I 'm a totally nutty person. I even laugh at my own jokes" giggled one
of our newest chart singers, Vesta Williams. The lady may
wound oh-so-serious on record, but when it comes to interviews she's a
different person entirely.
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 group name Slave has been with us a long time but not necessarily so the new personnel and the new direction. However, latest recruit Keith Nash explains why the 'new' Slave are ready to carry on the tradition.
With a succession of specialist radio and club anthems ("Keep Your Body Working". "Get Tough"' "Intimate Connection" etc. having made Kleeer one of the most consistently acclaimed American funk outfits on the thriving early eighties UK soul scene,
IN THE music industry it seems that new forms of music are competiting against old. Take Hip Hop for example. R&B artists dis hip hoppers, jazz vocalists poke fun at rhymes and drum machines. Nobody seems to like each other .. .or do they?
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 say Freddie Jackson is at the cross roads of his career would be something of an understatement. As far as cross roads go, Freddie's reached his spaghetti junction .. . in the rush hour! A slew of silky smooth hits in the eighties, kick started with undoubtedly his best collection to date, the two million selling "Rock Me Tonight" in '85, which of course, contained the monstrous title track along with the likes of "Calling" and "You Are My Lady", has, over the course of nine years and five albums gradually slowed down along with record sales. As the era for the smooth candlelight and champagne crooners in the '80's has given way for the riff happy, baggy jeans, bandana and Timberland hip-hop/soul homies in the '90's, naturally many of the older guard have been left concerned with the change of pace of their careers.