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(Among his last projects were Norah Jones' first two blockbuster albums.) So it's puzzling that Joseph's records didn't make much of an impact upon release.
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All were masterfully arranged by Arif Mardin, the legendary Turkish producer who died last summer.Īt the time Mardin was working with Joseph, he already had established a stellar reputation in the business, having overseen instant classics by Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler and others. They're now available as crisply remastered Japanese import CDs, packaged in miniature cardboard replicas of the original LPs. These albums are her first three for Atlantic - starting with her self-titled 1973 debut, Sweet Surrender in '74 and Margie in '75. In the 1970s, she recorded for Stax and Atlantic, two venerable soul music labels that released superb records on Joseph but did a shoddy job promoting them. Margie Joseph: self-titled, Sweet Surrender and Margie -Speaking of underrated vocalists, this Mississippi woman never got her due. And although Hewitt still sounds as good as he did in the 1980s, effortlessly gliding from a passion-drenched tenor to a floating falsetto, the ballad-heavy album is just OK. Last year, he tentatively ventured back to secular music, releasing Intimate, a live album and DVD of his greatest hits. In that time, Hewitt has kept a low profile, singing mostly contemporary gospel fare. The former lead singer of the hit '80s funk-pop trio Shalamar returns with his first R&B album in a decade. What he managed to finish, though, is a fine final testament to his superlative musical skills. He addresses his fabled wild lifestyle on "Do You Wanna Play" and "Taste" and poetically celebrates black women on the swaying "Sapphire." He even throws in a cover, an elegant, atmospheric rendition of David Crosby's "Guinnevere." James had planned to make Deeper Still a two-disc set, but he never got around to it. And his voice - despite years of smoking, hard living and hard singing - was still a strong and expressive instrument. Although the arrangements are at times rigidly programmed, James never lost his sense of groove. The songwriting also had become more reflective, sometimes poignantly autobiographical. But he still managed to make solid music when he wasn't otherwise engaged in reckless, coke-fueled shenanigans.ĭeeper Still, a surprisingly cohesive collection of tracks James had been working on shortly before his death, showcases an evolved artist whose music had mellowed with smoother elements of jazz, even touches of folk. Granted, the Motown artist started to copy himself soon after the monstrous success of that album. At the peak of his powers circa 1981's masterful Street Songs, James was the consummate singer-musician-producer, synthesizing elements of rock, blues and funk into a lean, singular sound. But even before that, his hedonistic sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll lifestyle, which ultimately culminated in a two-year prison sentence in 1993, had all but obliterated his musical significance. Rick James, Deeper Still -At the time of his death in 2004, James had resurfaced in pop culture as a punch line on the Dave Chappelle Show. One is a legendary super freak whose music had mellowed nicely before he died there's a silken-voiced crooner returning to R&B after a decade of singing for Christ and a forgotten soul sista whose sound mingled the best of Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin. In this week's column, I'm talking about "grown folks' music," new and reissued albums by mature artists whose musical gifts have largely been underrated.