Progressive soul moves R&B forward

The debut from this Brooklyn-born soul singer/songwriter covers a lot of musical ground, Even the album’s Grammy-nominated lead-off single, “Wanna Be” covers a lot of musical ground in its four minutes. There’s the requisite deep bass and synthetic beats to give your woofers a workout, and the vocals range from intimate crooning to melodic rapping and fierce soul power, but these basics are interwoven in shifting textures and tempos with operatic backing singers, drums, rock guitars, horns and more. It’s a canny blend that evokes ‘70s R&B artists like Labelle, Natalie Cole and Earth, Wind & Fire without surrendering to the sort of retro vibes pioneered by Amy Winehouse. Producer Scott Jacoby has aptly labeled his mix “progressive soul” to encompass both its classic roots and its motion forward. Twelve of the album’s tracks were co-written by Maiysha and Jacoby; the closer is a superb country soul reworking of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” recorded live in New York City, with Marc Copely’s scorching slide guitar a stand-out beside Maiysha’s supercharged vocal. If you’re looking for the melodic vocal chops that rap’s forgone, but aren’t ready to swap beats for the mellow slow-grooves of the Quiet Storm, check out the spark Maiysha’s injected back into contemporary soul music. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

Hear “Wanna Be”
Hear “Sledgehammer”
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