/ Nothing's quite as good as a solid, soulful R&B record to chill you down or warm you up, depending on your mood or...ahem, your company. But real R&B has been hard to come by lately. Sure, artists like Rihanna are often identified as R&B, but that kind of hip-hop-influenced R&B is but a pale shade of the real thing that crooners such as Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Barry White, Grover Washington Junior, and Deniece Williams have put out. Fortunately, thanks to the good folks at Little Dizzy Records, a Sherman Oaks, CA-based independent urban digital record label, aficionados of real R&B--the smooth and soulful kind--will find their palates sensuously courted by newcomer Angie Whitney, whose first solo album, That's What Love Is All About, is out now.
Angie Whitney's been singing since the age of four. A native Californian, as a child she began singing duets with her twin sister Rachel, and soon became members of their father's church choir in Vallejo, California. The twins were soon in demand by many local groups and organizations, but Angie's career as a professional singer really gained credibility and notice when she and her sister and cousin formed their own group, The New Horizon, and were also selected as background singers for one of my alltime favorite soul groups, the legendary Spinners. Whitney now performs with the Angie Whitney Jazz & Blues Clique and Easy Street Big Band Orchestra, but her debut solo album is all her--and she's all you really need.
Despite its almost clichéd title, That's What Love Is All About is a lovely collection of soulful tunes that will heat up dancefloors and bedrooms. The lead track, "Don't Tease Me Now," is an upbeat, funky, almost disco-like dance track propelled by Whitney's smooth, silky voice and a sultry sax accompaniment. The song has a distinctly '80s kind of sound and calls to mind Sade, which is a very good thing--but Angie Whitney has a vocal identity all her own. The music, composed of soul staples bass, piano, and strings, is accented uniquely with smoky saxophone accents that play off of Ms. Whitney's voice as if she's actually singing a duet with the instrument in the intro to "Now Baby or Never," a finger-snappin' little number with a jazzy, 1920s Cotton Club sound. The title track, "That's What Love is All About" is a lovely romantic ballad, but is somewhat overshadowed by the minimalistic beauty of the eminently-soulful "Love Me By Name," which is smooth as eighty-year-old scotch and just as heart-warming. And definitely check out the straight-up elegant funk of "Excuse Me (I've Got A Life To Catch)" which features the slickest interplay between synths and sax that I think I've ever heard.
All in all, Angie Whitney's first solo effort is a sexy, sophisticated, accomplished album that gives its listeners a true, unadulterated soul/R&B experience. Her voice is not as powerful as Aretha Franklin's, but is much more energetic than Sade's, so I would say she covers a middle-ground between each...a territory little explored by soul singers these days, who all aspire for Aretha's mighty pipes or Sade's slinky purr. So put this album on the next time you come home from a long day at work. Mix up a martini, relax with yourself and a significant other, and let the music give you a nice mental massage that might...well, who knows what it might lead to, if you get my drift. ;)
Links:
angiewhitney.com
myspace.com/angielwhitney
www.littledizzyrecords.com
