Sun Music Reviews from SoulTracks

Leela James - My Soul

Leela James opens her third studio album, My Soul, with a Gerrard Baker production (Toni Braxton, Masta Ace) declaring "I'm Not New To This" with her requisite funky soul and something of a braggart's rap. Indeed, she's not. Ten years before her debut project, A Change Is Gonna Come, announced the scrappy soul belter to the world, a teenage Leela was being featured on ‘90s soundtracks like Jason's Lyric and doing demo and session work for L.A. producers. In the years since, the gritty-voiced heir to Betty "Clean-Up Woman" Wright has been grinding hard to deliver that classic soul album of yesteryear, without necessarily going for the hard-core retro soul like Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings or Ryan Shaw. More.

The Temptations - Still Here

Though they have only rarely written or produced their own material, there is a reason why the Temptations are still recording and selling music after nearly a half century.  Part of it may have been luck, but a bigger part has been an impressive knack for teaming with the right producers and songwriters over those many years.  Over the first part of their long history, the Temptations were thrust into the studio by the Motown brass at times with brilliant producers who lifted the group's fortunes (Norman Whitfield, Smokey Robinson) and at times with producers whose vision was incompatible with that of group leader Otis Williams (for instance, the disastrous mid-70s album, Wings Of Love, which, to Williams' dismay, was essentially turned into a Dennis Edwards solo album).  But for the last 25 years, the Tempts have largely determined their own fate and worked with whom they wanted.  More.

Dwele - W.ants W.orld W.omen

Balancing materialism, societal consciousness and the one-on-one love movement: it's a struggle for anyone in this world, but multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and soul crooner Dwele skillfully illustrates each aspect in his fourth and most ambitious release yet, W.ants W.orld W.omen.  More

Incognito - Transatlantic RPM

Producer/songwriter/musician Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick has kept UK acid jazz alive since the 1981 release of Jazz Funk, nearly thirty years ago this year. Over the years, a parade of voices have journeyed through Maunick's jazzier brand of soul, dance, and funk, a few even emerging as esteemed solo artists in their own right, including Kelli Sae, Chris Ballin, Jocelyn Brown, and most notably, Maysa Leak. Seemingly dozens more have come and gone. Despite 23 albums (including remixes and live recordings) of unparalleled instrumental grooves, Incognito is probably best known the world over for these vocalists and their five-album winning streak of brilliance that began with a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry ‘Bout A Thang" and closed with the sultry "Centre of the Sun."  More

Chris Jasper - Everything I Do

You can track the evolution of R&B music over a four-decade span just by listening to the Isley Brothers. The group had doo-wop and soul hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By the mid 1960s, the trio scored a major hit with Motown, but by the end of the decade the Isleys had left Motown and expanded their lineup and sound. The group added younger brothers Marvin and Ernie Isley along with their brother-in-law, keyboardist and songwriter Chris Jasper. More

Athene Wilson

I won't begin writing a review until I hit upon a theme. Sometimes the theme is obvious, but most of the time, I have to listen to the CD numerous times and in many different settings. I'll play it on my computer at home, and I'll listen to a record on my iPod and in my car. Listening to a CD in my car is a must. By the time I'm ready to write, I figure that I've played the CD about 10 or 15 times, and the themes just emerge. The theme that I was working on as I prepared to write a review of It's About Time, Athene Wilson's new CD, dealt with Wilson as a artist who is comfortable in her skin. She is an adult singer and she embraces that identity for better or worse. I was leaning that way, but not willing to fully commit to that theme - and then I read Chris's recent commentary, and I realized that my instincts were right. More...