Word: mellowing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...throughout was palpable. The centerpiece of the band’s sound was always Maal’s supple, soaring voice that leapt as easily as it trilled on half-tones. African bands are sometimes slightly mystified and frustrated by playing to a seated audience, but given the more mellow acoustic performance, the theater was ideal in its immediacy of contact between performers and audience. It remains a mystery why the audience at such performances by African superstars is dominated by white world music junkies, while more or less no interested African-Americans attend...
...contrast, however, the second, diminutively titled “+” disc is sheer, unadulterated pleasure. Here, Scott digs deep into the bag of Baduisms and comes up with her own brand of sweet, sweet soul. This disc is so understated and mellow that it almost sounds as though a different singer has commandeered the spotlight after the exhausting pitch of the live material. “Gotta Get Up” is a classic soul song that might have been a Curtis Mayfield cover were it not for the reference to “staying at home...
...first act has an unsure, all-over-the-map feel about it. It tries to strike a balance between comedy, pathos and the harsh reality of Sam’s condition, but these tones frequently conflict; the pairing of hand-held camera footage with mellow string passages in the score seems particularly incongruous...
...Nancy Wilson (1962) on "Capitol Sings Irving Berlin." But really "I've got to have him"; this two-part song from "Miss Liberty" itemizes the domestic indulgences a wife, then a mistress would lavish on the man they share. Starting sassy (a younger Eartha Kitt) and growing by turns mellow and desolate, Wilson gives a bravura performance the more remarkable for its emotional precision...
...Merchant takes pains to prove that she’s not just someone’s mom, as the stolid drum sample on “Saint Judas” shows. Despite the gimmick, “Judas” is the best update of Merchant’s mellow alterna-country sound. With vocals that prove that the teen-queens don’t have the monopoly on kick-ass voices, “Judas” has a sly swagger, though Merchant eschews sex appeal almost entirely on the album...