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Thursday 7 July 2022

Miki Howard [2022] - Throw It Away [Justice Records]


Alicia Michelle 'Miki' Howard was Born in Chicago, IL, in 1960 to two well-known gospel singers, Clay Graham (Pilgrim Jubiliees) and Josephine Howard (The Caravans).

In her teens she moved to L.A. with her mother and was spotted by Side Effect's Augie Johnson in a teen beauty contest when she was 16 and was later to join Side Effect in 1978 to replace Sylvia St. James. She had a relationship with Johnson and they had a child together. 

Whilst with Side Effect she also did backing vocals for Wayne Henderson, Roy Ayers and Stanley Turrentine, amongst others, and in 1985 decided to go solo and secured a contract with Atlantic. Her debut album "Come Share My Love" was released in 1986 and she had her first hit single with the title track.

She has continued to record albums in every decade since, with 3 in each of the 80s, 90s, 00s and her last in 2015, although since the 90s most of the albums consisted mainly of cover versions and many of them of jazz standards.  It is, therefore, no great surprise that her latest single ,"Throw It Away" (released 4 Jul 2022), is reminiscent of a something you might expect to hear in a smokey jazz club. 

It's a song written and recorded by Abby Lincoln in 1980 and featured on her "Painted Lady" album, but I have to say it sounds a lot older and she recorded from the 50s so perhaps it was an old song even in 1980? She re-recorded it in 2007 and  Miki's version is more in line with that version than the 1980 original which Miki has updated further.

It is obviously a bit of a jazz standard as SecondHandSongs lists 89 versions of it! Just about the only name I recognise on the list is Cassandra Wilson who did it in 2003.

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Details
Rating: 8
Explicit: N
Genre/Style: Soul Jazz
Format: Single
Media: Digital
Label: Justice Records
Cat No: None
Date: 04/07/2022
Key/BPM: 2A/58
Price: £1
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2 comments:

USMAN47 said...

It really is a great Abbey Lincoln song. There is yet another version on his album "A turtle's Dream" (1995). Among all the versions even AYO also made a beautiful version a little more rhythmic on his album "Royal" (2020).

Yves

Anonymous said...

MIKI IS THE PURE STANDARD FOR SUPER VOCALS THAT GOES STRAIGHT TO YOUR SOUL NO MATTER WHAT SHE'S SINGING MY FRIEND MIKI SINGS FROM THE SOUL IM THE CHAIRMAN