SPN: Soul/R&B/Beach,, Angel Rissoff, Nu Soul Stew, Where Have you Been?, Little Isidore and The Inquisitors, Little Leopold, Kenny Vance/Planotones, Little Richard, Hank Ballard, Howard Tate, BB King, exclusive broadcasts, pictures and more
THE AWESOME NEW CD
from ANGEL
"NU SOUL STEW"
Click here to check out the AWESOME NEW CD from ANGEL "NU SOUL STEW"
Welcome To The Soul-Patrol Newsletter
I’d like to take this oppurtunity to re-introduce Soul-Patrollers, near and far, around the corner and around the world to….
ANGEL
I would like you to take a good look at the picture just to the left.
It’s a photo of Mr. Angel Rissoff and it was taken at the 2007 Soul-Patrol Convention in Philadelphia. You can see Angel holding up one of his awards and wearing the other around his neck. Just a few moments before, I had the honor of presenting these two awards to Angel for his 2006 award winning album called Where Have You Been? And when you scroll down further in this newsletter, you can see a picture of me presenting Angel with his awards.
Not only did Soul-Patrol give an award to Angel for having one of the best releases that we heard during the year 2006, but also for his contributions to something that we call "Black American Standard Music." This is a genre of music that Angel is a master at, as he proved once again with the two songs ("Boogie Down Bronx" & "Snows of July") that he contributed to the historic Soul-Patrol Digital/Virtual Album 1.0 (now out of print). In fact his picture appears on the album cover!
This year he’s back with another release, very accurately entitled "Nu Soul Stew" and so far we have it ranked as the 12th best Black music release of 2008. We have had songs from the album in rotation on Nu Soul @ RadioIO since it was first released over the summer. It is also currently one of the most popular albums being broadcast on Soul-Patrol.Net Radio
However Soul-Patrol.com is far from the only entity that has recognized the songs from "Nu Soul Stew", this year. The songs from the album have been geting airplay and charting on stations all over the United States. Plus Nu Soul Stew was nominated for "album of the year" at the 2008 Carolina Beach Music Awards
Angel is going places for sure. He is a great artist and he deserves all of the acolades that he is going to get in his career. However the most important thing to me that you need to know about Angel Rissoff is that he truly respects the music, he respects what we are all about and he is proud to be down with Soul-Patrol. And that means the world to me…
In this issue of the Soul-Patrol Newsletter, we have a whole bunch of stuff regarding Angel and his music for you to check out
1. Scroll down and you will see that we have reviews for both "Nu Soul Stew" and Where Have You Been?, that we would like you to check
2. We have internet radio shows for both "Nu Soul Stew" and Where Have You Been?
3. And of course we have plenty of links out to Angel’s website: http://www.angelmusicinc.com
I’d like you to check these things out, and please let me know what cha think?
–Bob Davis
earthjuice@prodigy.net
BIO: Angel
Influenced by Little Richard, Hank Ballard, Howard Tate and BB King, Angel started singing rhythm and blues on street corners when he was twelve. It would take forever to list all of his favorite singers, but a few standouts are Sonny Til, Nolan Strong, Pookie Hudson, Arthur Prysock, and Billy Eckstine.
When Angel was 15, he joined his first band as a bass player and eventually played with the legendary "Grandfather of Rock ‘n Roll" Chuck Berry. He was the lead singer for the South Florida group The Kollektion and had his own group called GC Dangerous with Gene Cornish of the Rascals. Angel was the lead singer for the critically acclaimed group Diamond, Angel and Crooks. He has worked with such notable people as Dion, Matt (Guitar) Murphy, Bobby Byrd, Robbin Ford, Darlene Love, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Jackson, Paul Schaffer, The Blues Image, Harvey Fuqua and The New Rascals.
Angel has also recorded and played at Carnegie Hall with Cyndi Lauper and was an original member of Little Isidore and The Inquisitors. He sang lead on the #1 hit single "Harlem Hit Parade," and "Jitterbop" from his album "Little Leopold" made it to #3 on the charts. Recently he has appeared on the Ratso CD "Water Rising" and "Tails of the city" a CD written and produced by Murray Weinstock. Angel can be seen all around the country as a member of Kenny Vance and the Planotones
Album Review: Angel – Nu Soul Stew
I wanted to wait a minute before writing the review of this album. I have actually had this music in my hot little hands now for about three months. I could have written the album review a few moments after I listened to the whole thing for the first time. All it takes is one listen in order to be hooked, no need for a second or third listen. However I wanted to wait. I wanted to play the music both on Soul-Patrol.Net Radio and on Nu Soul @ RadioIO.com and just let people hear it first. In the meanwhile I have been watching it rise up the music (internet & terrestrial) charts around the country. However those charts are meaningless. What does mean something is the smile that will appear on your face, the moment you start playing this album. That smile will remain on your face, because when you find yourself immersed in the "real thing", that’s exactly what’s supposed to happen.
Classic Soul is a genre that seems to be getting a whole lot of attention these days. When someone wins 5 Grammy Awards doing a style of music that has been "underground" for so many years, most people notice and some people imitate. Angel Rissoff is an artist who doesn’t have to "imitate" anything, cuz he is the "real deal." He didn’t start doing Classic Soul music last week or last year. He’s been doing it his whole life and over the past few years he has been at the forefront of creating BRAND NEW "Black American Standard Music" in a world that thinks that term almost always means "oldies."
However I am here to tell you that right now, in 2008 a year in which BRAND NEW "Black American Standard Music" is all of the rage everywhere from Triple A formatted radio stations, to college radio stations, to jazz radio stations, to political campaign rallies, to mellow upscale big city nightclubs, to rambunctious Carolina beach nightclubs, to iPod’s in your children’s pockets, (in other words just about everywhere except for so called Black radio stations) the "best of the best" of this "new trend", just might be Nu Soul Stew, by Angel Rissoff. So far Soul-Patrol.com ranks it as the 12th best album release of the year 2008 to date.
While others struggle to find just the right ingredients for the "required authenticity" for "Black American Standard Music", Angel just keeps pumping away more and more of what he very accurately calls ("Nu Soul"). So what does it sound like for those of yall who need labels on your music?
–Sometimes it sounds like Motown
–Sometimes it sounds like Stax
–Sometimes it sounds like a Bronx Street corner
–Sometimes it sounds like an Alabama Juke Joint
–Sometimes it sounds as funky as a "Mosqueeters Tweeter"
Since Angel makes no attempt at "modernizing" any of this it sounds just as fresh as the new music coming from artists like Amy Winehouse, Raphael Saddiq, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, James Hunter, Bettye LaVette and others who are finding success doing their own variation of 1960’s R&B music, all proving that there really isn’t anything new under the sun.
If this all sounds like a bit too much for you, go and check it out for yourself at Angel’s website at the following link:
–Bob Davis
CD REVIEW: Angel – Where Have You Been?
(Great Black Music From The Ancient To The Future)
Back in 1968 I was 11 years old, I walked into the neighborhood record shop in NY and for the first time in my life, I purchased a piece of recorded music with my own money. I had been inside of that record store many times, but never before had I been so bold as to actually take some of my own money, hard earned by scavenging the neighborhood for empty soda bottles to ca$h in and actually make a purchase. Well on this particular day I brought two 45 rpm records, paid 49 cents for each one and since that day I haven’t looked back. It was the start of a lifelong addiction.
The two records that I brought that day were:
– Sly & the Family Stone: "Everyday People/Sing a Simple Song"
– Rascals: "People Got To Be Free"
Looking back I always thought that it was significant that one was a "funk" record and the other was a "soul" record. In some ways my tastes haven’t really changed that much since I was 11 years old. On the other hand it’s also somewhat significant that one of the first two records that I ever brought was by a white artist.
Of course the Rascals (also from NYC) aren’t just "white artists" they were actually revolutionaries who did one hell of a job of teaching youngbloods like me that the face of SOUL MUSIC doesn’t always have to look like the face in the mirror. Hence one of the very first pages to go up on the Classic Soul website, was a page dedicated to and the Rascals and their magical lead singer Felix Cavaliere. Back in those days we all listened to low powered WWRL-1600 AM (all the way over on the right hand side of the dial). And when legendary NYC disc jockey Enoch Hawthorne Gregory would yell "GET UP", then start playing the song "IT’S A BEAUTIFUL MORNING" and you could hear the majestic beauty of Felix’s voice coming out of the tiny am radio, you knew that it was time to get up from school.
However I digress…
Angel reminds me a lot of what I perceived way back then that Felix was like. No his voice doesn’t sound exactly like Felix, Angel has got his own style. But ya know, even that statement doesn’t really say enough. Folks I have been living with this album for the past few months, savoring it in many different places and situations. If I were a "mainstream music critic" I might say something like "Retro Motownish/Staxish Roots Driven Up Tempo R&B". However I would never say such blow hard drivel….
Here’s an example: I was in the car listening to the CD "Where Have You Been?" and I got a call on my cell phone from our good friend "Enorman" of WVKO in Columbus, Ohio and I turn down the volume, so we can have our conversation. At some point during the conversation "Enorman" says to me, what the hell is that you are listening to?" I said, "oh it’s a new CD that was recently submitted to me, let me turn up the volume so you can hear it better". So I turned up the volume, took off my headset and put it close to the car speaker. The song "I Want a Love I Can See" (yes a cover version of the Temptations classic) was playing. I left the headset near the speaker for about a minute and then put it back on. Enorman" said: "Who tha f*uck was that"? Never mind, I don’t care who it is I NEED to have that CD so that I can put it into the rotation at the station. Since I first started listening to Angel’s music late last year, reactions like that one have occurred time and time again.
On the CD Where Have You Been? Angel doesn’t offer up any social commentary in particular. He doesn’t have to. His existence and the existence of the CD is social commentary enough. What you are getting with this album is quite simply the best album that I have heard so far this year. It’s all about the music, pure and simple.
Could I write more about Angela and his music?
Of course I could, and there is quite a bit to tell and I’ll save that for another time. My feeling right now is that you should take a few moments and actually go and listen to some of this music over on his web site at:
http://www.angelmusicinc.com
I have always believed that there is a kind of "circular symmetry", about life and that "what goes around truly does come around". So therefore it makes me smile more than just a little bit to know that Angel’s album "Where Have You Been?" is now playing in the regular rotation" at a small Black station, playing Soul music "located on the far right hand side of the dial" today in Columbus, Ohio. That way small Black boys in Columbus, Ohio might just have the chance to buy Angel’s music with their own money, just as I did back in 1968, after hearing the Rascals being played on a similar station in New York City. Because if they do, they will be better people for having had the chance to do so when they do.
Track Listing for: Where Have You Been
1. Where You At?
2. I Want a Love I Can See
3. Where Have You Been?
4. Why Me?
5. It’s Better to Have and Don’t Need
6. Your Promise to Be Mine
7. Break Out the Tears
8. Back in Love Again
9. I Wanna Be (Your Everything)
10. Oh Rockin’ Daddy
–Bob Davis
THE AWESOME NEW CD
from ANGEL
"NU SOUL STEW"
Click here to check out the AWESOME NEW CD from ANGEL "NU SOUL STEW"
If you have a news item, update, review, commentary, etc that you would like to submit to the Soul-Patrol Newsletter, please send them via email for consideration to:
earthjuice@prodigy.net
Hopefully you enjoyed this edition of the Soul-Patrol Newsletter.
We will be back soon with the next edition, with email alerts for local events, Soul-Patrol website updates/chat sessions or breaking news in between, as required.
If you have any comments, questions, etc feel free to drop me an email and let me know what’s on your mind.
Bob Davis
earthjuice@prodigy.net
