MAY 2025 ISSUE
A sneaky peek of just some of what is in the May 2025 issue – OUT NOW!
OMAR
The other ‘special relationship’ between us over here and them over there is about music not politics. America brought soul to Britain in the 1960s and since then the colonized have taken something back to the colonizer, the prime example of which is Omar, recipient of flowers aplenty from Stevie, Erykah and D’Angelo among others. “There’s the wealth of love that I’ve had from the States for a long time,” he says warmly in response to the observation. “And that I look forward to enjoying even more this time. You know, it’s great to have those fans. I mean it’s underground, and that’s kind of where I see my myself. But I think this will be… I’m hoping this album will be mainstream.”
Indeed, Brighter The Days, the ninth studio set by one of the most significant talents in soul on both sides of the Atlantic, should broaden his fanbase beyond the aforesaid celebrities…
SAM GARRETT
When asked about his recordings with Neil Young, producer Daniel Lanois said that the pair “operated by devoted hearts” – a concept that’s intrinsic to Rastafarians, roots reggae and any other music emanating from the wellspring of human existence. “Soul is the governor,” said Lanois, “and we don’t carry on with anything if it doesn’t have that.”
He’s a rock and country musician, but a notable amount of the music we write about in Echoes is founded on such principles. I like to think that it has a higher purpose, other than accumulating millions of views or plays on Spotify. At its best, it awakes within us a sense of the eternal that we can all relate to once we’ve freed ourselves – even to a small extent – of mental slavery – as Bob Marley once urged.
Such aims have infused and informed pretty much everything that Sam Garrett has done both musically and in his personal life from an early age. Everything he writes and sings, or says in his interviews, is imbued with spirituality…
HELENA CASELLA
One of the enduring joys of being a music fan is when someone whose judgement you trust and who really knows what you like puts something new under your nose and asks, ‘Heard this?’ Which is exactly how I found Belgian/Brazilian jazz-soul vocalist, keys player and composer, Helena Casella – when soulandjazz.com founder Brian Hurst recently dropped me such a text. Helena’s superb debut album, Pit Of Impressions, sneaked out in March, courtesy W.E.R.F. Records in Brugge – the name stands for Wasted Energy Record Factory – and is most definitely one of the best albums so far this year.
Is it soul? Is it jazz? Yes, to both, actually. Which is why this feature sits in our jazz section – and to be fair, Omar is definitely more appropriate to the other half – while Helena’s set is our Soul Album Of The Month…
PAULINE BLACK
Have you seen Pauline Black – A 2 Tone Story yet? After a tour of Britain’s arthouse cinemas, it’s now available to watch on Sky Arts/Now TV and is an enthralling account of The Selecter’s lead singer, who was [and remains] a focal point of the 2 Tone movement, both visually and vocally. With her short hair, pork-pie hat, black and white checked shirts and shoes, tight black trousers and in-your-face attitude, Pauline was a style icon as well as key figure in the late seventies and early eighties’ ska revival.
The Selecter was second only to the Specials in the 2 Tone hierarchy, and she was the most prominent female presence of an era defined by the bitter fruits of Thatcherism, when austerity, coupled with racism and class warfare, led to widespread unrest and unemployment, especially in cities like Coventry and Birmingham, twin centres of so much musical talent outside of London. What powered early 2 Tone was a rebellious attitude born from frustration…