Ann Nesby- The Lula Lee Project
Whether she’s doing mainstream or gospel, Ann Nesby is a force to be reckoned with. Her voice, bubbling with the soulful connections of Aretha Franklin, is highly distinguishable and remains synonymous with the Sounds of Blackness’ glory years. Her tenure with the group, although quite short in the eye of mainstream pop music, is extremely relevant for her career; breaking her into big R&B hits and even placing her in the company of super tag-team producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. After her two-album deal with Jam & Lewis’s Perspective label, she hit the independent scene and even made her mark on the dance world with blazing recordings with house mixer DJ Spen (Jasper Street Company) and her #1 club hit “Lovin’ Is Really My Game.” The tedious journey led her to a cameo appearance in the motion picture The Fighting Temptations, a successful gastric bypass surgery, a GRAMMY-nominated album (This Is Love) and a most-recent label signing with Tyscot Records. On her first Tyscot album, The Lula Lee Project, Nesby takes the high road into superfluous alter-egos learning from the likes of Beyonce’ (Sasha), Mariah Carey (Mimi) and Tonex’ (too many names to print) by introducing us to Lula Lee. But thankfully for a 54-year old grandmother and an established veteran singer in the gospel world, the backdrop of the story isn’t as shallow as it may appear. Lula is the first word of her birth name and Lee is the last name of her husband and manager, Timothy Lee. Still, the super move along with the glossy photos and the recent music video seems to stir up the idea that Nesby may be playing with the familiar tactics of most sophisticated and established diva personas.
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Holy Boy- Out Of Time
At first glance, one might think Holy Boy was just a gospel experiment that surely had R&B superstar Usher in mind. He sure has the looks, the charming smile and the baby-face. But while gospel has always been one step behind the latest craze in pop culture, it’s still never too late to try something refreshing using kiddie-bop sensations and a smidgen of personality. The Mobile, Ala native, born Herbert Woods, is the latest in the gospel-meets-urban saga stepping into the familiar avenues of R&B heartthrobs Usher and Chris Brown hoping to make urban gospel sound more sensational than being an underground movement. And with a name that sounds as if it had leaped out of the pages of Marvel Comics, Holy Boy is sure to rally up a rousing set of kids interested in his urban-pop infused gospel message on his Fontana/Universal debut Out Of Time.
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Kim Burrell- No Ways Tired
It’s been nine years since her last project, but she has been far from inactive. Kim Burrell has landed a great deal of guest appearances on albums with artists like Stevie Wonder, Harry Connick, Jr., Marvin Winans, American Idol judge Randy Jackson, Richard Smallwood, Kirk Whalum and Tye Tribbett. Having state that, solo albums are still an musical artist’s best representation and Burrell fans, even after countless appearances on TBN’s Praise the Lord, have been anxiously awaiting for something fresh from the jazzy riffer. Yet bad news after bad news, including tumultuous record deals going sour with Sony Urban and Tommy Boy, left her faithful followers with a great deal of doubt over a career resurgence. After receiving teasers on Gospelflava.com of an ambitious live recording, live concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall and throwing out a few promotional singles along the way, Burrell responds with No Ways Tired; her latest studio effort on the Shanachie label. Project wise, this is her most forward leap into gospel jazz even though the album parades around a slew of hymn arrangements and gospel classics. But her remakes are sensibly altered to place strong focus on her jazz background rather than treading the paths of Burrell’s closest cohorts (Nikki Ross, Kierra Sheard, Beyonce’, Fantasia, Ledisi). Rather than putting out a flashy urban R&B-oriented record, she maintains her underground image of performing her unique style of “jazz gospel” without sacrificing much of what she is accredited for starting since her Tommy Boy debut in 1998.
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