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7/2/2004

Larry Katz

Everything old school is new again: Fresh soul faces dust off the sound

How do you like your soul music served?
Neo or retro?
Neo-soul is that newfangled take on the old-school soul of Aretha, Otis, Marvin and Stevie. A slew of artists including Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Jill Scott, D'Angelo, Calvin Richardson and recent arrival Van Hunt have come along, juicing heartfelt r & b singing with elements of hip-hop: rapping, big-bottomed beats, streetwise attitude or all three.
Done right, it's a demographic bonanza, yielding music MTV viewers can groove to along with their moms and pops. Neo-soul queen Angie Stone says as much in one of several interludes - another device adopted from hip-hop CDs - on her third album "Stone Love'' (in stores Tuesday), when she talks about using hip-hop in her music to reach as many peeps as possible.
``Stone Love'' seeks to evoke a '70s vibe from the clothes Stone wears on its cover to rococco musical arrangements that nod to the glory years of Philly soul.
But Stone isn't looking to re-create a more innocent, pre-hip-hop past. That's made clear when Snoop Dogg makes an appearance on the first song, ``I Wanna Thank Ya,'' a title line Stone rhymes with ``Your love is gangsta.'' Call me Caucasian, but who knew ``gangsta'' could be a positive quality?
Stone's other guests include the English hip-hop duo Floetry, fellow neo-soulster Anthony Hamilton, genuine golden soul oldie Betty Wright and Missy Elliott, who provides the best track, ``U-Haul.'' It finds Stone ending a relationship by packing up, moving out and delivering the memorably amusing line, ``This is tragic, like when Michael left the Jacksons.''
Stone may name-check the Jacksons, but she's more about flirting with old soul than actually singing it. She's another modern urban r & b singer whose music ultimately lacks the vocal personality, instrumental punch and focused songwriting found in the classic soul of yesteryear. For those qualities, check out the emerging wave of retro-soulsters.
Retro-soul success so far is represented by the unlikely face of Joss Stone, a 16-year-old blonde from England. Most of her well-received debut album, last year's blandly titled ``The Soul Sessions,'' was produced by Stone's pal Betty Wright and performed by cult-hero sessionmen such as guitarist Willie ``Little Beaver'' Hale. Stone's distinguished helpmates gave her credibility, and her youth and good looks got her noticed.
She also benefited from the ``American Idol'' effect. While Stone covered the White Stripes' ``Fell in Love With a Boy,'' the rest of her album consisted of soul chestnuts similar to much of what's belted out for Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and millions of TV viewers every week.
If not for her foreign citizenship, Stone could have been an ``American Idol'' constestant - but she would have lost to Fantasia Barrino, a better soul belter. No shame in that, or in Stone's enjoyable-enough CD, which is full of promise, if not memorable performances.
Still, Stone has ignited enough interest that retro-soul now is viewed as a potentially salable style and not a one-way ticket to obscurity.
Singer and guitarist Ellis Hooks, a 30-year-old from Alabama, caused a mild stir in England with his first album, ``Undeniable,'' in 2002. His second U.S. release and third overall, ``Uncomplicated,'' contains 15 raw originals mixing hardscrabble soul with shades of rock, blues, country and gospel. Hooks remains rough around the edges, but his passion can't be denied. Maybe it will work for him. Such no-frills honesty is the stuff jam band heroes are made of.
Jam band nation won't have to stretch its ears far to fall for the Bo-Keys, an all-instrumental Memphis band with a groove-oriented approach. The Bo-Keys' role models are obvious: Booker T. & the MG's and the Mar-Keys, the legendary Memphis instrumentalists of the '60s. The interracial, inter-generational Bo-Keys manage to sound funkin' contemporary without forgetting their roots on ``The Royal Sessions,'' a debut recorded at the legendary Memphis studio used by Al Green.
But the strongest candidate for retro-soul stardom? That would be 25-year old Ricky Fante, whose ``Rewind'' arrives on July 13.
Fante is good-looking and charismatic enough that he appeared as Wilson Pickett on NBC's recent ``American Dreams.'' On ``Rewind,'' he also stirs memories of Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Percy Sledge and the like. But Fante is no mere impersonator. He's reviving Southern soul music's versatility as well as its spirit. Like Pickett, Redding and Cooke, he can rock the house with uptempo numbers, slow things way down to plead his case or ease into a midtempo groove that just plain feels good.
When you can do that as well as Fante, whether neo or retro, you can't be denied