I first recognized the voice of Marlon Saunders on the recent Jazzhole album Circle Of The Sun although he has been a singer/songwriter for many years. For example he wrote Black Heaven for Maysa Leak, Gotta B Everything for Vanessa Rubin and sang background vocals for Martha Wash, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel or Bobby D'Ambrosio among others.
Finally it's time for Marlon with his vocal and songwriting talent to release a solo album. And what a brilliant album Enter My Mind is. If you like your soul music in the tradition of the 70's and were mad about Frank McComb's recent album The Truth then you can buy this album without listening to it. It's that good! And if you only buy a few soul albums this year, make sure Enter My Mind is one of them (and The Truth the other).
But why not let Marlon explain his ideas behind Enter My Mind? "I want to combine the richness of the 70’s - all of it, the music and psyche of black folks, the sense of beauty and awareness - and incorporate that into what I find unique and special about today’s music," he says.
"In r&b music, we need to go back to the basic songwriting," says Marlon. "I was listening to a Roberta Flack/Donny Hathaway record the other day and I was amazed at the beauty of it. It’s simple recording in terms of instrumentation, but those sturdy, beautiful songs transcend everything. You can do anything to that music - bop to it, make love to it, hang out with your friends to it, cook a good meal to it. I want my music to have the same effect. Or like the way Curtis Mayfield could marry the groove with the spiritual concept to the lyrics and still keep it ambiguous. I want my music to have that sense of discovery."
And he does succeed in doing his idols justice. Enter My Mind is jam-packed with good songs, warm and organic instrumentation and has this timeless quality that makes you play this album again and again and it will still sound great in ten years time. Except for one cover version all songs are original compositions and they are just classic modern soul grooves without being too retro or nu soul or whatever may be hip at the moment.
Since all 14 tracks on offer are good it's hard to select any favourite songs. You can listen to the beautiful midtempo of For Love, that digs deep into 70's inspired soul music or Coolin', that is - at the time of writing - my favourite summer anthem with Europe still suffering from the heatwave in the summer of 2003. Or take the funky Afro Blue My Mind in which Marlon tells us something about his idols and that he's a "70's child". For further proof of Marlon's love for the 70's, I could name every other song here. Be it the great update of Stevie Wonder's If It's Magic or Who Will Go which reminds me of Donny Hathaway with just Marlon's voice and Fender Rhodes, goose-pimples effect included.
Of course it doesn't matter when you will get this classic album because it will always sounds great, but since it isn't released on a major label but on the independent Black Honey label, you should get it while it's available...which is naturally now!