Throughout 2017 we heard a lot of and about Detroit soul and jazz singer Kathy Kosins. With a well timed series of singles and remixes, the PR people built up huge anticipation for the parent album which seemed to be constantly dropping back in the release schedules. Well, alleluia, the album is with us at last (well, it’s released, for sure, on February 9) and the 12 tracker is, I can assure you, worth the wait. Worth the wait that is if you appreciate sophisticated, sensitive soul and jazz delivered with commitment, artistry and respect for the genre. ‘Uncovered Soul’ is, I think, the sometime Don Was mentee’s fifth or sixth long player but with production from Gregory Porter collaborator Kamau Kenyatta and the aforementioned expectation, this should be the album to deliver Ms Kosins to a wider audience.
By now proper soul and jazz fans will be familiar with some of this album’s songs – notably the title track and the Paul Randolph song, ‘Could You Be Me’ which was championed by Gilles Petersen and even won dance exposure via a tight and funky Opolopo mix. They still sound strong but there are plenty more treasures to be had.
To give you a flavour of what to expect you need to know that the set features plenty of covers and the choice of those covers will perhaps tell you something of the influences that have helped shape Kathy’s oeuvre and the aspirations she has for her art. For ‘Uncovered Soul’, Kathy has dipped into the catalogues of artists/writers as diverse as Eugene McDaniels, Curtis Mayfield, the Neville Brothers, Blue Nile, Bill Withers and Burt Bacharach. At least once in a career most jazz and soul artists feel the need to tackle a Bacharach classic and here Ms K offers her version of the sweet but sad, ‘Any Day Now’. Running in at just over 6 minutes, it’s what a cover should be – a new perspective on the familiar. Kosins and Kenyatta eschew the familiar piano riff and starkly reconstruct the song (even more radically than the great Bacharach “reconstructor” Luther Vandross did) to create a forlorn ballad that recalls the best of Carmen Lundy.
Other highlights include the Latin-inflected reading of The Neville Brothers’ New Orleans classic ‘Voodoo’ and the sparse funk of Mayfield’s ‘Ms Martha (which Curtis fans will know and love from his ‘New World Order’ album). Out of the orignals, the lazy meander that is ‘A To B’ boasts a strong melody that allows Ms Kosins’ world weary vocal to shine.
Kathy Kosins ‘Uncovered Soul’ is officially released on February 9th and she’ll be appearing live on April 17th at Piazza Express’ Chelsea Pheasantry.
(BB) 4/5
