LEDISI: IT’S ALRIGHT By David Nathan, © 2007, Soul Music.com October 11, 2007 The very first time I heard Ledisi I was at a party in Malibu. UK producer Steve ‘The Scotsman’ Harvey was the host and if memory serves me well, a then-unknown Donnie was there too. Brenda Russell was in attendance and I recall standing outside, watching the tide roll in (thanks, Otis) as we mused on matters such as her long-ago work with Maurice White and his impact on me personally and such. Steve – who I met many years before in Los Angeles (his home since 1990) when he was part of a short- lived group (the name of which escapes me) who recorded for A&M – had decided to showcase the talents of Ledisi and Donnie, specifically. The Bay Area-based singer/songwriter sang “Get Outta My Kitchen” and all I remember is everyone was just blown out of the window! I was standing next to Brenda and we just looked at each other, like, “who is THIS?” Fast forward a few years to the release of Ledisi’s debut “Soulsinger,” an apt title for the album and we were in touch since we wanted to sell the CD at Soul Music.com. I loved the record and the follow-up “Feeling Orange But Sometimes Blue” which we also sold at the site until Led and musical partner Sundra Manning stopped having any more made. Nowadays, it sells on e-Bay for ‘stoopid’ money! Sometime after that, Ledisi – who I had now seen in concert in L.A. and watched as she laid it out and wore us all out with her dynamic soulfulness – asked me to update her bio for her website and it was, like, ‘of course!’ Then a few years ago with some friends, I produced a benefit for The Minority AIDS Project, a tribute to the late Phyllis Hyman. Ledisi agreed to participate along with Lalah Hathaway, Thelma Jones, Alyson Williams, Eloise Laws, Everette Harp, Kim Yarbrough and N’Dambi and it was an amazing show: I still get chills when I recall Ledisi putting her all into “Living All Alone,” interpreting it in her own inimitable way and now I just wish we had taped it! Next encounter: I’m doing a tribute to Nina Simone (one of my primary musical inspirations) and Ledisi is on hand and we duet on the old blues song, “Trouble In Mind” and all I can say is, don’t duet with Ledisi unless you want her to push you on and on and on…I was singin’ in ways I never knew I could. She participated in another show we did in 2006, singing with Gordon Chambers on a medley that included “O-o-h Child” and “Young, Gifted & Black.” She was, as always, amazing. Over all these years, we talked, often at length about music and life. I saw Ledisi on a show with Chaka Khan a couple of years ago and at that time, she was really heavy into debate about signing with a major label. She shared that, as much as she loved the total creative freedom that came with releasing her own records independently, there was a ceiling, a place beyond which her music simply didn’t get to be heard. The trade-off was that being with an established label might take away some of that all- important liberty that a multi-faceted artist requires. I remember those conversations well and Ledisi really did agonize on what to do and I understood well the conflict, having seen many a great artist end up with a less-than-satisfying recording situation as a result of corporate interference and the overriding industry tendency to place commerce before art. With an abundance of airplay from her fine cover of Luther’s “My Sensitivity” for the Verve “Forever, For Always, For Luther” project, that label became the main contender and it didn’t hurt that Ledisi had formed a strong bond with Verve’s then-in-house publicist J’ai St. Laurent-Smyth, known for her own sensitivity to artists and passion for the music. Ledisi began working on what would become her first Verve album in 2006 when parent company Universal decided to essentially fold it, leaving their new signing somewhat in limbo land. For a while, it seemed like the rug had been pulled; good peeps like J’ai were gone (although happy to say she now has her own company Inque Public Relations and Ledisi remains one of her clients) and Led had to wait until the dust had settled to finish the project. She performed a few months ago in Los Angeles at the Temple Bar to a rapturous audience and included some of her new material and the crowd went wild. Finally, finally, almost two years after she started the process, “Lost And Found” hit the streets in late August, shortly after Ledisi had wowed television viewers with her participation in a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, now available on CD and DVD. When she and I finally spoke on the phone, it was almost like I knew the back-end story but in her own words, Ledisi tells it… Recording songs for the new album: “Rex Rideout (the album’s primary producer) and I had half of the record done before the company was involved. We recorded a lot and actually there are a lot of songs y’all haven’t heard yet. In fact, the whole record was pretty much done when the changes happened at Verve, except for the tracks I did with (producer) Jamey Jaz. After we thought we had finished, there was long time when we didn’t do anything. I wrote some more just because I wanted to and I was happy there was a pause. Then the record company wanted a few more songs which I worked on with producers like Mano and Lorenzo… Writing and recording was a natural process with everyone I worked with, nothing planned, kinda like hangin’ out with your friends…” The final selections for the album: “My manager Collin Stanback - who I’ve known since my “Soulsinger” days and who I worked with on this year’s Earth, Wind & Fire project, “Interpretations” – helped with the sequence. At the last minute, there were some songs I didn’t want to let go of. Everyone had their opinion and so many people were passionate about what should go on the record. Finally, we had sixteen tracks and they felt natural. Now I feel it’s a really cool record with all the drama that went on during the making of it! I played the sequence and I was like, ‘ah!’ I was happy. I had to let go of some things including a song called “Let It Go”. The title, “Lost And Found” …hmmm, there was a last pause as I personally cleaned a lot out of my life…” The title track: “Well, “Lost And Found (Find Me)” represents me coming into alignment, musically, spiritually, mentally and personally. I heard the phrase in different environments. I was in the studio with Rex and I normally don’t play the piano so I was like, ‘Rex, don’t listen!’ I had been doodlin’ with the song for about three years and I’ve always thought of myself as more of a pop writer. Anyway, I thought “Lost And Found” was one of the most depressing songs but Rex was like, ‘You have to record it!’ When we finished it, we got the violinist Karen Briggs - who I know from her work with Soul II Soul and Yanni – to come in and play on it and I’ve always been a fan so I was thrilled when she did. It turned out to be the second to last song we did…” Other songs on the album: “Let’s see: “Upside Down”: “That’s a song that was written before “Soulsinger.” I was thinking, ‘One day, I’m going to meet Chaka Khan and we’re going to do this as a duet.’ Well, I did get to meet her of course - and many times - but we didn’t song the together so I put it on the album. “Best Friend” is a true story. It was originally about one person and then it became about a different person. Am I still crushed? I got crushed! I guess other people can relate because the song always gets a huge response when I sing it in my show. “Alright” – yeah, well I’m still asking the question, ‘when am I going to have money to pay the bills?’! “Today” is about a new beginning, waking up renewed, knowing everything is going to be cool…it’s for all us regular folks! “Think Of You,” that’s one for the hip-hop heads…” The song “Been Here”: “That has a real story to it. I was in a Thai restaurant, talking to my mother and I said something like ‘I’ve been here all the time’ and I was, like, ‘that’ s a song!’ I said, ‘can I have the food to go’ and I started writing the song on my way to Rex Rideout’s house and then we laid it down. I didn’t want to come off bragging but it’ s really how I feel. I’m here and I’m asking, ‘where y’all been?’ I wanted to include a little bit of me in a live setting so what you hear on that track was recorded live in two different places…” Reflections: “I think it would have been harder for me to do what I’m doing now if there hadn’t been the ‘Soulsinger’ or ‘Feeling Orange’ albums. My original audiences for those albums started it all rolling. Now with the new record, we’re getting a response from people who never heard of me. Now I’m on the radio more and I have a good team around me. I think now that every decision was the right thing. I took my time to sign to a major label but it was definitely the right thing. I started from the ground up like most hip-hop artists and maybe I’ve lost folks along the way. I know not everyone is going to like the ‘new’ Ledisi. But I’m at a different level now and I’m proud of the album and how everything is going.” Having seen Ledisi at an AOL taping in early October and then a couple of days later at B.B. King’s club in Los Angeles, I can say without any hesitation that she has lost none of her magical presence as a live performer. She remains a rarity, a contemporary artist whose musical integrity is fully intact, who connects with everyday people because there is an honesty and authenticity which has always been there and hasn’t changed. The musical settings on “Lost And Found” may be more polished but the realness is still there just as it was on Ledisi’s first two albums and while capturing the full essence of her onstage energy hasn’t yet fully happened on record, she’s still one of a kind – and as I referenced in a poem I wrote last week, she’s doin’ it and bringin’ it…and for me, it’s alright! |
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