You may be forgiven if you think 'Deja' has a sort of familiar ring.
The name may be new, but the duo boast a partnership spanning more than
ten years. And though the name alludes to something we've seen before,
Curt Jones and Starleanna Young are looking forward to the future, not
back to the past. Dropping the name Aurra is a positive move to
exorcise ghosts from the past, and start afresh with a whole new sound.
If you've been a funk lover for at least ten years, you will no doubt remember George and Louis as the two brothers who got you out on the dance floor with a string of hits for A&M that included "I'll Be Good To You", "Get The Funk Out My Face", "Ain't We Funkin' Now", "Stomp!" and "Light Up The Night".
HOW time flies! Do you realise that it's been two years since the last
Mtume album, "You, Me And He"? On the other hand it probably has taken
the gifted one that amount of time to really create his just-released
"Theater Of The Mind" concept album ? a veritable musical masterpiece!
"Not quite," he smiles. "But it took more than seven months of working
fifteen-sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. In fact, it got to the
point where I built myself a little apartment above the studio!
The phone rings at exactly 2:30pm on a sunny L.A. afternoon, and for any interview to begin precisely on time is, to say the least, unusual. On the other end of the line is Reginald McArthur, lead singer of The Controllers, the Alabama-based group whose recording career began in 1975 with the ever-soulful "Somebody's Gotta Win, Somebody's Gotta Lose".
IF THEY aren't already, pretty soon Akron, Ohio based Heat Records will
become known as a company adept at turning out stunning ballads what
with first the superb album from Frederick, then the fine just The Two
Of Us single from Johnston Brown & Janice Dowlen and now a
consistent follow-up to Ivy's debut LP in 1984 with "Ivy II".
To soul fans, and particularly Soul and Funk Music.com visitors, Alyson Williams is no newcomer. Featured on duets with Def Jam labelmates Tashan, Chuck Stanley and Oran 'Juice' Jones and part of the "Soul Songs" tour in 1987, the soulful lady left an indelible impression on European music lovers through her varying different musical excursions.