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So Good So Right – The Best of Brenda Russell- Dome CD42

The following is reproduced, with thanks, from Dome's website at www.domerecords.co.uk where the album can also be purchased. My review follows.

"I’m very happy that Dome Records wanted to release this CD of my previously recorded material as well as It’s A Jazz Day, which is a new song I wrote especially for this project. All of these songs are pretty special to me

As a writer, I like to keep a list of potential song titles that come into mind. When Jeff Hull sent me a tape of this beautiful music that he’d written with Scott Cutler, I listened and was immediately captivated by it. I perused my song title list and Piano in the Dark kind of jumped out at me. I hadn’t made a firm commitment to that title yet when I ran into Jeff and Scott who were anxiously awaiting a progress report. I just blurted out “What about Piano in the Dark?” They both had blank looks on their faces and asked me “What does that mean?” I said “I don’t know yet”.

Later I started coming up with ideas for the lyric and melody and went to meet with them at Jeff’s house with my daughter Lindsay, who was about nine at the time. We started to work on the final touches and miraculously my daughter took a nap while all this was happening. Now any parent knows that for a nine-year-old to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon is a miracle in itself, so when this happened I knew there was divine intervention at work.

Cut to walking through A&M Records one afternoon. The album Get Here was finished and the company was about to release Just A Believer as the first single. Well, everyone at the company loved Piano in the Dark, but no one had the guts to release it. It was just so different to everything else on the radio at that time. I passed Herb’s office, (he was the president and co-founder of A&M) He was standing there with his horn and he said “You know, I’m thinking about changing the single to Piano in the Dark.” You have to understand, this was the 11th hour as they say. The presses were already rolling on the other single, but Herb was the only one who had the power to stop the presses! And that he did. Well the rest is history and this song resulted in me getting three Grammy nominations for the recording in 1989. I love Herb Alpert!

I hope you enjoy this musical capsule of my life. God Bless you all and I pray humanity will achieve enlightenment and find a better way to solve our problems besides annihilating each other. As a species, aren’t we too old for this behaviour?.
Envision Peace, Brenda Russell"

Newly signed to Dome Records, Brenda follows the Best of set by working on a new solo album for release in the spring of 2004. For the first time she will split the recording between her home town Los Angeles and London. She plans to collaborate with UK writers and producers and is confident that the experience will enable her to absorb some of the soulful flavours of the London music scene.

Over the past couple of years Brenda has continued to exercise her considerable gifts in a variety of projects. She is currently co-writing (with Allee Willis and Stephen Bray) the music and lyrics for the Broadway production of “The Colour Purple” the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, set to hit the stage in 2005. She also co-wrote the song “Justice of the Heart” with Stevie Wonder for the Denzel Washington movie John Q---a song which Wonder performed. And her co-composition with Brazilian artist Ivan Lins, titled "She Walks This Earth," was recorded by Sting for the all-star tribute album Love Affair: The Music Of Ivan Lins. Sting's inspired performance of the uniquely beautiful song earned him a Grammy Award in 2001 for Best Pop Male Vocal Performance.

In December 2002, she made her sixth annual appearance on the Dave Koz & Friends Christmas Tour with the US sax star. Her recording with Koz and the other tour artists of A Smooth Jazz Christmas CD was nominated for a 2002 Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album. The album included a new version of “Get Here”.

On December 30, 2002 she was among a group of US musicians – others included jazz musicians Dave Koz, Wah-Wah Watson and Jeff Lorber - who traveled to Bali to give a free concert for the people of the island in the wake of the October 12 terrorist bombing. They performed for 4000 invited guests, including Indonesian President Megawati, and the event was broadcast live on Indonesian television. Brenda and Dave Koz stayed on afterwards to spend a day with 30 children at a local Bali orphanage, including some who were orphaned as a result of the bombings, and to visit a hospital where the injured received treatment.

Brenda remembers the excursion to the orphanage as the most rewarding part of the trip. “We fell in love with the children and they fell in love with us,” she says. “It was glorious! We weren’t even speaking the same language but that shows how powerful music is. You can’t imagine all the hugs we gave or got, or their intensity”.

Will Downing benefited from Brenda's songwriting with "Don't You Talk To Me Like That" (co-written by her with Vinx and Mark Cawley)—a Top 20 US Urban hit from his 2002 Verve album Sensual Journey. Solomon Burke’s critically acclaimed and Grammy-winning 2002 comeback album Don’t Give Up on Me features “None of Us Are Free,” co-written by Brenda and the legendary writing team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. The three are among an all-star line-up of songwriters on the album, including Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, Tom Waits, and Brian Wilson. And just to keep things fun, Brenda wrote incidental music for the animated series "Fat Girl", as well as an animated internet short series titled "Driving While Black".

Born to musical parents in Brooklyn, New York, Brenda Russell grew up there and in the Canadian town of Hamilton, Ontario. Some of her earliest memories involve watching her mother work at songwriting and being woken in the middle of the night to help her mother by singing harmony, picking up her mother’s passion for music. Her father Gus Gordon replaced the first original member to leave the legendary group The Ink Spots.

She encountered her first piano while singing as a teenager in the Canadian company of the rock musical "Hair" in Toronto. When Brenda met and married Brian Russell, they hosted the Canadian TV show Music Machine and worked as session singers prior to being spotted by Elton John and signed as a duo to his Rocket label, recording two albums.

Without a formal musical education, Brenda says she worried that she would never be able to write another song after the first one. "Then I had this revelation that: 'You're not doing this, you are a channel for this’, ” something opened up for me and once I realized that I was a vehicle, I became fearless about songwriting because I thought, if that's the way it is, I can write just about anything, and that's the premise I've based my whole writing career on."

In the late Seventies, now living in Los Angeles following a divorce, and subsequent end of the Brian & Brenda recording duo, Brenda and her manager began circulating a demo of her songs. She was signed to A&M Records, and her first single, "So Good, So Right" was released in 1979 and became a hit in the US and UK. Brenda formed a bond with label founder Herb Alpert and released Brenda Russell and Love Life. Another song from the debut album, “In The Thick of It”, became especially popular in the UK and provided her with a second hit single.

Her contract was picked up by Warner Bros. for the 1983 album Two Eyes before she moved for a short time to Sweden, where she wrote tunes for her A&M return Get Here. That 1988 album contained the Grammy-nominated "Piano In The Dark,” the gorgeous "Le Restaurant," and the title cut, which was a hit for Oleta Adams when it established itself as the official song of troops returning home from the Gulf War in 1991.

After a 1992 Greatest Hits package and her 1993 set Soul Talkin'(EMI Records),
Brenda took time off to travel. Continuing to write, produce, and collaborate with other artists, Brenda honed her craft and contributed tunes to other projects, including albums by Diana Ross, Joe Cocker, Tina Turner and Patti LaBelle, and most recently Mary J. Blige’s No More Drama, as well as writing and performing two songs in director Barry Levinson’s film Liberty Heights.

Other artists she has collaborated with, or those who have recorded her songs over the years, include Luther Vandross (“If Only For One Night”), Donna Summer (“Dinner With Gershwin”), Chaka Khan, Earth Wind & Fire,
Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick. Roberta Flack, Michael McDonald, David Foster, Patrice Rushen, Rufus and Lalah Hathaway.

At the time of her Paris Rain album in 2000, Brenda wanted to collaborate with some other writers she admired to add a few more songs. “I got up the nerve to call Carole King, who was a big reason why I became a singer, songwriter,” she recalls. “I was excited when she agreed to get together and write. She came over to my house and we wrote ‘Move the Moon’ for the album. It was an unbelievable feeling, to have an artist who has been such an inspiration to me come over to my house and collaborate.”

As one of few artists who have successfully been able to incorporate a wide range of musical influences--rock, pop, R&B, jazz, classical, Latin--into a distinct style that defies categorisation while attracting fans around the world, Brenda's music endures through time and trends. She demonstrates that slow and steady can win the race and that art can be its own reward.

"I never write songs that are without hope," Brenda explains. "People have to be inspired to another level, and I take responsibility on myself as a songwriter to do that. Sometimes we all feel like, ‘I'm going to die without this person,’ but my take is no, you’re not going to die without this person, because something good could be just around the corner.’ Yes, I'll make you cry but I won't leave you hopeless."

This is a quality album, Brenda possesses a voice so rich and so true. There is a true relaxing quality and easiness to this yet so soulful. Some maybe most ot the songs will be familiar and whilst Brenda has been successful she has not had the success that this quality deserves. It's going to be interesting how the new material comes along, but in the meantime let's take pleasure in this collection. Brenda is at ease with all of the tracks here, all of which she at last co wrote.

Instantly recogniseable and from 1979 – Wow - is In the thick of it. The title track So Good is so good and feels so right with a beautiful arrangement, both strings and mellow horns – A big sound yet so spacey and unassuming. The third one from the successful 1979 A&M album is If only for one night.

Moving forward, though not in the order of the tracklisting, we jump to 1983 Warner Brothers, Stay Close, the homage to Jarreau and I'll see you again. Kind of a jazzier vibe to this phase but not overtly so

Back to A&M in 1988 for the album Get Here that gave us probably her most universally known and Grammy nominated Piano in the Dark and the title track Get Here and Le Restaurant. Piano to this day is a massive piece, classy, instantaneous, quality. Get here, subsequently a hit by Oleta Adams, is also a classy cut in the same mould.

On to 1993 for the self produced Capitol set Soul Talkin – Matters of the heart, No time for time. The latter track is particularly good.

The year 2000 saw tha Hidden Beach Paris Rain album containing tracks such as Catch On, Love and Paris Rain and Baby Eyes. I especially like Catch On in that it introduces a more modern feel, not especially neo, slightly groovier but moving in that direction. On the other hand Baby Eyes featuring Kik Whalum is pure laid back sleepy but oozing jazz, with that killer sax.

One new track on show and that is It's a jazz day. Whether it's the choice of material but there is a mellowing of the voice, a jazzier (obviously!) vibe but it works. A taste of hings to come – have to wait and see i guess!

Track listing

IN THE THICK OF IT
SO GOOD SO RIGHT
IF ONLY FOR ONE NIGHT
PIANO IN THE DARK
GET HERE
IT’S A JAZZ DAY
STAY CLOSE
JARREAU
I’LL SEE YOU AGAIN
MATTERS OF THE HEART
NO TIME FOR TIME
LE RESTAURANT
CATCH ON
LOVE AND PARIS RAIN
BABY EYES