Philip Bailey is of course famous for his collaboration with Earth Wind & Fire as singer and percussionist/drummer. And because this is such a strong album we gratefully forget about Philip's pop success of the late 80ies with more mediocre material like Chinese Wall. Soul On Jazz is Philip's second release after Dreams on Heads Up International.
Most of the songs on offer here are cover versions like Nat King Cole's Nature Boy, Herbie Hancock's Bedtime Story, Freddie Hubbard's On The Red Clay, Chick Corea's Sometime Ago or Earth Wind & Fire's Keep Your Head Up To The Sky. Only two songs are new material (Bop-Skip-Doodle and Unrestrained).
Although I usually prefer original (i.e. new) compositions, it's not really important this time because Philip chose songs that are not an obvious choice for a soul singer who wants to do a jazz album (and I have to admit that I don't know most of the original versions so it's more like hearing these songs for the first time). And what's even better he really worked on and with the songs like Thelonious Monk's Ruby, My Dear that was renamed Dear Ruby. Philip remarks: ' I wanted my version of that song to be so emotional that it'll make every woman want to change their name to Ruby. We probably did more reconstructing on Dear Ruby than anything. We really augmented the way the melody goes and everything. We took some of the verse and gave it to the background.'
This album may be titled Soul on Jazz but for me it's an album that really oozes soul with some strong jazz influences. There's not a weak song here so it's hard to choose a real favourite. The overall feel is quite relaxed and more downtempo which makes Soul On Jazz the perfect album for (hopefully) upcoming warm summer nights.
And as special gimmick there are some more infos on this enhanced CD like Philips bio, other artists on Heads Up and even a screensaver.