This Week: A minor R&B diva's retrospective, a soul legend's return and the kings of world music
Aaliyah
I Care 4 U (Blackground/Universal)
Dying young and famous tends to have an inflationary effect, so let's be clear: Aaliyah, who was all of 22 when her plane went down in the Barbados in 2001, was a minor talent. But she was an interesting minor talent, as this compilation attests, and one with impeccable taste.
Unlike most female R&B stars of her generation, Aaliyah resisted the siren call of Whitney Houston. She didn't oversing her notes, she bit back on them. Her ice-cool delivery might have been a matter of adapting to circumstances—she couldn't climb the same scales as Whitney, Mariah, and their diva disciples—but it was a smart aesthetic move all the same.
Over the course of a surprisingly extended career (she was a star at 15), Aaliyah mapped out a turf of her own by finding simpatico collaborators. She landed first with dirty-old-man R. Kelly (to whom she was briefly married in those underage years) and then, most productively, with Tim "Timbaland" Mosley and his accomplices.
The latter partnership produced "Are You That Somebody," the finest song here and one of the best American songs of the past decade. Updating "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for a more candid era, it dispenses with the naiveté and asks directly, "Are you responsible? / Is it your goal, is it my goal?" while Mosley repeats a nagging sample of a baby squawking. Pop music rarely says so much with so little.
The rest of the collection, including the half-dozen posthumous tracks, shows again and again Aaliyah's canny ability hide inside a groove (and what grooves they are).
She was an elusive and evocative singer—you feel like you're always coming into a room she's just left. Which is all too sadly true.
—Jesse Fox Mayshark
Solomon Burke
Don't Give Up On Me (Fat Possum)
If you have time to settle into a comfortable chair while nursing a mug of hot chocolate or a cool glass of mint julep, Solomon Burke's Don't Give Up On Me should serve as the perfect soundtrack for that moment. Looking out on a pristine American landscape wouldn't hurt either, as this collection of "lyrica-Americana" (penned by "natives" & foreigners alike) is the perfect antidote for any average American's hectic lifestyle. Don't Give Up On Me is wind-down music at its best.
Burke, the fertile and dexterously-careered one (who spawned a brood of 21 children and maintains simultaneous careers in music, the ministry, and the mortuary business) breezes through a variety of songs like a seasoned veteran. A deliberate pace characterizes this release; Don't Give Up On Me is a saunter through a landscape of folksy lyrics and melodious musical textures. Solomon Burke's voice is one of nuance, not power, nor drama. Lyrical, he is a conversationalist.
Many a musical highlight graces this album. The song- writing roster attests to this—Tom Waits, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Van Morrison, and Joe Henry etc. With such a line-up, need more be said about this recording's pedigree? Please, find yourself a seat and imbibe of this magnum opus.
—Ekem Amonoo Lartson
Orchestra Baobab
Specialist in All Styles (World Circuit)
Specialist in All Styles is perhaps the best World Music release in the states in the last year. With the production help of Youssou N'Dour, Senegal's "ambassador," the members of Orchestra Baobab have crafted a recording for the ages.
Specialist in All Styles is a solid musical statement from front to back. The clever title of this stellar release speaks to the group's dexterity in musical genres that straddle both sides of the Atlantic. Orchestra Baobab is the African version of the Buena Vista Social Club, and their adeptness with Latin rhythms is on full display on this album (as well as on their prior release, Pirates Choice). The assertiveness and confidence implied by this album's title is further validated by virtue of Ibrahim Ferrer's presence on this recording. Cuba's Nat King Cole, Ferrer knows his way around a love ballad and lends his talents to a gem of a tune that was spontaneously arranged in the recording studio.
Another highlight on this recording is "Dee Moo Woor." In the vein of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You," this song packs a wicked punch from start to finish. Spiced thick with guitar-laden renderings, it speaks of mourning and life's harshness.
Other tunes address time- honored African mores while others serve as musings on important social topics pertinent to Senegalese society. Altogether, Specialist in All Styles comes on like a journal full of observations, commentaries, and banter from a group of adroit West African musical stalwarts.
—Ekem Amonoo Lartson
February 20, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 8
© 2003 Metro Pulse
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