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Gospel singer Angie Stone |
New moves from old shakers at Jazz Café
PREVIEW - ANGIE STONE / FINLEY QUAYE
Jazz Café
TWO acts in the Jazz Café line-up this month have sparked my curiosity – one-time gospel singer Angie Stone, and 90s maverick Finley Quaye, who is giving an exclusive performance there.
Both had been in what they call a career rut.
But Ms Stone has gone through a revival in recent months.
From a career low of performing with Blue (and, admittedly, Stevie Wonder), and appearing on Celebrity Fit Club, she is back where she is supposed to be – singing good songs, innit?
And she didn’t just record her new album anywhere. The Art of Love and War, which she launches at a five-day residency at Camden Town’s Parkway Jazz Café next Sunday, was almost entirely written and produced by her in none other than Marvin Gaye’s former studio in LA.
And she isn’t releasing it with any old label either. Her fourth album is coming out on Stax – remember the Stax-o-wax logo? – former home of the soul man himself, Otis Redding.
“I’m happy and blessed,” she said of the album, which has been described as capturing her reputation as a modern-day Aretha, with “incomparable soul-baring intensity”.
She added: “To me, this album and this opportunity is a rebirth. Everything in life is a journey, and this album defines this time and this place in my life.”
She’s clearly had a lot of time on her hands.
Next week’s gig will be interesting for another reason too. She is forever associated in my mind with the father of her child, neo-soul singer D’Angelo. More than 10 years ago they recorded an album together – now much sought after – called Live at the Jazz Café, recorded at a 1995 gig when she was his backing singer.
Meanwhile, Sunday Shining star Finley Quaye is appearing this Sunday
and Monday. At a charity gig earlier this year, he did a show-stealing rendition of Redemption Song, and then descended into what appeared to be a spliff-induced coma on stage. A good synopsis of a career, some might say.
His debut album, Ultra Stimulation, stunned late-90s Britain out of its indie love affair with Blur and Oasis, and went on to win him a Brit.
He then went and threw it away with a lack of focus or appreciation for his fans.
side this weekend. |
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