It’s funny, where little observations can sometimes lead. I was at the Daptone Records website the other day, checking out the retro artwork they feature on their labels and album covers. Scanning down the release list, I noticed the name of Lee Fields. After Sharon Jones, Lee Fields was the second artist to appear on Daptone. I had never heard the name before, but the very next day, an advance copy of ‘My World’, a new album from Lee Fields & The Expressions appeared.
Lee Fields is a Soul singer from The Bronx in New York and although he has spent time with the Daptone label, now resides on another called, Truth & Soul. Similarly committed to raising the profile of Soul in the 21st century, the label’s founders are targeting a generation that equates Soul with Amy Winehouse and Adele, as opposed to Al Green or Sam Cooke. I applaud this. It tilts at what I have long found absent from contemporary R&B. Namely the R&B.
In setting up their Truth & Soul label, founders and producers, Jeff Silverman and Leon Michels wanted to create something inspired by Soul’s sweeter side. As played by those early-‘70s Philly groups like The Delfonics and The Stylistics. They assembled a group of trusted players and teamed them with ‘70s R&B vocal veteran, Lee Fields.
Fields had grown up in a small town in North Carolina, raised on a balanced diet of singing in church and listening to James Brown, The Temptations and Otis. He released his first disc in 1969, following it with an irregular trickle of independent singles during the 70s, none of them, making him famous. The album Lee Fields is about to release on the 5th of June is a bold statement in an era still largely unaffected by Soul. Adele’s recent Grammy and the rise and fall of Amy Winehouse notwithstanding, its hardly evidence of a Soul Music tsunami.
The desire to revisit the sound of classic Philadelphia Soul is obvious, particularly in the guitars, but elsewhere, other surprises manifest. The horns, for example, sound nothing like the classic Memphis horns you might imagine, but more like those on the first couple of Chicago albums, you know, before they went all soft and mainstream.
Lee Fields’ voice covers some ground as well. On one of the group’s earliest recordings, “Honey Dove”, he invokes the spirit of Otis, along with a passing nod to The Supremes in the song’s opening line of “My baby love..”
A little deeper into the album comes, “My World Is Empty Without You”, a minor hit for The Supremes in 1966. Predictably, the new version is more soulful, without the Pop garnishing of the original. On “Money I$ King” and the album’s title track, we stray into edgier, political territory, but there is nothing really dangerous or inflammatory going on. Generally, the songs tap more universal themes.
The quality of playing is certainly strong, with The Expressions holding up their end on three instrumental pieces, the sound, consistently great and the production, not overly polished. On the other eight tracks and, in equal measure, Lee Fields’ vocals get to either smoulder, or burn.
I’ll refrain from calling it a masterpiece, but with its fusion of classic styles and contemporary leanings, ‘My World’ does imply a strong step in the right direction.
Sample the Soul of Lee Fields & The Expressions here: http://www.myspace.com/leefields
