Lovely Spirits Rising in New Orleans! Kelly Love Jones and Deezle, Erica Falls and Vintage Soul, Cole Williams, Tajah Olson, and Angela King and Julie Jacobs.

An Especially Nice Week!

Jul 27, 2024

Today we praise six women favored with beautiful musicality and a music-producer, Darius Harrison, who also works magic.

(Tomorrow we’ll go ‘Greenhorn Gardening’, with Okra high as an elephant’s eye, Eggplants of Green Apple and Black Pot, and platters of Tomaters big as Potaters and colorful and delicious as DeKooning mixed with O’Keefe and Matisse, all grown since April by )

KELLY LOVE JONES and DARIUS HARRISON (DEEZLE) and their Album SURRENDER

Maryse and I bought the CD of SURRENDER this past Tuesday at a very convivial and well-stocked Album-Release Party.

Hundreds were dancing.

The Album itself is straightforward and melodious and percussive, like Bob Marley and the Wailers accented for sweetness, but quite mysterious as to what shows up when the CD processes through Apple and iTunes. Neither its title nor track-titles show up.

Nor are he Track-titles and their times on the CD’s artful (by KELLY, too!) back-cover.

You can, however get a Digital Download on her site—https://www.kellylovejonesmusic.com/shop/p/surrender-1

Let me tour the Tracks with you, now, giving titles as they feel right for Tracks un-named above.

1 “We Are The One” (DP title) Every SURRENDER Track is immediately danceable, like Reggae in all Reggaes evolutions, AND each also imparts empowerment and/or love. This lead Track imparts both. It tells us, “I am somebody … You are somebody … We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

2 “I’m In Love” The beats are even more UP. “From the first time I saw your face / I felt my heart change its pace.”

3 “HeartSong—Come Back Till The End Of Time” (DP title) The most benign of loves—abandoning ownership. “Lend me your ear / So that I can sing the melody of my heart-song) / … I surrender / You’re my answer / …”

4 “Fire” As the keyboards slink flashing upward, beats roll like Gregory Issacs’. “I’ve got the fever for your fire / Come and take my cool away / Come and take my cool / …”

5 “Why Not Forgive?” Ballad of soft, slow dance to repair a past into the future. “Let’s change the story / To a happy ending / No more cold shoulder / … / We’ve all done things that we want to be forgiven for / …”

6 “Dance With Me” Rhythms more off-center yet rococo and spot-on for gentle movement. “Let’s start with something simple / I won’t step onto your toes”.

7 “There’s More To Life—Forward!” (DP title). An ostinato intro os some ominousness and then more of empowering counsel. “Take a moment / To come back to now / Remember breathe / Remember breathe / …”

The seven Tracks of SURRENDER add up to a little less than one half-hour, but a powerfully pleasant and positive half-hour it is! Each Track is both sincere and subtle, each loaded with surprising and elegant surprises, and the whole, darn-good Album is exquisite and one you may want to revisit, as I do.

ERICA FALLS and VINTAGE SOUL

Erica Falls and her Vintage Soul band of Bass, Guitar, Drums-Set, Keyboards, and Percussion and her backing Singers now make up a group to captivate any Nightclub or Festival. Erica’s voice has been clarion since she first sang on recordings for top New Orleans’ musicians as a teen-ager. Allen Toussaint chose her to be his harmonizer. Since leaving front-person role with Galactic in 2019 she’s grown and grown as song-writer, bandleader and complete-range-of-vocals Star.

The new album by Erica and Vintage Soul is EMOTIONS.

COLE WILLIAMS

Cole you may know from her “Dear Love” and earlier songs. Ur1Light.com pointed to the artistries in “Dear Me” as we also looked at the spectacular cavalcade from the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, as filmed (filmed!) by Bert Stern and Aram Avakian.

Cole is ever-productive. She feeds the un-housed in New Orleans and the otherwise needy in New Orleans. She hosts a ‘New Orleans Music Show’ on radio-station WWOZ. She performs regularly (this past Jazz Fest). Her “A Better Woman” is here.

Visit Cole as Performer and Activist. She sang over WWL last Friday.

TAJAH OLSON of MALAWI and VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA and the ANGELA KING GALLERY

Tajah was born in Malawi, lived several years in Namibia, and came with her father to Vancouver Island in British Columbia. She’s made art forever. Since 2017 the Angela King Gallery in the French Quarter of New Orleans has represented her.