JULY 2024 ISSUE
A sneaky peek of just some of what is in the July 2024 issue – OUT NOW!
COMMON & PETE ROCK
History is a delicious paradox in hip-hop. New quickly becomes old, but what happened in the blessed back in the day never seems to go away. The question is what the now-and-then references might mean to present and past. So, when Common drops the following rhymes on Dreamin’, the opening track on The Auditorium Vol.1, his collaboration with Pete Rock, those of a certain age may crack the broadest of smiles in recognition while those of another pull the blankest of blank stares in indifference.
“I seen Prince, he was time travelling
Through the Maurice Days and Gladys Knights
Sheila E. reminded me about the glamorous life.”
Nostalgia as the super dope of dopamine hits. Unpicking the threads between the above names is an exercise in trivia athletics that won’t score any points in an era of short attention spans, but what is undeniably clear is that Common knows something about more than hip-hop…
ELAINE DELMAR
A jazz standard, like life, is what the artist makes of it. The melody may become a new journey that is unrecognizable. Or it can remain a familiar road while taking on interesting, sometimes subtle detours. Elaine Delmar leans to the latter approach.
“I just love to sing the song and tell the story,” she says. “I’m not very experimental harmonically. But I get to a place where I’ve worked with the band, we know what we are doing and it’s down; there’s not a lot left to chance. It’s a case of I want to do myversion my way. It could be slightly different, according to who I work with.”
Speak Low, Delmar’s fine new album, sees her stay true to her word. Along with the Kurt Weill-penned title track, a favourite theme of many soloists and vocalists from Billie Holiday to Johnny Griffin via Chet Baker, there are versions of George Gershwin’s There’s A Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon For New York, Youman & Caesar’s Tea For Two and the Rodgers-Hammerstein classic of classics It Might As Well Be Spring. Eighty-four-year-old Delmar, a bonafide British jazz legend, had not recorded for over two decades, her career centering more on the stage than studio…
SHENSEEA
This year started badly for Shenseea but there’s been a dramatic turnaround since then, culminating in the release of her sophomore album Never Gets Late Here, an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and a UK tour that confirmed descriptions of her as the reigning Queen of Dancehall. Dare we say it? She’s even Jamaica’s answer to Rihanna!
Her performance at Brixton City Splash in London, flanked by a quartet of dancers, followed shows in Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham. It was essentially a PA appearance and more R&B in terms of presentation than dancehall for the most part – except for the twerking contest – but no one’s doubting that Shenseea, a 2021 MOBO winner, is a major talent. After her UK visit, she headed for Trinidad, the Seychelles and other places in the Caribbean. Next month she’ll be touring the US, and rumours that Interscope would drop her have now receded to vanishing point. The new album is impressive and lead single Hit And Run, shared with Masicka, has generated the best numbers of her career so far.
“It blew up so quickly and I think that was because I put my foot back in dancehall, fully,” she told Capital XTRA’s Ras Kwame. “Before that I was exploring and experimenting, but Hit And Runwas the first tune that I released where I stick my foot in again and promote it… “
WAR
There’s a sound argument to be made that 1973 was the best ever year for soul music. There: I said it.
I know there are those amongst us who will always be diehard sixties soul fans and that’s fine: nobody’s ever going to change your mind on that, if that’s the way you feel. Me? I love both sixties and seventies soul, so don’t have that ‘block’ to deal with. And although you might think, as a confirmed What’s Going Onaddict, I should maybe have plumped instead for 1971, the year of its release [and another very fine soul vintage], when you consider the sheer number of quality albums emerging two years later, from an array of amazing solo artists, vocal groups and bands all competing on the charts at the same time and on top of their game, you can’t deny it was a great time to be alive and collecting new soul.
Which makes it all the more remarkable that the top selling album in 1973 was actually WAR’s The World Is A Ghetto. Man, did those guys beat off some stiff competition…