My Music Reviews: Chaka Khan, “Funk This”

I penned this for www.about.com/dancemusic back in 2007 and it is now here on my blog…at “home” where it should be. “Hi, Chaka!!”

Long before people began anointing every singer with a big voice a “diva”, I noticed the slightly different lead singer of a band called Rufus back during my college radio days. Guys all over campus, including yours truly, fell in “love” with everything about this new star. From her big hair to her kind of cute, quirky-jerky dance movements between lyrics on stage (hear “Better Days” and “Ain’t Nobody”), we were all smitten. If you’ve ever seen her perform, then your mind will imagine her moves to the groove as this CD opens up with “Back In The Day”, a chronicle of her early Chi-town upbringing.

Yet, as I look back to the days of “Tell Me Something Good” (remember the heavy breathing?), it is probably precisely at this point that none of us could have even gotten close to that “Angel” who might have been “inconsistent, flying blind most of the time”, as portrayed on track four of this, her latest album/CD. Oh yes, she gets it real without wasting time, like saying “Funk This” [Burgundy Records 88697 09022 2], so let me tell you my story! This album has the mark of how reconciled with life’s trials Chaka is; knowing it is the right time for this long promised propitiate to her fans. It also occurs to me that the first song is an ode to her recognizing that singing became her salvation.
Next you’ll see what she’s up to here, mixing new songs and covering timeless hits when she re-classics the Dee Dee Warwick smash “Foolish Fool”.

This is not a greatest hits compact disc, but her sound flavored with the seasoned sensations of her career and life. Having been in the orchestra seats to witness many of her performances, I ask myself, “Where has the time gone?” Well, the Chaka Khan of Rufus fame is back on this one, and appropriate props are due to the sensitivities of the Jam and Lewis production duo too! She pays homage to one of my inspirations, Jimi Hendrix on “Castles Made Of Sand” (I couldn’t believe it was the same song when first I read the title on the back cover), your mind will play the trick of having you think the Experienced one came back just to play for this track. Here she talks about the album!

“Disrespectful” features Mary J. Blige, and the lively, funky beat reminds me of the 2005 jam by Amerie, “1 Thing”; I’d love to see them perform it “live”; Hell, I want to see her do all of this live, and just in – this is the track spawning smokingly funky remixed versions, for all us club DJs!

Right after we beautifully relive the magic of the “Pack’d My Bags”/ “You Got The Love” medley where it is happily noticeable to me that she has reunited with her former Rufus guitarist Tony Maiden, it becomes really time to soulfully groove as Chaka pays homage to her good friend Joni Mitchell on “Ladies Man”.
I love the background singers on that one, and speaking of accompaniments, imagine the trademark Carly Simon smile towards Michael McDonald’s duet with Chaka to her “You Belong To Me” here as well.

“Super Life” has my vote for the best single. Chaka’s material is so relatable here in the future that is now.

That this is vintage Chaka is to evoke one of those clichés that I despise, so I will say that this is refreshing funk and so necessary against the backdrop of today’s so often lame and laboriously slow “neo” R & B, and it is pure Chaka Khan, wide-ranging vocals from the gritty to the signature shouting extended vamp notes.
I believe that you will want to listen repeatedly in various situations and moods to this familiar musical friend.

Once anointed, and often referred to on the air as “lips and hips” by my friend, the late WBLS New York City programmer (and on of my reluctant radio mentors) Frankie Crocker, I feel that she is and always has been much, much more complicated that that – but we all had fun playing to that fantasy once upon a time. If there is a category for it, this album would win the comeback Grammy of the year. After meeting her backstage at the Blue Note in New York City back in 1992, and briefly hanging out with her (my date made an exit, stage right, so I could hang – a night I’ll never forget), I always knew she would bless us with more excellent music. So in a way, my original dream from college days has almost come true. As I wrote this, Ms. Khan was to make her Broadway debut in early 2008 as the character played by Oprah in “The Color Purple”, Sofia opposite BeBe Winans.? What ever happened wit dat? lol

No point deductions for a well thought-out and timed return, equals five tasty Chakalatte stars in my guest book.

Here is one of my favorite Chaka and Rufus from the past; their cover of Bobby Womack’s “You’re Welcome, Stop On By” in video!

Your comments about Chaka Khan, Please? “Pajulsta”? Пожалуйста?

My Vinyl: Vesta Williams

OF COURSE you can glean by now that I probably first heard Vesta Williams on New York City’s famous WBLS FM 107.5, and you are correct.  “Vesta” as we first came to know her, could always hit those “Chaka Khan notes” right-down to the “Ooo!”, and indeed, I thought she was Chaka until A&M Records promotions people bestowed  her first dance 12″ 45rpm on me, “Don’t You Blow A Good Thing”,  back in 1986.  

one of "my vinyl" Vesta 12 Inch

You’ve probably never heard of Vesta Williams unless you were into “descendant-of-disco” music in the major U.S. cities like New York City or San Francisco/L.A.  back in the mid-1980s!  She really did “nail” that Chaka Khan-type sound, as I re-listen to the two 12″  DJ singles that I was lucky enough to add to my library back then.  After-all, Chaka was hot with “I Feel For You” in those days, and there were a couple of other ladies that were able to capitalize on that sound, and IMO, Vesta was one of them.  I now wonder if somehow living in that shadow of a superstar of your genre may have weighed upon Ms. Williams – if the “overdose” rumors are proved true.  Strange – whenever a singer or actor/actress is found dead in a hotel room, a “drug overdose” is always the first guess as to the cause of death.  When you hear these initial rumors of an entertainer’s demise, what drug(s) do you think of?  TMZ reports “multiple bottles of pills…”  The same thing happened with my late friend, Phyllis Hyman.

"and be suspicious when the moon is high..."

I liked my other of my two “Vesta” A & M Records 12-inch singles, “Once Bitten Twice Shy” better. It’s bass line was real even, long-lasting and smooth and the song even became a kind of personal cautionary theme song of mine as I matured through my “playboy” women-dating days. LOL  The Steve Hodge remix still sounds boss and full tonight as I play it in the background while I write these words.  The song basically means “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!”

I never had the pleasure of being even close to meeting her in my radio glory days when she was “hot”, and yet she could have been in the room, or a club or bar with me simultaneously and I have the feeling we would have vibed, maybe had a beverage and talked about “the biz” and remained acquaintances. She actually “looks familiar” to me from my NYC radio DJ days.  She was “hot” at the height of my radio career there. I wish that I had more vinyls by Vesta Williams, but as the art of music always does, it leaves us a wealth of material to eternally remember the artist.

 I never stopped playing Vesta through the years when I could choose the music I played on my radio shows.  She was made more for the airwaves and the nightclubs, in my opinion, and when I head of her passing away at only fifty-three today, I thought, “Wow! Where has she been all these years?”  I pray theat an artist’s frustration with not being in the place that you planned to be at a certain stage of life didn’t get the best of her.  Lord knows, I know exactly what that feels like…  “Once Bitten…”

“Twice Shy.”  Another choice voice who will be missed.  If you knew her, or have other songs that are not part of my library that are your favorites, please weigh-in with them in my “comments” section below.

One that a couple of women I know in the singing business have mentioned is a sad ballad of unrequited love and betrayal called “Congratulations”.  Vesta is now free from all of the physical world drama that she sang about.  Bra-vo, Vesta.

June Swoon treat: A Chaka mini-concert

I’ve been thinking about a few people lately. Not that I don’t always think about many people, but the ones on my mind a lot for the past two weeks or so are radio legend Hal Jackson (I was his like, “valet”,  briefly in 1984 while working at his radio station, WBLS-FM), the approaching anniversary of a former lady friend suddenly dumping me last June 12th, and Chaka Khan.  Listening to an old diary tape from when I went to the Blue Note, New York City, in 1992 to do an interview with her. I pen another chapter to my memoir; I came upon this song, which she performed during her set.  I never really knew the name of this funky classic until today when I researched it. Although I own copious vinyl from those days (it might be I have it only on a 45rpm!), I  have decided to post it as a “feel-good” Chaka mini-concert to take you away. Envision it happening in the spacious yard behind the house, as you and I try to forget the everyday cares of trying to “make it” for the vacation you are going to be on. 
I think that with the natural disasters, man-made disasters and financial strains of the day, everyone is ready for a “time-out” via this Memorial Day Weekend and going forward.  Just escape – one way or the other.  Here’s to your grillin’ and not being rained-out, wherever you are. 
Enjoy this performance by my friend, Ms. Khan and my Juneteenth pick-hitt, with love.

(find out how that interview went when my  radio memoir book is published – hopefully soon – and more.) Cheers.