Wow! This album is mind blowing, special, beautiful, spiritual, and stunning, just like Yolanda Adams look, her voice is captivating, and soul churning, with gospel influenced lyrics on R&B/Gospel instrumentals, the entire album sounds solid. My favourite tracks, which are many, is the second song entitled ‘Tonight’, talking about how she can turn weakness and sadness into happiness or strength, she talks a lot about triumph and courage, which for the listener can be heart touching. ‘It’s Gon Be Nice’ has such a summer sound to it, which suites the current weather in London, so I am playing this song quite a lot, ignoring if the volume is too loud for the neighbours. My ultimate favourite song from ‘Day By Day’ by Yolanda Adams is ‘Be Blessed’, what with the sweet gospel keys, organs, and general musical atmosphere, brings light into your soul, with one full hearing. She definitely has presence in song, which only legendary artists can convey. Her music in general is does emotionally internal things, her lyrics are deep, her voice comes right from her heart, and I enjoyed a lot of this record. I’ve never really paid much attention to Yolanda, I felt that she was talented, but didn’t go and purchase an album as I’ve never ventured into Gospel music. The guys at Warner Brother Records sent me this along with Karen-Clark-Sheards new live album, which sounds promising. It looks like modern Gospel music is coming to the forefront; it’s been hidden for quite sometime, so hopefully with artists like these, the future for Gospel music will be brighter.

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]

Shirley Brown represents true hidden talent, in the soul scene of the 70’s and onwards. Today I purchased this record from Soul Brother Records, and it’s sounding really promising. ‘Passion’ is my favourite track, as it has a guitar riff similar to William Bells ‘I Forgot To Be Your Lover’, which is a classic soul track. This 24 bit re-mastered release is distributed through UK’s pretty good label Ace Records. This label supplies the UK with many re- mastered classic soul albums, so I guess without them, there’d be a lot of soul missin’. ‘It Ain’t No Fun’, has a great groove, reminds me of a Curtis Mayfield/Blaxploitation soundtrack vibe. Browns voice is very much her own but at times has touches of Aretha. Shirley never did reached the fame that she deserved, due to her record label Stax, as it was closing down just after ‘Woman to Woman’ hit the shops. The title track from the ten-track disc is the most special soul song I’ve heard, it’s one of my top ten favourite soul songs any-way, so to have her whole album, is quite a treat for me, entitled ‘Woman to Woman’. It’s an honest written album, sung from the soul of an extremely REAL woman. It’s special, captivating, and soul churning, but what I thought when I first heard this is ‘damn, Shirley Brown can really sing’! She feels each note that comes from her lungs, which evidently makes the music that much more soulful. I maybe wrong but I think she’s done a few covers; such as ‘Stay With Me Baby’, although it might be her original, I am not sure. Track four is a pleasant, summer type soul slammer called ‘I’ve Got To Go On Without You’. I have loved listening to Shirley for years, but never got round to buying this album or her music, and to be truthful, I should have bought this a long time ago.

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]

If your neighbour listens to music at full volume and he pretends not to understand English whenever you ask him to turn it down... well, it could turn out to be Alessio Beltrami. Alessio was born in Brescia 27 years ago and moved to London for about two years: in UK he learnt and tried out a lot of new skills which came in handy afterwards, when he moved back to Italy and had the opportunity to release "6 Pezzi + 1 Remix" (literally "6 Tracks + 1 Remix"), his first self produced album. In Italy, Soul Music doesn't have a large following yet, with the exception of that type of R&B poisoned by commercial mainstream industry (and the fact that an incompetent such as Tiziano Ferro had so much success is a mark of that!). Italian Soul has no tradition and no history, apart from a few sporadic appearances by good soulmen such as Al Castellana. I wish Alessio to be the new man able to launch the italian Neo Soul movement because his EP is very appealing and it's a high quality work performed with music played without the aid of too many computer enhancements. Alessio is inspired by British Soul but also by American R&B: he can mix very well his love of the piano with Soul, Funky and Hip-Hop rhythms and arrangements. Vocally, he takes a very definite position: he can resist temptation to imitate a black voice although he makes frequent use of passages in falsetto inspired by the greats of the '70s like Prince, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye. The first track "Entro" is much more than a simple intro (its opening bars vaguely remind me of two tracks from Jon B.'s Cool Relax): after a few minutes of hip-hop rhythms and scratches by DJVigor, a piano unexpectedly breaks into the song creating a very pleasant effect. In my opinion the worst song of the album is "Sei Difficile", in which Alessio sings in falsetto for long periods of time and the rap performance by Stokka isn't that involving. On the contrary, the following two tracks are perhaps the best ones. "Tu, Lui, Io, Gli Altri" dimly reminds me of the best Maxwell, even vocally. It also has good lyrics but from this point of view the best one is certainly "Dammi, Sogni", probably written during his stay in London in a fit of discouragement, with a lot of nostalgia, short of money and he was afraid to have no chance of success. But nothing's impossible with the help of love and affection! The fifth track starts with a few chords just like some American Jazz discs do but afterwards it has a very funk arrangement and includes a rap performance by Kaso. "Prestami" is the single chosen to promote the album: it is a soft ballad with slow beats and arranged with Fender Rhodes and piano. The CD is closed by a remix of "Tu, Lui, Io, Gli Altri" performed by my dear fellow citizen SoulDavid (another good soulman), who completely remakes the original version and shows it from another point of view. Lyrics can be improved a little, as well as some sounds, but on the whole "6 Pezzi + 1 Remix" is enjoyable and original. I want to incite Alessio to go on his way and release another album because I do know that selling this kind of music in Italy is very hard. If you have never heard of Alessio Beltrami, I strongly recommend you his album: you'll find out a very nice surprise!

Claudio Balestrino [Just Soul]

Guest appearances from Jneiro Jarel, Delouie Avant, Jeremy James, Ginelle Summer, Michelle Shaprow, Ivanna Santilli, Maya Azucena, Alama Horton, Siji, Jon Do, Sy Smith and Martin Luther is the genius debut album from Philadelphia’s number one producer Rich Medina. Medina is known for his contributions to Jill Scott’s and King Britt’s music, he is also an established spoken word artist/poet, beat maker and world renowned DJ. His album is going to take Rich to that higher level in his career, due to his passion in creating perfect mellow grooves, and experimenting with hip hop beats/rappers. It’s an eclectic mix of groove music; some tracks have immense energy like ‘Official’, which is one of my favorite tracks. The vocal tracks are all superb, such as ‘Too Much feat. Martin Luther’, ‘Can’t Hold back feat. Sy Smith’, ‘Out Of Nothing feat. Ivanna Santilli', Maya Azucena, and Alma Horton, is a HOT trio set, of dance/vibe sounding production and extremely soulful vocals. Released on Kindred Spirits, which is a company based in the Netherlands, Medina offers refreshing and inspirational music for sure. It’s such an interesting listen, because he brings tracks that are unusual, quirky, unique, but that’s what makes his album sound good, because he is original. I can’t really compare his production style to any one else, if I had to, I could say Steve SpaceK, Platinum Pied Pipers; and others in that field. I advice you to buy this record because you will be in for a treat, your souls will be satisfied and your mind will be eager to either make music or write something poetic. ‘Weight’ is my favorite track recorded by Rich Medina; he talks truth and honesty from the beginning to end. I enjoyed this record a lot, and couldn’t stop playing it, because it has that different, addictive sound, its quality music, with a funky edge.

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]

Since her debut album was released, ‘Salt’, my soul embraced her musical talents straight away. Now her latest album is called ‘Dreaming Wide Awake’, and you will feel like you are on cloud 9, right above an old American town, hearing the musicians playing in an old hall below. With a live band (just like the first album), Lizz re-captures what old blues recordings used to sound like, from artists such as Howlin’ Wolf, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters etc. Her dusty Mississippi road, corn bread & grits, coolness with a whole new dimension feel, puts you right in the mood for chilling out. Wright certainly knows how to evoke contentment in a song, because her tonalities in her vocals are almost meditation sounding. Tracks like ‘Old Man’ are my favorite, because her story is heart warming and yet visual at the same time. During the record I enjoy the parts where the instruments would get a chance to do improvisation, I’m not familiar with the instruments names, because they are really traditional blues/jazz instruments, but all I do know is that they sound amazing. What with Lizz’ class and smoothness, it is like watching Billie Holiday in the 20th Century. Wright has a presence that is to be felt simply through song, I haven’t had the opportunity to witness her on stage, but am going to take it next time she comes to London. It maybe a record released in June, 14th 2005, on Verve Forecast Records, but it has a timeless sound.

Matthew Daniel [Just Soul]