THE JONES ...

One thing about me is that when I jones, I really JONES. I remember seeing Goapele on a late night talk show, I think it was Orlando Jones, and what drew me to her was her voice and her beautiful, beautiful locs.

Three months later, sitting down getting my own locs retwisted, I see her name in last month's Essence. Jump over to Amazon and see she's got 52 outstanding reviews and is, of course, from the Bay Area. Got to be good, I figure. Listened to the samples and I'm like, I've *got* to have this CD. So, here she is and here's a bit of a blurb about her. And since I have some credit over at Amazon I proceeded to the checkout.




In an industry that advocates monotony, Goapele, perhaps because of her cultural heritage, is a non-conformist. Her New York-born Jewish mother and exiled South African political activist father met and married while in Nairobi, Kenya. "What those two cultures faced historically forced me and my brother to be sensitive toward various cultures and social issues. These issues were not only important, but the focus of our everyday lives. Our musical tastes were diverse. We listened to Sweet Honey in the Rock and Nina Simone, as well as South African music such as Hugh Masekela, and Miriam Makeba whose music was banned in South Africa during that time of Apartheid."

For a woman whose name means 'to go forward' in Setswana, the South African language of her grandmother, Goapele lives her name. The Bay Area native's debut album, Closer, a 9-song promotional disc was distributed to various industry executives and music outlets, yielding an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response. Adding 5 new original songs to the debut, resulted in her highly anticipated sophomore effort, Even Closer, a 14-track album on SkyBlaze Recordings, the label she co-owns ("I enjoy being a part of the whole process every step of the way"). The poised artist delivers testimony-driven, emotionally aching yet uplifting and candidly charged classic cuts to soul music junkies who fiend for organic gutbucket vocals and raw bass lines.

I'll keep you posted.

A.