FINDING out that Atlantic Starr? whose music has marked them as a real
staple in anyone's black music diet for the past 9 years ? have only
ever had one gold album came as a shock to me when keyboardists
Jonathan Lewis revealed that very information during the course of our
recent interview, held in conjunction with the forthcoming release of
the group's Warner Brothers' debut, "All In The Name Of Love". You
could, as they say, have knocked me down with a pennyfeather ? or some
kind of feather!
AFTER a long hiatus and a label change, Steve Arrington is
back in the land of the recorded living! The ex-front man for
Slave marks his
switch from Atlantic/Cotillion to Manhattan with what most critics feel
is his best and, even more importantly, his most commercial effort yet
"jam Packed".
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.
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".
It's not very often that a group hits the top spot on any chart with
their first record but Levert (Sean and Gerald Levert and Marc Gordon)
did just that last year with "(Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind" when the
record, taken from their debut album entitled "Bloodline", became a
black music No. 1. A little over a year later, with a solid stint on
the road behind them, Levert are threatening to repeat their initial
success with "Casanova", the insistent, hypnotic ditty produced by
Reggie Calloway.
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!
With "Love Or Physical", a splendid new album for Capitol Records, that perennial love duo Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson are definitely back in gear. After a couple of years absence, during which time the couple (who have been married now for over fourteen years) gave birth to a daughter, Asia, Nick and Val are feeling great about their new product, especially since the first single, I'll Be There For You" is giving them one of their biggest U.S. hits in years.