Alicia Michelle 'Miki' Howard was Born in Chicago, IL, in 1960 to two well-known gospel singers, Clay
Graham (Pilgrim Jubilees) 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. In 1985 she decided embark on a solo career 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.
Miki's most successful commercial period was between 1986-92 when she achieved a dozen R&B charting singles, with seven of them reaching the Top 5 including two #1s.
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 jazz
standards.
We got a taster for her new album "MEHA" with a single, "Throw It Away" in July, and the full album has now dropped on 12 Dec '22, and much
like her recent material consists of several classic jazz covers (four
from Abbey Lincoln), reminiscent of a something you might expect to hear
in a smoky jazz club. It includes two original self-written songs, the
opening track "Number One Fan" and "She's Talking".
Miki's story was told in a 2016 biopic "Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story" (named after her R&B #2 hit of 1989) in which Miki was played by Teyonah Parris who received a Black Reel Award in 2017 as Outstanding Actress, TV Movie or Limited Series. It also received two further awards for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series and Outstanding Screenplay/Writing, TV Movie or Limited Series.
So far the album hasn't landed on Amazon UK, but should do within a day
or two, so the link on image below is to Amazon US for now.
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
Click icons below for further information or to connect with the
artist.
| Rating: | 8 |
| Explicit: | N |
| Genre/Style: | Jazz |
| Format: | Album |
| Media: | Digital |
| Label: | Justice Records |
| Cat No: | None |
| Date: | 12/12/2022 |
| Price: | $11.61 |
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