August 6, 2005

{ Leela James }

Fans of very solid soul should pick up the latest release from a Ms. Leela James. If this were a piece of vinyl - I may be in trouble - it has been in heavy rotation among my favorite albums right now. A Change is Gonna Come, gets its title from the 1964 socially charged civil rights anthem by Sam Cooke. In fact, Leela credits most of her style to the soul singers from back in the day, such as Gladys Knight, Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, and Chaka Kahn. Although this album sounds like it could have been born in the mid 70s, it features todays hottest producers, such as Raphael Saadiq, Wyclef Jean, and the ubiquitous Kanye West. Much credit also goes to James Poyser (of the famed Axis Music Studio) and Chucky Thompson as well for creating Leela's silky sound. Contributed by Ness

» Buy it...

By Alan Smithee in Music | Comments:

Comments

Saw a concert of Miss James last month. She was opening for a Belgian band (the concert was in Belgium) and nobody really knew her, but we were all pleasantly surprised. Whole lot of attitude (but not in an annoying way) and whole lot of hair. The whole thing was very, very good. Funk-a-licious.

Posted by: kim at August 24, 2005 11:18 AM

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