LEDISI

Interview 1 October 2001

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I read that your mother sang in a band.

Yes, she did.

Who was that and what recollections do you have.

My mom's band was called "CORANOVA" and their logo was the yin and yang sign. My mom and the bass
player wrote most of the songs and my step-dad played the drums in the band. They played everything: R&B,
Contemporary Pop songs and 60's 70's Roy Ayers kinda music. My favourite memory was my mom singing Chain of Fools and playing the tambourine on her hip, shaking her butt.

Do you have any recollections about New Orleans and the music scene? I guess you were pretty young when
you left.

I was very young. So young that it's not worth me mentioning (smile). I watched my mom and mocked
singers on the radio that's all I knew. And when someone would die people danced in the streets as the
band played "When The Saints Go Marching In."
I played the Recorder and sang with the New Orleans Symphony Youth Chorus and they chose 2 students from every middle school in New Orleans and I was one of the lucky 2.So that was my music scene.
The only time I saw my mom was in rehearsal or recording her vocals in my bedroom at our house. I
would lay on my bed and watch her sing while the band played in the living room. They recorded to 8 track. Or
they would play sometime at the neighborhood park.

You subsequently studied music - did you know then that it would be your vocation.

I studied music because it was a wonderful opportunity to learn different styles of music and my
mother always wanted the best for me. I knew I wanted to sing when I was born. I slept listening to my
step-dad pounding on the drums when I was a baby. It was the only way I would fall asleep. I was born after
a Jackson Five Concert. My mom sang while she was pregnant in a band and my birth-father was a
outstanding singer/guitar player. I mean- music is my calling and always will be 'til I am gone.

What music do you like and who are your heroes and influences.

I love Sarah Vaughn, Carmen McCrae, Ella Fitzgerald, Chaka Khan, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin,
Dinah Washinton, Al Jarreau, Rachelle Ferell, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Nusrat Ali
Khan, Fela Kuti, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker.....to name a few. All of this people have
influenced me.And so many more and too many more to name. And too many reasons why.

What about the people you have worked with like Isaac Hayes, Eric Benet, Incognito - any stories to tell?

I like Isaac Hayes for what he's done for music and helping me pay my bills and that's all I'll say
about him. (smile) Eric Benet is very nice and he expressed he enjoyed my work. He's very talented. I
have only opened for Incognito,I never met anyone in the band.
It's funny seeing people you admire. I have learned alot from the entertainers I have encountered. The
main thing I learned is a phrase that I heard Lena Horne say in an interview,"BE nice to people cause you
never know when you'll see them again going up or coming down." (smile)

You teach as well - tell me a bit about this

Yes, I do teach. It has been my saving grace. I feel like I'm giving back. I teach singers how to go
beyond their fears and use that energy to tell a story hrough song.
Singing, to me, is singing songs and picking them not just because you like them, but because you've
experience them or can relate to it's feeling. That's what I teach. I show singers how to be vunderable
without fear, so the audience can get it. They will know who YOU are and not the singer who originally
sang the song.

Now tell me about your early appearances and work on
stage around the Bay Area

My first gig was with a band called Slide Five. I never recorded with them because I would not
sign with the record label they were under. I learned about business early thanks to my mom.

We played at a club called the NightBreak on Haight Street in San Francisco, where they showed pornos near
the stage while I sang my little heart out. We'd play from 9pm-2am and I would get $5.00 at the end of the
night. I didn't care about money. I was so happy to be in a band. I left the band after 2 years and started my
own band(Anibade).We played regularly at the Elbo Room opening sometime for Charlie Hunter and became really popular. I have had 3 sets of band members since 1993 until I have settled with the people I have now. I
remember praying that people will like me and working so hard on stage that I would come home up 6 flights
of stairs and peel off my sweaty clothes and I'd be aching all over my body. My back was the worse. I sang
hard, danced hard and gave hard. I still made $5.00 at the end of the night. And I am not exaggerating.
The early days have made me humble and I always remember how lucky I am to have worked with and
continue to work with great musicians.

Soulsinger is your first album isn't it.

Yes.

How did this come about and what was it like doing it all yourself.

Sundra 'Sun' Manning plays keyboards in my band and we decided to start writing together. We
wrote for a lot of local and signed artist and got bored with the style of writing and wanted to do
something different. We programed all the songs and gave out tapes to our musician friends so they could
record what we wrote. We bought chicken and worked it all out.

Soulsinger was so much fun. It was the easiest album to
write and recorded. But it has been and continue to be
the hardest album to get out there.

Have you had any hints of any recognition from the majors?

Beautiful rejection letters from a few. Everyone is afraid. Why has this album received great
reviews in Billboard (twice) 3 1/2 stars out of four in Pulse Magazine. Vibe magazine gave it a 4 rating
out of five. It's number 1 on WHUR in Washington D.C and the number one top selling independent CD in New York. And it has been in the top 10 selling CD's in most record stores for over a year and it's still not
out there. We need Distribution. And all the record stores are calling us. People beg so much for this CD
that the headquarters to all the major stores are calling us. But unfortunately most of them can't take
us without a distribution deal. And in some stores we are the only product on consignment. I guess the
record label don't know where to put this CD.WE need help it's just two of us. Sundra and myself.

What kind of reaction have you had from overseas - one of your tracks appeared on a compilation in the
UK but it would be great to be able to get the album > more readily - or see you over here. Any chance?

I want to be in the UK so badly. They have given us nothing but love. The CD is so different from
my live shows. You can ask anyone that has seen me with my band. My band has been with me for 8 years and there is a reason they have been there. The band is very much apart of my sound. Put it this way I have only
two drums that I can play with in the entire Bay Area. It really sucks when both of them are sick. I
have gone through every drummer here. And if I am going to go to the UK and perform we have
to do it right. So many people have offered but no one will help us do this right. I can't go over there half
-ass. You gotta get all of it just like we do it here.
We need sponsorship, we need help. Otherwise, I would have been there long time ago.

The lyrics are strong and you're not afraid to 'tell it like it is'. Tell me about the writing process
and how it all comes together.

Why not tell it like it is. This is my nature. Trust me I was afraid but that's all the more reason
to do it. And it has saved and changed lives. The writing came just as easily as recording it. It was
like breathing and very spiritual, very honest and a lot of love was put into this CD. It's like Sun and I
poured everything in it. Without thought or fear. Just pure love and emotion. Our friends came to the studio
like that and they played like that. We had 12 people in the studio eating chicken and waiting for their
turn to play. It was beautiful.

You can cut it through mellow jazz to uplifting Soul to hard hitting comment. Do you have any
preferences.

I like all of it.

I'd like to know a bit about your people Sun and the Band. You all seem like a tight knit little group.

8 years makes you that way. And it can also have it's up's and down's but in the end it's all
about trying to have fun. My band members as individuals are very talented.

LeGerald Normand started the band with me and I have known him for 11 years. He is a wonderful
singer/songwriter.
Wayne and Nelson Braxton are known as the Braxton Brothers. They've released 2 records under BMG/Windam Hill.
Tommie Bradford has played for everybody Santana to Whitney Huston.
Sundra is killer on the Hammond B3 she's played with Shirley Ceasar, James Clevland and M.C Hammer to name a few.
They've all done a lot. And they make me who I am on stage and they're great friends.

Tell me about the label - do you have any other talent or are you sticking with yourself

We did not want to be a label. I don't even know if you call a label ran by two people going to
Fed ex and UPS a label.(smile) We had to do something. We have been recording with other artists. The future
will tell us more about that idea. But right now we are trying to get Soulsinger where it
belongs.(Distribution)
We just finished a soulful jazz CD "Feeling Orange But Sometimes Blue". We are going to release a live album and a new R&B album in the beginning of next year so we staying pretty bissy.

Your web site looks as if it's gonna be kickin - when's it finished?

You like that huh? Hopefully it will be done before Halloween. Wait until you hear the new music
and the sneak peaks of the new R&B album and the live CD(I hope that one is done by Christmas)and not to
mention a message board. It's gonna be a fun site. My friend Graham design that, he's badd.

Any more comments or things you'd like to say

Thank you Michael for being so patient. You are another angel that tapped me on my shoulder and
reminded me that there's a reason we do what we do. Stay open minded.
I would also like to thank everyone in the Uk who supports Soulsinger without you and my beautiful band
none of this would happen. Stay Strong in his light ya'll. He'll never leave you or give you more than you
can't handle.

God Bless. Ledisi