claim that “you were just a young thing/and I/I just let you get a taste of my love/I let my guard down/It was only supposed to be one time/…What we have is only physical”) Evans has sung with such dreamy ardor that you wonder if it is her that has already fallen in love; age difference be damned.

“Get Over You” falls in line with Evans unconventional take on the mood of what most people would deem sad R&B songs. While politicking over the leftovers of a failed relationship Faith sounds regretful but buoyant, as if she has made peace with the mistakes of the past and the pain of the present and is walking with head up and shoulders back into her future. There is not a single disingenuous note in “Get Over You”; Evans’ voice is faintly sorrowful. It is a testament to her skill as a vocalist that she is able to pull this off while also hinting at a resilient, and desperate, hope.

First Lady is strong almost until the end. “Until You Came” is a roller-skating jam if ever there was a roller-skating jam to played and listened to on a teenage-love, crush-filled Saturday afternoon. The song begins in the shifting light of that sort of skate jam, on the curve that comes just as you make eye-contact with the object of your infatuation, and it ends in a carnival: Ferris Wheels light the night sky, cotton candy sticks to fingers, kisses are exchanged under a summer moon. This is the atmosphere “Until You Came” inspires, coupled with a chorus that little kids everywhere will be singing, and it’s the naïveté of the song’s mood that almost allows you to excuse Faith’s spoken-word interruption. In overly simple terms that belie her age, she confesses her confusion and dedication toward her would-be lover. Her words are somehow appropriate (spurred on by the sweet “La-La-La’s” that echo in the background) but slightly annoying.

“Lucky Day” is the song that should end First Lady. The track’s head-bobbing groove is enriched with the sort of optimism that the first 11 songs dripped with. On it, Faith is happy without being phony and she manages to constantly invoke the cool that has marked her since “One More Chance.” But, regrettably, she doesn’t end on this note.

The unnecessary “Hope” is hopeless; a Twista track that goes through layer upon layer of the Chicago MC’s denouncement of several of the very same vices he champions on his own songs. It’s the ‘sensitive thug’ song. And it’s wack. Evans does her best to liven it up with a well-sung chorus, and, to be fair, Twista is sometimes lyrically compelling; but the overall theme and corny guitar strings that are plucked throughout the entire ordeal doom “Hope” to that place where many such ‘sensitive thug’ songs go: the land where “Heaven I Need A Hug” reigns supreme. Tupac wrote many ‘sensitive thug’ joints and sang them well; everybody else should probably stop.

Throughout her career Faith has been an excellent songwriter and oftentimes a passionate and imploring singer. But none of her other projects stack up to First Lady when it comes to combining the force of her persona and the sagacity of her vocal presence. This is an album long overdue and eagerly anticipated.

The First Lady of hip-hop and R&B has finally and officially taken office. And if you look closely you’ll see that it’s a position she was born to hold, one that was reserved for her more than ten years ago.

Mayfield Remixed: The Curtis Mayfield Collection Rhino Records

Move on up to a greater day /With just a little faith/ If you put your mind to it/ You can sho nuff do it

We often miss a lot of really good music because unfortunately, some of us feel that we have to rely on radio to lead us. That can - is – a huge mistake because the majority of “good” music never makes it to the radio. You can rest assured that if you loved the music of Frankie (Knuckles) back in the days of house music, you will love this music that you will not hear on the radio. You will love Mayfield Remixed: The Curtis Mayfield Collection. The songs of Curtis Mayfield remixed. What a brilliant idea. Take the songs of Curtis Mayfield and let them live in a new form for a new generation. What a beautifully executed idea.

Curtis Mayfield was so much more than a singer. He was more than a songwriter. He was special. He chronicled the times in a way that is still relevant today. He wrote three soundtracks that included some of the best music of the last thirty years. The songs of Superfly, Claudine and Sparkle are a s good today as they were the day they written. How can you not know that The Makings of You from Claudine is one of the best songs ever written? Can you love music and not know that Curtis was giving you something you could feel?

After two seconds into the first track when Curtis wails, Ooooh, Superfly, you are immediately drawn in. It’s hard to understand what a hell of a man Curtis was. Music was the game he played and he played for keeps. And that was the story of Curtis. Louis Vega from Masters at Work takes Superfly and works it. Vega says, Curtis you are super fly. And he is correct – Curtis is super fly.

The remix of Move On Up will take you back to the days when people went out and danced and danced and danced. It was a time to have fun. A time to sweat. A time of sexuality. A time of joy. And you danced all night. This Eric Kupper remix would have packed the floor and for ten minutes you would have been in heaven.

The surprise remix is the adrenaline remix of an Impressions song, We’re A Winner. Grandmaster Flash gives us a morsel of chocolate that you have to eat. Flash takes We’re A Winner and gives us something for the grown and sexy with a hip-hop flavor. Flash was introduced to this track by his parents when he was much younger. The song fits Grandmaster Flash to a tee.

Chicago is represented by Maurice Joshua’s remix of (Don’t Worry) If There Is A Hell Below, We’re All Gonna Go. Another great mix as expected from a master remixer. Listening to all of these songs again makes you fall in love with Curtis all over again. What listening also does is to make you long for the day when songs were relevant. The days when songs were good. The days when songs told a story that you could visualize. The days when songs actually could push emotional buttons.

The remixers who worked on this project all did an outstanding job. They all commented on their remixes. Kirk Mayfield, Curtis’ son wrote a moving tribute to his father that speaks volumes about a man who was indeed super fly. Listening to the lyrics of his songs makes you know just how special and fly Curtis really was.

It’s My Time LaShun Pace EMI Gospel

It’s my time, it’s my season… I’m walking in to it – to the rhythm of Jesus.

And it is. Not many have been able to sing “heartfelt” in your gut gospel and then sing gospel songs with a contemporary feel while keeping that spiritual feeling. LaShun Pace (of the Anointed Pace Sisters) has definitely done it with her new CD, It’s My Time. And to tell you the truth, I was scared. Scared that she was going to record a studio CD that was too contemporary. However, she has succeeded in keeping the glory of the gospel that she gave us on all of her “live” CDs, particularly on her solo debut, He Lives. After the title track you get to the first single For My Good and church begins. By track four, Emotions you know – this is going to be a blessed service. “Lord I need your spirit… I give in to You, Jesus.” Emotions is one of those songs that take you where you need to be when times are hard.

LaShun is one of those singers that people say “sangs”. She has an amazing voice and an anointed spirit. Although she may not have the secular name recognition of some other singers, she is definitely at the head of the class. LaShun is in the same class as Yolanda Adams, Ann Nesby and the truly blessed trailblazer, Tramaine Hawkins. Shun has been declared as the successor to the iconic gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson and that is just hyperbole. When she sings I Trust You, you know. I would venture to say that even with all the great gospel singers working today, LaShun would be the one. There is something that she has that many others do not have. With all of the personal trials and tribulations she has been through in the last four years, you know that she is real. She is a vessel for the Word.

Maybe it will take an across the board hit. Maybe not. That hit could be the Kirk Franklin flavored song, When I Worship You. Maybe it will have to be a song like You that can cross certain barriers on urban radio. Maybe it will be a straight up gospel song like The Lord Will Make A Way, which will probably be sung by choirs all across the country. Maybe it will take Jill Scott fans to discover the song, Love. Maybe it will take LaShun singing Emotions or I Trust You or For My Good on the Stellar Awards with the background vocals of the Pace Sisters or special guest background vocalists, The Hawkins Family. (If that happens, remember who came up with the idea.) That would undoubtedly be the highlight of the show. Trust me. Maybe it will just take you purchasing the CD and listening – really listening. This CD can definitely cross barriers and reach many people. It will inspire you. It will bless you. It will be a great musical gift to all who listen.

VANESSA WILLIAMS Everlasting Love Lava Records

Our times deserve better writers – better musicians, real musicians. Listeners deserve CDs with more than two good songs.

Our times deserve better songs. Songs that fit the singers like Strange Fruit fit Billie. Like You Are The Sunshine of My Life fit Stevie. Like every song fit Sarah and Ella. Like I Will Always Love You fit Whitney. That’s what we deserve. If you are one of the people who believe that, try Everlasting Love by Vanessa Williams. Vanessa has chosen some of her favorite songs from the 70’s and come up with a winning package. The songs suit her like a beautiful outfit.

With the London Session Orchestra on seven songs, we know from the first song, Never Can Say Goodbye with a great guitar solo by the master, George Benson, that we are in for a special treat. A Melissa Manchester song entitled Midnight Blue that states the obvious when Vanessa sings, one more time for the old times, gets us in the mood. But Vanessa hits her stride towards the middle of the CD and that is when you hold your breath.

Looking at the track listing the first time I listened to the CD, I thought “she is not really going to sing these songs”, especially the songs in the middle section of the CD. Then she sings First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Now how can she sing a Roberta Flack classic? Or better yet, how could she sing that Roberta Flack classic? The bottom line is Vanessa did it and she did well – very, very well. And it sounded beautiful on her like a gorgeous couturier dress.

Then Vanessa slid out of that dress and did something truly daring. She tried a classic, contemporary outfit. It was a daring choice because after Chaka wore it, you know that you had to be careful before you try it on. But when the beat starts you know Vanessa is beginning to slide that dress over her head and as she gets it over her head she thinks of… sunsets and how high her high gets. She wants to give you an everlasting love. As she zips up the back of the dress, the crescendo comes. If she can get that zipper totally up she knows that… each time you pass her by, you slowly fade away she’ll give you more each day. She has done the unspeakable. She has taken a dress made for Chaka and given it a special life of her own and that is truly Everlasting Love.

Vanessa takes a different but elegant dress from this collection and shares her vision with a man who makes sure that he looks (and sounds) as good as she does with this next selection. George Benson and Vanessa sing With You I’m Born Again in a way that will make you say damn, that’s good – whether she is walking down the runway or singing gently to you through your headphones. After she walks that runway you feel that she understood what Stevie Wonder meant when he said Send One Your Love from his underrated classic Journey through the Secret Life of Plants. Vanessa sends that love through every note she sings.

With all of that she still has a few more ensembles to model and when she puts them on you know that this is a stunning collection made of beautiful choices by a wonderful designer. This Vanessa Williams collection – from the Fifth Dimension’s One Less Bell to Answer to the Isleys’ Harvest For The World needs to be worn by us all.

Vanessa doesn’t imitate the originators. She doesn’t drastically change the songs. She just gives them a little Vanessa Williams’ class and love and a whole lot of style.