Although Gerald Veasley has worked with nearly everybody in the jazz/soul field, I must admit that I haven't heard of him previous to the release of Velvet (but then maybe I should read the album liner notes more carefully in the future). But Gerald is really someone who's been on the music scene for a long time and among the many other credits on Veasley's résumé are studio sessions and/or tour gigs with artists like Special EFX, Pieces of a Dream, McCoy Tyner, Gerald Levert, Teddy Pendergrass, Nnenna Freelon, Philip Bailey, the Dixie Hummingbirds, John Blake, Phil Perry and Heads Up labelmate Joe McBride.
So it comes to no surprise that Gerald invited a cast of thousand to support him on his new album like Matt Cappy, Jeff Bradshaw, Donald Robinson or Pablo Batista.
As a lover of vocals I was of course curious about the cover version of Curtis Mayfield's Let's Do It Again. We all know the song but with vocals by Jaguar Wright, whose Denials, Delusions And Decisions album was one of my favourites in 2002, and John Stephens and including keys by Herb Middleton and guitar by Randy Bowland this is really a version one should have heard.
John Stephens can also be heard on the Gerald Veasley and Herb Middleton composition Summer Kiss which is a great midtempo nu soul song that would be worth the price for the album alone. But there's also the brilliant soul of Home with vocals by William Brock, it's warm instrumentation and slight southern feeling. The third highlight for me on Velvet.
The forth song with vocals is It's Alright (Tonight's The Night) with Mikki Kornegay and Warren Cooper singing, although this is more one of those smooth jazz songs with additional vocals to it.
The remaining 10 songs are all instrumentals and composed by Gerald Veasley himself. Some of them dig too deep into smooth jazz territory for my personal taste, but there are still some very pleasant songs among the rest. Take Put On Your Sunday Clothes for example, which is a funky song with a nice horn section or the uptempo and equally funky Do You Remember? that features some organ by Michael Aharon. Or listen to Bread Puddin' with even more Hammond organ included (this time by Benji Porecki).
With an overall warm and organic instrumentation and some very, very good vocal songs on offer Velvet is a good record you should check out.
(the release is scheduled for April 22, 2003)