If you’ve ever fought to pursue your dreams despite pressure from family or society, Yola’s inspiring story will resonate with you. Raised by a single mother in Bristol, UK, the guitarist and singer-songwriter fell in love with music at a young age, but her mother discouraged her from pursuing it as a career because it […]
Tag: soul
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Star Creature keeps the party going with The Chicago Boogie Vol. 3
I’ve long admired Chicago indie label Star Creature Universal Vibrations for its efforts to push the synth-heavy sounds of boogie and modern funk and bolster the international underground community that loves them. The label focuses on contemporary artists and releases, but it also maintains an indispensable archival project in the form of its ongoing Chicago […]
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Chicago rapper, producer, and singer ’Kechi maps his future through his family roots
Chicago producer, rapper, and singer Ikechi Chijiuba Ihemeson, aka ’Kechi, performs as though his entire life has led up to the moment he steps to the mike. He started recording his new full-length, ’Kechi Tunez (Ojuba Music), in 2020, though he traces the album’s roots back to a year he spent in Africa a decade […]
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Remembering the quiet king of Chicago music promoters
Eddie Thomas was one of Chicago’s greatest music promoters, and he might’ve been the most humble. While his name is linked in more ways than one to Curtis Mayfield’s, throughout the 1960s and 1970s he guided myriad R&B and disco artists through the process of making records and getting them played. When I talked to […]
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Soul singer Jackie Ross is so much more than a one-hit wonder
Jackie Ross had a smash with “Selfish One” in 1964—but that just happens to be the best-selling single from her decades of great songs.
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Saxophonist Gene Barge helped shape the sound of Chicago R&B
Gene Barge has done his most influential work as a sideman or producer, but he’s just as important as any of R&B’s marquee stars.
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Bless the Mad share their private pantheon of Black Chicago music
Production duo Bless the Mad discuss the classic hip-hop, soul, gospel, and jazz records that inspired the reverent sonic collage on their debut album.
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Girl group the Lovelites hit big but never became stars outside Chicago
The Lovelites had their biggest success with “How Can I Tell My Mom and Dad,” which came out when they were so young they could barely tour.
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The Artistics belong in the top tier of Chicago soul and R&B
The Artistics could match the quality of the Impressions and the Chi-Lites, but not their chart success.
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Soul singer Bill Coday had two careers 20 years apart
Bill Coday’s early releases, especially on Denise LaSalle’s Crajon label, have been widely reissued—and his later soul-blues recordings are beloved too.
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Buscabulla’s tropical soul vignettes distill the mixed blessings of returning home
In the wake of Hurricane Maria, at least 130,000 people left Puerto Rico to live elsewhere. Yet in February 2018, Puerto Rican musicians Raquel Berrios and Luis Alfredo del Valle, aka experimental dream-pop duo Buscabulla (“Troublemaker” in English), returned to the island after nearly a decade in New York City. During those years, they’d become […]
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Chicago rapper Ric Wilson and Los Angeles producer Terrace Martin invigorate disco, soul, and funk on a new collaborative EP
Chicago rapper and prison abolitionist Ric Wilson knows the joy of combing through history for jewels of knowledge that enrich his connection to his hometown’s multifaceted Black communities. He also understands how to incorporate sounds from the past into contemporary music. Last year he found a kindred spirit in Terrace Martin, a Los Angeles jazz […]
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Chicago soul dynamo Renaldo Domino breaks out his sugary sweet pipes on “Never Thought”
Correction: This item has been updated to include details about Renaldo Domino’s new Colemine Records single “No Laggin’ and Draggin’,” whose upcoming release the show celebrates. In a just and perfect world, Renaldo Domino would be as widely revered as legendary Chicago soul greats Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler, and Gene Chandler. In my opinion, the […]
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Avery Sunshine brings in the new year with her bright neosoul
Some neosoul artists focus on torch songs and heartbreak, but as her name suggests, pianist and singer Avery Sunshine (aka Denise Nicole White) sticks to the brighter side of the genre. Working with guitarist and arranger Dana Johnson (who’s also her husband), Sunshine mixes old-school R&B grooves, gentle funk, and jazzy gospel vocals on flirtatiously […]
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Pieces of Peace cut most of their brilliant soul-funk for other people’s records
Chicago soul-funk band Pieces of Peace didn’t put out their only album till 35 years after they broke up.