CHARLIE BEREAL is a US soul singer/guitarist/writer/arranger/producer – sadly not that well known in the UK and Europe despite being a Grammy nominee. Hopefully that may soon change with the reissue of his wonderful ’11-11-11’ album.
First a little background. Charlie was born and raised in Pasadena, California; something of a music prodigy he taught himself how to play guitar at age nine, and he grew up playing music in his grandfather’s church. He went professional at the age of 16 and was soon in-demand for sessions and live shows. He eventually became the guitarist and vocalist in the award winning gospel quartet, The Soul Seekers and still found time to play on classic outings like ‘More Than a Woman’ by Aaliyah, ‘One Minute Man’ by Missy Elliott, ‘Call Me I’ll Be Around’ by Cee-Lo, ‘Love is Like Whoa’ by Mýa, and ‘Do What it Do’ by Jamie Foxx to name just a few. His other credits include work with people like Jay Z, Ja Rule, P Diddy, Nelly, Busta Rhymes, Kanye West, Jamie Foxx, Ashanti, Brandy, Mario, Tweet, Missy Elliott, Toni Braxton, and Mary Mary.
His occasional solo forays include a wonderful 2019 album ‘11-11-11 The set was recorded over the course of a few weeks in Los Angeles and for the recordings Charlie was joined by his friends Jairus Mosey and Raphael Saadiq. What started as a jam session developed into a full album that merged the sounds of Curtis Mayfield and Sly Stone but, sadly, the LP slipped under many people’s radars. Various singles were released and some of the better soul sites (e.g. the UK’s Soul Strutter @ https://soulstrutter.blogspot.com/ ) picked up on ‘em.
Charlie has now signed to Colemine subsidiary Karma Chief and the seminal ’11-11-11’ is up for reissue and for soul collectors of all hues, it’s well worth investigating. The album boasts plenty of retro, throwback sounds – like the gorgeous, falsetto ballad ‘Oo Baby’, the jaunty, soulful ‘Favourite Girl’ and the now in-demand ‘Walk The Streets Of Love’. Some of the music is more left field – experimental even. There’s a definite hint of Funkadelic’s on ‘7-11’ while some of the tracks feature searing, rocky guitar solos – but that’s all part of the cocktail. Charlie says: “As far as my music, I love all types of music. I love epic sounding music and you can hear that in my work. I love soul, and I love honesty in music, and that’s what my music is.”
This recommended -11-11-11’ is available now digitally and there’ll be vinyl in June – just 200 copies on Colemine-Exclusive in powder blue vinyl – available now for pre-order; record stores will stock a violet hued alternative! Its worth noting that the LP has just 8 tracks – the digital version delivers 12. Learn more @ https://www.coleminerecords.com/collections/store
