Sometimes I make the mistake of assuming everybody--at least anyone who is alert-- knows about a certain artist, simply because the artist has achieved a certain level of attention. Frequently I find that I am wrong. A lot of times it depends on what channels you tune into, since things are so divided up these days. If you don't tune into certain channels, you won't know about certain artists. The days when you could turn into a radio station and hear The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, The Beach Boys and The Singing Nun are a distant memory. The public square is fragmented...or maybe it is not fragmented but no one is in the public square because everyone is off in their own little cafe.
I'm thinking about Ledisi, the New Orleans-born, Oakland, California-gestated, East Coast-launched vocalist extraordinaire--one of the most powerful spirit-driven voices to emerge during the past decade. I first encountered her about ten years ago when browsin through the San Fransisco Weekly. I noticed her unique name, Ledisi (pronounced "LED-ah-see"), which in Yoruba means roughly "to bring forth," a striking photo and a blurb about her self-released debut album, SOUL SINGER. Maybe it was mere curiosity or perhaps some type of intuition but I was impelled to track down the CD (copies of it now go for $50 on the internet). And I was blown away. The music had soul, funk, jazz & blues, delivered totally naturally by a bottom-heavy, funky band with Sundra Manning on keys and Nelson Braxton on bass....all held together by Ledisi's high-energy vocals. I learned later that Chaka Khan was an influence and I could see the connection; not that Ledisi sounds like Chaka but her free-wheeling, soaring intensity is Chaka-esque. I was particularly struck by the sassy "Get Outta My Kitchen" and "Papa Loved To Love Me", a harrowing song about sexual abuse. So when I heard she was playing a summer concert in a park in Staten Island, I took the ferry over there and stood with a crowd of less than 100 people who were electrified by Ledisi and her band. Music simply pours out of Ledisi; she's what you call a pure singer. Like a lot of New Orleans musicians, she moves easily from funk to jazz to blues to rock; ain't no dividing lines in the music down in Nawlins.
I started catching her whenever she played New York or Philly. Every show was different except for one common element--at some point the spirit would just come down on Ledisi and she let it come thorugh her and out again insome wild, unmediated rush.
She put out a second CD, a more jazz-oriented work called FEELING ORANGE BUT SOMETIMES BLUE that was satisfying in another direction. So it was one of those stories--how could talent this big not be signed? Part of it was Ledisi didn't fit into a convenient slot, of course. And she wasn't a likely candidate to be molded into some producer's scheme. I heard she was on the verge of quitting the business at one point.
At last, a break--Verve Records signed her somewhere aroudn 2005 I believe. So we waited for the album...and waited...and waited. THe word was that there were conflicts between the label and Ledisi over the direction of the music (no surprise there!). Finally, in 2007, the album, LOST AND FOUND, emerged. In many ways it was a plished and contained version of Ledisi but even a polished, contained version of Ledisi was head and shoulders above much of the competition. There was no breakout hit on the album and the word was that Verve was readyto walk away. But funny thing, the album just kept selling, nothing spectacular, but steady, week in, week out. All of a sudden it was six-figure seller and Led (as her friends call her) was getting open slots with Prince. Sales eventually passed the 200,000 mark. In short, Ledisi has defied the usual music-biz odds.
I saw her a few months back fronting The Count Basie Orchestra at The Blue Note in NYC. The show presented yet another dimnesion of her talent, a more controlled, jazz mode. But at one point she told the audience, "don't be scared....I'm going to give you a little bit of Ledisi now!" And Led proceeded to open things up a bit.
So now we have GOIN' THROUGH CHANGES, the new Ledisi album, out just over two months. Boasting several different producers--Raphael Saadiq, Jam & Lewis, Chucky Thompson, Rex Rideout among them--GOIN' THROUGH CHANGES presents more facets of Ledisi than her Verve debut. No less than four songs have the word "changes" in the title, one of the most surprising being a rocking cover of Buddy Miles' "Them Changes," which Led says, surprisingly enough, she hadn't heard previously. The songs are not all blockbuster but the first single, "Love Never Changes" and "Higher Than This", with a hypnotic chorus, are stand-outs. Once again, no break-out hit and yet it is selling nicely in a tough record-selling climate. In an era dominated by tracks, Ledisi is a true album artist. And that is very refreshing because very often a great artist is more than the sum of his or her tracks. If you have a chance to catch Ledisi live, grab it; until then, GOIN' THROUGH CHANGES is an enjoyable introduction.
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