I just love the internet and the many possibilities it offers. One big advantage is that you can discover new artists en masse and another advantage is that you can give such more or less unknown artists some coverage on a website like this.
It would be such a loss if you miss Angela Stribling's live album just because you don't know her name or because it isn't available in your local record store. Although the album is named ...live it's actually a mixture of live versions and some studio tracks.
If you're living in the USA you may be familiar with Angela since she was host of "Screen Scene" on BET and also of Jazz Central, Jazz Scene, and Jazz Discovery on BET Jazz. So she certainly knows one or two things about jazz and soul which can obviously be heard on her album. Blessed with a great voice and set in a live surrounding Angela really does magic.
Take the first song for example, Angela's version of the often covered Fever. Originally not one of my favourite songs since every one and their mother have sung it but this version is from now on my favourite one. With the inclusion of some audience members and Stevie Wonder doing some ad-libbing you can really hear how much fun it must have been for Angela and her band to do this slowed down jazzy version of Fever.
Rogers' & Hart's My Funny Valentine is another fine rendition of a jazz standard. It just oozes class and is just perfect with Joe Morant on trumpet and Benjie Porecki on piano.
Angela's not only capable of doing some inspired cover versions but also writes good songs with her songwriting partners like Voice Seduction, a song recorded with Gary Grainger on Bass, George Gray on drums and the aforementioned Benjie Porecki. This track is a great piece of soul with a strong jazz feeling.
I Can Still Feel You is another original composition, that features Kim Waters on saxophone and it's a fine song about the loss of a loved someone. 8 minutes of pure class! This song is also featured here as (what sounds to me like a) shorter studio version without Kim Waters.
You Don't Know What Love Is, is yet another expressive interpretation of a jazz classic and recorded with the same trio like Voice Seduction it has all the right ingredients and any vocal jazz fan will just love it. As they will certainly like Teach Me Tonight that is done in a swinging nice version.
The Interlude is quite interesting since it uses parts of President Nelson Mandela's Inaugural Speech and features Angela playing with her voice.
With Within we get another compostion by Angela that is more of a soul ballad with a tingling key solo by Marcus Johnson.
A cover of The Emotions' Show Me How ends this very, very good album. Angela's album is quite diverse with jazz and soul influences and not to forget her excellent voice. If you like the music of people like Karen Bernod, N'Dambi or Ledisi you certainly will love this album. So don't wait until Angela has become the household name she deserves to be and get her album today.