Soul Strutter: 11/17/22

Thursday, 17 November 2022

LaTasha Spencer [2022] - Pressing On [Herb Middleton Music]

Latasha Spencer (Jordan) was born in Harlem, NY, in 1973 and grew up with gospel music with her aunt having sung with Sam Cooke and grandmother with James Cleveland.

At the age of ten she was consistently winning Amateur Night shows at the legendary Apollo Theatre, so many (nine in total) that in fact she was told that she was no longer able to compete.

She was playing clubs and appearing on TV shows from the age of eleven. However, she went back to her gospel roots but is now embarking on a new era and has reunited with her first producer Herb Middleton for a new single "Pressing On" which will be available from Herb Middleton Music website on 28 Nov '22.

UPDATE: Thanks to Solar Radio's Richard Marzetti who contacted me to say that this is in fact a cover of a 1987 self-titled album track by Vanessa Bell Armstrong (I even have the album myself but never connected the dots). Unfortunately Discogs doesn't list credits but digging out my copy the song was written by Jonathan Butler and Jolyon Skinner and there are credits for Glenn Jones and Genobia Jeter (so presumably they may have featured on backing vocals) and also for The Winans (who were involved in production and three of the songs were written by Marvin Winans). To conclude the 'anorak' section the song was produced by Timmy Allen who was with BB&Q Band, Change and Atlantic Starr.

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Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Herb Middleton Music
Cat No:	None
Date:	28/11/2022
Key/BPM:	N/A
Price:	£TBC

Melba Moore [2022] - Not Too Late [MoonTown Records]

Perhaps unbeknown to a non US audience, Melba Moore is a star of US theatre, TV and film appearing in the musical "Hair" (1969) and then winning a Tony Award for best supporting actress for her role in "Purlie". She has appeared in movies "All Dogs Go To Heaven" and "The Fighting Temptations" and in TV shows "Falcon Crest" and "Ellis Island" and even had two of her own TV shows, "The Melba Moore Show" and "Melba Moore Clifton Davis Show".

Ms Moore has just turned 79 on 29 Oct and is still going strong in the music world with an album "Imagine" released in April this year, one of the best singles of the year (for me, as it will certainly be in my shortlist of tracks of the year 2022) "Company" with Carmichael Musiclover (along with a few other singles from the album) and now a brand new single "Not Too Late" due next Friday (25 Nov'22).

Her first recording (as Melba Moore) was in 1966 on Musicor which was later picked up on by the UK Northern Soul scene ("Don't Cry Sing Along With The Music") but her first major hit came in 1976 with "This Is It" which peaked at #9 on UK Pop chart.

In the late 70s and early 80s she enjoyed several dance oriented hits such as "You Stepped into My Life", "Pick Me Up, I'll Dance", "Love's Comin' at Ya", "Mind Up Tonight" and "Falling".

Her latest single "Not Too Late" will be available from Herb Middleton Music website on 25 Nov '22.

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Details

Rating:	7.8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	MoonTown Records
Cat No:	None
Date:	25/11/2022
Key/BPM:	4A/98
Price:	£1

Luqman Frank [2022] - The Light of the Sun [Light Form Music] (Full Album)

As we alluded to when his last single "Baby Come Home" was posted exactly a month ago, Bay Area singer/songwriter Luqman Frank releases his debut album "The Light of the Sun" today (17 Nov '22).

It includes all six of his singles, all released this year, "Gonna Be Alright" (Feb '22), "Never" (Apr '22), "Light Of The Sun" (May '22), "All My Love" (Jun '22), "Bring Your Love" (Jul '22) and his current single "Baby Come Home" (17 Oct 2022) along with another six new songs.

He has been a fixture of the San Francisco Bay Area music scene for the past decade performing with artists such as Carlos Santana, Yolanda Adams, Pete Escovedo, Narada Michael Walden, Ledisi, Bill Ortiz (Santana), Cornell C.C Carter amongst many others and featuring on Kelly Finnegan's album "The Tales People Tell" album in 2019.

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Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital
Label:	Light Form Music
Cat No:	None
Date:	17/11/2022
Price:	£9.99

Jaz Karis [2022] - DEAR JAZ [Self Released] (Full EP)

South Londoner and BRIT School alumna Jaz Karis (Jasmin Elizabeth Winifred) released her fourth EP "DEAR JAZ" today (17 Nov '22). She has just played a soul out gig at Lafayette, London on 30 Oct.

Whilst inspired by artists like Erykah Badu, Amy Winehouse, Alicia Keys, Jaz says "that it's not about being inspired by their fame or recognition, I respect these artists who make music on their own terms & have their own authentic sound, I don’t want to just follow a trend and do what’s popular right now just for the sake of it.” Amen to that!

Now 25, she debuted in Oct. 2017 with a six track EP "Into The Wilderness". Her latest EP contains two of her recent singles, the current one from Sep "Side Of You" and "OPTION" from June this year along with "Home" (Dec '21) leaving just four new songs.

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Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	Y Track 5
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	EP
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	17/11/2022
Price:	£6.93

Keyona McCarthy [2022] - Scorpio [Cluth Facotory] (Full EP)

Keyona McCarthy is from Macon, GA, who after singer others' songs decided to start writing and recording her own. She debuted in Feb 2022 with the single "Direction" and has just released her second EP "Scorpio" which follows "Love Life" from Sep 2021.

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Details

Rating:	7.8
Explicit:	Y Track 3
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Cluth Facotory
Cat No:	None
Date:	11/11/2022
Price:	£4.95