Sunday January 23rd, 2005
New CD's this past week:
- Val Watson – Live at the funk lounge
Music news headlines this week:
Brian McKnight Returns To His Musical Roots On New
Album
Singer Brian McKnight will finally release
his new album, Gemini, on
February 8th. The set was originally slated for release last summer, but
was delayed when Kedar Massenberg was replaced by Sylvia Rhone as
president of Motown Records.
He explained that the new album is a return to his roots, as most of it
was recorded live. He said: "I really wanted to get back to the music. I
wanted to get back to a time when it wasn't about pressing play on a drum
machine. Most of this record is live. I kinda went there on U-Turn, but I
really went there musically on this album and I didn't care. I was like,
'If they love it, they love it, if they hate, they hate,' but I'm going to
put everything I got musically into this one."
McKnight added: "So there's again, like my first album, there's jazz.
There's pop. There's R&B. There's everything, no country on this one, no
rock, but you know, I stretched as far as I could within the realms of
what I had to work with."
Gemini features guest appearances by Musiq, Talib Kweli, Juvenile, Skip,
and Akon. The latest single from the album is "Everytime You Go Away."
Ex-Temptations Singer Signs Deal With Aretha
Franklin's New Label
Former Temptations lead singer Dennis
Edwards has signed with Aretha
Franklin's new label Aretha Records. Edwards told the Ohio newspaper The
Advocate, "I'm planning to be in the studio in February," and that he
hopes to have the album out sometime this year.
Edwards joined the Temptations in 1968 and sang lead on their hits "Ball
Of Confusion, "I Can't Get Next To You," and "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone."
He left the group in 1988 and now tours with his own group, the
Temptations Review Featuring Dennis Edwards, performing most of the
group's greatest hits. He says he never grows tired touring: "I just feel
so blessed to be able to still be doing this after 30, 40 years on the
road. It's a thrill for me even now because people still like the songs we
sang."
Edwards, who is the father of five and the grandfather of three, is proud
that two of his children have followed in his footsteps. His daughter Issa
Pointer now sings with her mother Ruth as part of the Pointer Sisters,
while another daughter, Ericka Turner, tried out for American Idol but
didn't make the cut. Edwards admitted that he was relieved she didn't get
picked: "She's a great talent, but I'm sort of glad she didn't make it so
she can finish college."
He went on to joke that sometimes he feels like a part-time musician and a
full-time chauffeur: "I love for the fans to know I'm still alive,
kickin', and (doing) well -- being a dad, being a cab driver, taking the
kids to dance class, and the like. It's funny how kids are always planning
something and it always seems to involve me driving them somewhere."
BeBe Winans To Release Dream In February
Multiple Dove, Grammy, Stellar and NAACP
award recipient BeBe Winans will
release Dream, a new studio recording in February 2005. He recently
traveled to Mobile, Ala., to perform for the Provident-Integrity
Distribution sales conference and to meet with his Integrity Music and
Sony Music teams. Pictured here are (l to r): Jackie Patillo, general
manager of Integrity Gospel, Danny McGuffey, senior vice president and
chief marketing officer, Integrity Media, Jerry Weimer, president of
Integrity Music Group; Winans, Heidi Brown Lewis, vice president of Sony
Music Label Group; Chris Smith, director of sales for Sony Music Label
Group and Natalya Davis, associate product director of Sony Music Label
Group.
Dream, Winans’ fifth solo effort, will be a joint release between Hidden
Beach Recordings’ Still Waters and Winans’ The Movement Group. Sony
Music’s Epic Records Group division serves as Hidden Beach’s worldwide
distributor and marketing partner to the general market and
Provident-Integrity Distribution will distribute Winans’ new project to
Christian retail.