Latest Releases reviewed.
LEELA JAMES
A Change Is Gonna Come
Atlantic Records
*****
The title gives a broad hint about Leela James's intentions with her debut album. Referencing Sam Cooke's signal '60s anthem, James revisits the world of gospel-inspired deep soul, citing the likes of Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, before wallowing in the influences of Prince, Otis Redding, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan and other major soul figures without sacrificing her contemporary edge. She terms her music "back porch soul" and throws in a couple of acoustic blues lines in between the stunning soulful constructions to make her point about the origins of the music. James's voice is simply wonderful, smoldering and sexual one minute, righteous and mighty the next. She turns it up, she lowers it down, allowing it to bask in the rich and complex arrangements. This is so mature, so intense and so realised that it is hard to believe that it is a first album. Check out Music, When You Love Somebody, Mistreating Me, My Joy . . . ah, what the hell - check out the lot.
www.leelajames.com - Joe Breen
GIL SCOTT-HERON & BRIAN JACKSON
Messages
Soul Brother
****
As agit-soul dream teams go, there was little to beat Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson in their prime. The pair first met at Pennsylvania University, and Scott-Heron's protest poems about racism, slavery, oppression and alcoholism took flight when combined with Jackson's musical nous and vision. They had a fairly extraordinary innings together during the 1970s; albums such as Pieces of a Man, Winter in America and Bridges contained the kind of soul, jazz and funk ideas and momentum that still pack a punch some three decades on. As anthologies go, Messages is a rich harvest, with strident commentaries (The Bottle) standing shoulder to shoulder with funky hollers (The Liberation). In more recent years, Jackson has worked with all manner of soul and hip-hop acts while Scott-Heron has sadly become better known for substance abuse and unpredictable behaviour than his music. www.soulbrother.com - Jim Carroll
