88 On The Longplay: ‘Giving You The Best That I Got’ by Anita Baker

Anita Baker’s music always felt (to my childhood self ) like what it might’ve been like to be an adult. The music and lyrics came off as so learned and experienced in life. This is one of the key qualities of Baker’s music that I share a common interest in with my friend Henrique. Another quality that Baker’s 1988 album Giving You The Best That I Got is that it presents a relatively small group of musicians. With a sound that’s immaculately produced and compositionally strong all at once. As the follow up to the blockbuster album Rapture this album often suffered from unfair comparisons.

After all, when you have an album like that? Its usually a nearly impossible act to follow. Now I’ve been hearing this album in one way or another since the day it came out? I have to say that this album is packed with great songs and as always Anita’s distinctive voice. Between the styles of Sarah Vaughn, and several years later with Toni Braxton, has any female vocalist been able to almost instrumentally work their way around a song the way Anita does on songs such as “Priceless” and the title cut.  These are vital R&B/jazz compositions.

These compositions are to strong grooves Anita made famous beforehand. But on tracks like “Rules”, the barrier that developed between jazz and R&B melted right away. The instrumental  sound of these songs are both concise and elegantly produced. And that’s no small feat to accomplish. Michael J. Powell, founder of Baker’s former band Chapter 8, did a masterful job in that regard for this album. Critic/writer Nelson George described the kind of music Anita Baker specialized in as “retro nouveau” in his book The Death of Rhythm and Blues. And I suppose it fits as well as any.

Songs such as “Lead Me Into Love”,”Good Love”,”Just Because”,”Good Enough” and “You Belong To Me” assure this album has no filler at all. The level of songwriting consistency is maintained throughout every one of these songs. Elektra was really and sound popping with some of the best fusions of jazz-pop, quiet storm and R&B/funk during the course of the 80’s. That tends to be what happens when musicians such as Omar Hakim, Nathan East and the late George Duke get together with a talent like Baker’s.  And if that period of music was a living being? It should be grateful to have had Anita Baker around.

Anatomy of THE Groove: “Love Will Find A Way” by Lionel Richie

Lionel Brockman Richie’s life journey has a lot of twist and turns. Growing up on the Tuskegee campus of the famous black college right in his home town, he dropped out of the university after his sophomore year. After a brief time considering becoming an episcopal church, he devoted himself to music fully by the mid 60’s. He became the lead singer and sax player of the Commodores in 1968. After a brief stint at Atlantic, the Commodores struck gold at Motown as a major funk band during the mid 70’s. By the late 70’s, Richie’s contributions to the band were mainly as a singer/songwriter.

In 1982, Richie released his self titled solo debut. It turned out to be a 4x platinum hit for him. But mainly on the strength of ballads like “Truly” and the uptempo pop of “You Are”. At this point, the funkiness he displayed in the Commodores would be album tracks for him. His next album,1983’s Can’t Slow Down was a major crossover success for him-a diamond charting album in the vein of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Musically, the hits he was getting were a lot more diverse-from the Caribbean pop of “All Night Long” to the new wave rock of “Running With The Night”. Then there was “Love Will Find A Way”.

A slow,gated drum starts out the song. Then the close bass/rhythm guitar interaction. At the beginning, a Fender Rhodes is carrying the minor chorded lead melody. The rhythm guitar perfectly accents that-with the strings rising just as Richie’s first vocal chorus arriving. There’s also a light synthesizer part featured on the end. On the refrains of the song, the melody becomes a brighter and more major chorded one-with the strings leading back into the choruses.  A slippery,pitch bent synthesizer joins the mix just as the song begins to fade out on its final choruses.

“Love Will Find A Way” is, as my friend Henrique pointed out, a quiet storm groove ballad that also functions as soulful, immaculately produced “sophistifunk” as well. As it turns out, its very mature take on romantic advice dovetails very well into another hit song (and one of my personal favorites from Lionel’s solo career) called “Love Will Conquer All” from his next album-1986’s Dancing On The Ceiling. Same goes for the music of the song as well. Lionel Richie’s solo music, despite its success, has never been based in funk. But “Love Will Find A Way” does bring out that very functional middle ground.

 

Andre’s Amazon Archive for 12/27/2014: ‘Love Changes’ by Kashif

Almost since the very start of the 80’s Kashif had been one of the key innovators of a style known as boogie funk,which was very complimentary to the Minneapolis sound of the era as it created a cinematic dance/funk sound with electronic rather than live band orchestrations. His first three solo recordings were solidly in this style,with some wonderfully creative jazzy musical ideas present as well. By the time 1987 arrived,funk/soul music had suddenly moved on in such a significant way that there wasn’t much room left for the innovation of boogie to go that far forward anymore. Lucky for Kashif he was also expert at a type of sound that suited every period of the 80’s very well:the urban ballad. And that is largely where he focused his energies on this album. But in terms of the uptempo music? That was another story.

Kashif begins the album with the title song,a sleekly produced ballad with the talented,gospel drenched singer Meli’sa Morgan,who even does a bit of in studio patter with Kashif vocally. Towards the end of the album he turns up the class even more with Dionne Warwick on the elegant “Reservations For Two”. These songs remind me of Brenda Russell only with somewhat of a harder edge,which also defines his solo ballads here such as “It All Begins Again” and “Somebody”. “Midnight Mood”,featuring a solo by Kenny G (whose rather gutsy early solo records benefited heavily for Kashif’s imput) is a very inspiringly composed instrumental with some jazz-like bass/guitar harmonies around the middle as well. One of the highlites of the album as far as I’m concerned. With the slow,pounding go-go shuffle and guest spot by Doug E Fresh “Loving You Only” is only beat out by the Force MD’s and Keith Sweat as the earliest New Jack Swing type dance number.

“Fifty Ways To Fall in Love”,”Who’s Getting Serious?” and “Vacant Heart” are the main uptempo funk material here. They are well down and very much on the Jam/Lewis style of things but don’t possess Kashif’s more destinctive touch with uptempo music he’d begun with earlier in the decade. This album is one that finds Kashif looking to rediscover his musical identity,after his pioneering days of boogie funk had officially come to an end. He had the general musical ability and strong association with other popular talents that gave him a bit more breathing room than a lot of his contemporaries to reinvent himself in this way. The overall effect of this album is one of searching. Luckily though his personal songwriting stamp and way with melodies remained perfectly intact. So nothing on this albums comes close to being badly done in any way. It’s more a question of how smooth a ride the music is. But it’s at least a pretty all inclusive journey he takes us on.

Originally Posted On August 22nd,2012

Link to original Amazon.com review here*