Ledisi

Ledisi生于美國(guó)爵士之鄉(xiāng)新奧爾良。在她只有八歲的時(shí)候，她就已經(jīng)和新奧爾良交響樂(lè)團(tuán)一起演出了。在Ledisi少年時(shí)代，她經(jīng)常在附近的公園觀看她的母親和當(dāng)?shù)氐囊恢�R&B樂(lè)隊(duì)的演出。在隨父母搬到Oakland之后，Ledisi也開(kāi)始像她母親一樣在當(dāng)?shù)氐囊粋�(gè)樂(lè)團(tuán)中擔(dān)任主唱。但不久之后，Ledisi就離開(kāi)了那個(gè)組合組建了她自己的樂(lè)團(tuán)。
　　后來(lái)，Ledisi長(zhǎng)期在舊金山的一家名叫“Beach Blanket Babylon”的小酒館中的演出，這是她日益出色的表現(xiàn)開(kāi)始一起了大家的關(guān)注。后來(lái)，Ledisi又以她名字的中間名組建了一支名為“Anibade”的樂(lè)團(tuán)。Anibade在海灣地區(qū)的Bruno's、the Black Cat和Rasselas等多家俱樂(lè)部中都相當(dāng)?shù)氖軞g迎。歌迷開(kāi)始要求他們發(fā)專(zhuān)輯，而Anibade很快就錄了一張Demo《Take Time》。KMEL電臺(tái)播出了這張唱片，得到了歌迷很好的回應(yīng)。雖然贊揚(yáng)聲與批評(píng)聲共存，但Ledisi還是有機(jī)會(huì)得到了與唱片公司簽約的機(jī)會(huì)。
　　2001年，Ledisi的處子專(zhuān)輯《Soulsinger》通過(guò)LeSun Records發(fā)行，其中描述一位父親性侵犯自己女兒的歌曲《Papa Loved To Love Me》成為本張專(zhuān)輯中最具爭(zhēng)議的歌曲。2001年9月，《Soulsinger》在亞馬遜同類(lèi)專(zhuān)輯中的銷(xiāo)量名列第五位。在芬蘭、挪威、英國(guó)和荷蘭，這張《Soulsinger》都非常暢銷(xiāo)。此后，Ledisi還與貝斯手Marcus Shelby合作為Noir Records錄制了一張爵士專(zhuān)輯。2007年8月，Ledisi改簽主流大公司(Verve Forecast)之后的首張專(zhuān)輯《Lost and Found》正式發(fā)行，專(zhuān)輯中融合了soul、funk、gospel、jazz與R&B的元素。憑借這張專(zhuān)輯，Ledisi被公告牌雜志稱(chēng)為2007年度最值得關(guān)注的10位新人之一。
by Andrew Hamilton
Ledisi (means to bring forth in Nigerian) was born in the Big Easy where she sang with New Orleans Symphony Orchestra when she was eight years old and spent many adolescent hours watching her mom perform with a local R&B band, often in a nearby park. After the family relocated to Oakland, CA, Ledisi followed her mom's lead and sang in a local band but left to form her own group and identity. She's most noted for her continuous performances in Beach Blanket Babylon, a long running San Francisco-based cabaret that features song parodies, celebrity impersonations, and enormous hats; she got the gig after being nominated for a Shellie award in 1990 for her role as Dorothy in a local version of the Wiz.
She later formed Anibade, Ledisi's middle name, which depending on what you read means "to bring forth luck" or "my mother is great" in Yorubu. The players are: Sundra Manning (keyboards and chief songwriter), Cedrickke Dennis (guitar), Nelson Braxton (bass), Wayne Braxton (saxophone), and Tommy Bradford (drums); while the lineup is similar to Chaka Khan & Rufus, the sound -- on record anyway -- is mellower than Rufus' energized, excellent-engineered sounds. Ledisi sometimes fuses R&B, hip-hop, urban, jazz, and funk in the same pot.
They built a hot reputation in the Bay area at Bruno's, the Black Cat, and Rasselas (local clubs). Fans kept asking about a record so the band cut a demo, "Take Time," that radio station KMEL aired and got a good response; the stroke prompted Ledisi to seek a deal with the major recording companies, all who praise and turned them down in the same breath. Frustrated, but not thwarted, they cut the critically acclaimed Soulsinger and released it on LeSun Records (owned by Ledisi and Sundra), January 1, 2000. "Papa Loved to Love Me" -- a personal account of a father sexually abusing his daughter -- is one of the CD's most riveting and controversial tracks.
The CD has done well without the benefit a major distributor. LeSun's grassroots promotion/publicity campaign has been highly successful, they go beyond the mere artist/company web page and saturate the net with info accompanied by a full gigging plate where they knock 'em dead while promoting and sell their CD, tees, and other items. Amazon ranked Soulsinger number five in Los Angeles (September 2001), and it's popular in Finland, Norway, London, and Amsterdam.
She's done a jazz album with bassist Marcus Shelby for Noir Records -- Shelby's independent based company in San Francisco -- that further illustrates her amazing skills. Her resume includes singing in choirs, performing jazz, and studying opera and piano at the University of California Berkley's Young Musicians Program for five years. She's also done commercials and soundtracks for the Sci-Fi Channel along with appearing on the same stages with some of the world's most beloved entertainers. Her third studio album, Lost & Found, was released in 2007.