26-03-2014, 17:29
enters the Billboard chart this week at #14
Spotify online listen
4.0 of 5.0 from allmusic
7 albums deep but a new artist for me
current r&b with some meat
artist website - http://www.ledisi.com/
Bio - from allmusic
![[Image: MI0003691554.jpg?partner=allrovi.com]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/691/MI0003691554.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Ledisi Young (her given name meaning "to bring forth" in Nigerian) was born in the Big Easy, where she sang with the New Orleans Symphony
Orchestra when she was eight years old and spent many adolescent hours watching her mother perform with a local R&B band, often in a nearby
park. After the family relocated to Oakland, California, Ledisi followed her mother's lead and sang in a local band, but left to form her own
identity and her own group. She became widely noted for her performances in Beach Blanket Babylon, a long-running San Francisco-based cabaret
featuring song parodies, celebrity impersonations, and enormous hats; she got the gig after being nominated for a Shellie Award in 1990 for her
role as Dorothy in a local version of The Wiz.
She later formed Anibade (Ledisi's middle name), which, depending on what you read, means "to bring forth luck" or "my mother is great" in
Yorubu. The band featured Sundra Manning (keyboards and chief songwriter), Cedricke Dennis (guitar), Nelson Braxton (bass), Wayne Braxton
(saxophone), and Tommy Bradford (drums); while the lineup was similar to Chaka Khan & Rufus, the sound -- on record anyway -- was mellower than
Rufus' energized, excellently engineered sounds, sometimes fusing R&B, hip-hop, urban, jazz, and funk in the same pot. Ledisi and her band built
a hot reputation in the Bay Area at local clubs such as Bruno's, The Black Cat, and Rasselas. Fans kept asking about a record, so the band cut a
demo, "Take Time," that radio station KMEL aired and received a good response; this prompted Ledisi to seek a deal with major recording
companies, all of which praised and turned her down in the same breath. Frustrated but not thwarted, Ledisi cut the critically acclaimed
Soulsinger and released it on LeSun Records (owned by Ledisi and Manning) on January 1, 2000. "Papa Loved to Love Me" -- a personal account of a
father sexually abusing his daughter -- is one of the CD's most riveting and controversial tracks.
The CD did well without the benefit a major distributor: LeSun's successful grassroots promotion/publicity campaign went beyond the typical
artist/company web page, saturating the Internet with information, accompanied by a full gigging plate during which Ledisi and company promoted
and sold their CD, T-shirts, and other items. Amazon ranked Soulsinger number five in Los Angeles (September 2001), and it became popular in
Finland, Norway, London, and Amsterdam as well. Ledisi recorded a jazz album with bassist Marcus Shelby for Noir Records -- Shelby's independent
based company in San Francisco -- that further illustrated her skills. Her third studio album, Lost & Found, was released in 2007. Two of its
singles -- "Alright" and "In the Morning" -- peaked within the Top 50 of Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and a pair of Grammy
nominations followed.
Released in 2008, It's Christmas featured updates of "Give Love on Christmas Day" and "What a Wonderful World." The appropriately titled Turn Me
Loose, her hardest-hitting release, came the next year and featured collaborations with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, as well as Raphael Saadiq.
Her most popular disc, it topped Billboard's R&B Albums chart, crossed into the Top 20 of the Billboard 200, and resulted in another pair of
Grammy nominations. Pieces of Me, an album that involved the likes of Rex Rideout, Mike City, and Chuck Harmony -- as well as Jaheim on a duet
-- followed in 2011. It came within one spot of topping the R&B chart and debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200. The Truth, featuring a
surprising amount of uptempo material without any pop concessions, was released in 2014.
Album Review - from allmusic
![[Image: MI0003688102.jpg?partner=allrovi.com]](http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0003/688/MI0003688102.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Squarely R&B albums dominated by upbeat, clean, and energetic material seemed like a forgotten art until late 2013 and early 2014 releases from
the Foreign Exchange (Love in Flying Colors) and Pharrell Williams (GIRL). Ledisi continued the upswing with The Truth, her fifth Verve album.
As with those preceding albums, The Truth is certainly informed by the past but sounds contemporary; even more vibrant than her own Turn Me
Loose but not as rooted in early- to mid-'70s funk and soul. The memories it triggers are more likely to be connected to a period when danceable
R&B songs were termed grooves rather than bangers, yet the grooves here -- like "I Blame You," "Rock with You," and, to a slightly lesser
extent, "Missy Doubt" -- pack as much sophisticated retro-modern might as Beyoncé's "Love on Top" or Ne-Yo's "Champagne Life." Additionally,
"That Good Good" and "Anything," both driven by heavy drums rather than basslines and more in line with urban contemporary radio, don't sound
out of place, with Ledisi at full power. She puts just as much of herself into the few commanding ballads, proclaiming "I don't even ask/I'm the
best you ever had" in the ace slow jam "Lose Control" and marveling "My life, it went from years to 88 boxes" in the separation wailer "88
Boxes." Succinct, consistent, vibrant, and all Ledisi all the time -- there are no guest appearances -- this is one of the singer and
songwriter's best releases.
I Blame You is the single
but I prefer this one:
[video=youtube;BCM4hFIsFxU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCM4hFIsFxU[/video]
Track Listing
1. I Blame You
2. Rock with You
3. That Good Good
4. Lose Control
5. Like This
6. Anything
7. The Truth
8. Missy Doubt
9. 88 Boxes
10. Can't Help Who You Love
Spotify online listen
4.0 of 5.0 from allmusic
7 albums deep but a new artist for me
current r&b with some meat
artist website - http://www.ledisi.com/
Bio - from allmusic
Ledisi Young (her given name meaning "to bring forth" in Nigerian) was born in the Big Easy, where she sang with the New Orleans Symphony
Orchestra when she was eight years old and spent many adolescent hours watching her mother perform with a local R&B band, often in a nearby
park. After the family relocated to Oakland, California, Ledisi followed her mother's lead and sang in a local band, but left to form her own
identity and her own group. She became widely noted for her performances in Beach Blanket Babylon, a long-running San Francisco-based cabaret
featuring song parodies, celebrity impersonations, and enormous hats; she got the gig after being nominated for a Shellie Award in 1990 for her
role as Dorothy in a local version of The Wiz.
She later formed Anibade (Ledisi's middle name), which, depending on what you read, means "to bring forth luck" or "my mother is great" in
Yorubu. The band featured Sundra Manning (keyboards and chief songwriter), Cedricke Dennis (guitar), Nelson Braxton (bass), Wayne Braxton
(saxophone), and Tommy Bradford (drums); while the lineup was similar to Chaka Khan & Rufus, the sound -- on record anyway -- was mellower than
Rufus' energized, excellently engineered sounds, sometimes fusing R&B, hip-hop, urban, jazz, and funk in the same pot. Ledisi and her band built
a hot reputation in the Bay Area at local clubs such as Bruno's, The Black Cat, and Rasselas. Fans kept asking about a record, so the band cut a
demo, "Take Time," that radio station KMEL aired and received a good response; this prompted Ledisi to seek a deal with major recording
companies, all of which praised and turned her down in the same breath. Frustrated but not thwarted, Ledisi cut the critically acclaimed
Soulsinger and released it on LeSun Records (owned by Ledisi and Manning) on January 1, 2000. "Papa Loved to Love Me" -- a personal account of a
father sexually abusing his daughter -- is one of the CD's most riveting and controversial tracks.
The CD did well without the benefit a major distributor: LeSun's successful grassroots promotion/publicity campaign went beyond the typical
artist/company web page, saturating the Internet with information, accompanied by a full gigging plate during which Ledisi and company promoted
and sold their CD, T-shirts, and other items. Amazon ranked Soulsinger number five in Los Angeles (September 2001), and it became popular in
Finland, Norway, London, and Amsterdam as well. Ledisi recorded a jazz album with bassist Marcus Shelby for Noir Records -- Shelby's independent
based company in San Francisco -- that further illustrated her skills. Her third studio album, Lost & Found, was released in 2007. Two of its
singles -- "Alright" and "In the Morning" -- peaked within the Top 50 of Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and a pair of Grammy
nominations followed.
Released in 2008, It's Christmas featured updates of "Give Love on Christmas Day" and "What a Wonderful World." The appropriately titled Turn Me
Loose, her hardest-hitting release, came the next year and featured collaborations with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, as well as Raphael Saadiq.
Her most popular disc, it topped Billboard's R&B Albums chart, crossed into the Top 20 of the Billboard 200, and resulted in another pair of
Grammy nominations. Pieces of Me, an album that involved the likes of Rex Rideout, Mike City, and Chuck Harmony -- as well as Jaheim on a duet
-- followed in 2011. It came within one spot of topping the R&B chart and debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200. The Truth, featuring a
surprising amount of uptempo material without any pop concessions, was released in 2014.
Album Review - from allmusic
Squarely R&B albums dominated by upbeat, clean, and energetic material seemed like a forgotten art until late 2013 and early 2014 releases from
the Foreign Exchange (Love in Flying Colors) and Pharrell Williams (GIRL). Ledisi continued the upswing with The Truth, her fifth Verve album.
As with those preceding albums, The Truth is certainly informed by the past but sounds contemporary; even more vibrant than her own Turn Me
Loose but not as rooted in early- to mid-'70s funk and soul. The memories it triggers are more likely to be connected to a period when danceable
R&B songs were termed grooves rather than bangers, yet the grooves here -- like "I Blame You," "Rock with You," and, to a slightly lesser
extent, "Missy Doubt" -- pack as much sophisticated retro-modern might as Beyoncé's "Love on Top" or Ne-Yo's "Champagne Life." Additionally,
"That Good Good" and "Anything," both driven by heavy drums rather than basslines and more in line with urban contemporary radio, don't sound
out of place, with Ledisi at full power. She puts just as much of herself into the few commanding ballads, proclaiming "I don't even ask/I'm the
best you ever had" in the ace slow jam "Lose Control" and marveling "My life, it went from years to 88 boxes" in the separation wailer "88
Boxes." Succinct, consistent, vibrant, and all Ledisi all the time -- there are no guest appearances -- this is one of the singer and
songwriter's best releases.
I Blame You is the single
but I prefer this one:
[video=youtube;BCM4hFIsFxU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCM4hFIsFxU[/video]
Track Listing
1. I Blame You
2. Rock with You
3. That Good Good
4. Lose Control
5. Like This
6. Anything
7. The Truth
8. Missy Doubt
9. 88 Boxes
10. Can't Help Who You Love
