Rachelle Ferrell - Individuality (Can I Be Me?)
Artist: Rachelle Ferrell
Album Title: Individuality (Can I Be Me?)
Audio CD (September 12, 2000)
Original Release Date: September 12, 2000
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Capitol
Genre: Jazz R&B
Styles: Jazz CDs, R&B, Pop, Urban Soundtrack, Jazz Vocals, Contemporary Jazz Vocals
Source: Original CD
Cover Included
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Listen to sample
http://www.amazon.com/Individuality-Can-I-Be-Me/dp/B00004W55E
YouTube video
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=w2uD_MUu55U&feature=related
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=qdtwon67Uqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1x6xfZ5tCw&feature=related
Track List
1. Individuality (Can I Be Me?) 4:53
2. Sista 3:59
3. Will You Remember Me? 6:17
4. I Forgive You 5:30
5. I Gotta Go 5:06
6. Why You Wanna Mess It All Up? 5:30
7. Gaia 5:44
8. Run To Me 4:04
9. Reflections Of My Heart 5:10
10. Satisfied 5:32
11. I Can Explain 8:02
Personnel
Rachelle Ferrell Piano, Executive Producer, Vocals, Vocals (Background), Main Performer
George Duke Guitar, Keyboard Overdubs, Keyboards
Tony Maiden Guitar
Jef Lee Johnson Guitar (Acoustic), Engineer, Producer, Keyboards, Guitar, Bass
Jonathan Butler Guitar, Vocals
Byron Miller Bass
Lil' John Roberts Drums
Lenny Castro Percussion
Lori Perry Vocals (Background)
Kenny Lattimore Vocals (Background)
Biography
Composer, lyricist, arranger, musician and vocalist Rachelle Ferrell is a recent arrival on the
contemporary jazz scene, but her visibility on the pop/urban contemporary scene has boosted her audience's
interest in her jazz recordings.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Ferrell got started singing in the second grade at age six. This no doubt
contributed to the eventual development of her startling six-and-change octave range. She decided early
on, after classical training on violin, that she wanted to try to make her mark musically as an
instrumentalist and songwriter. In her mid-teens, her father bought her a piano with the provision that
she learn to play to a professional level. Within six months, Ferrell had secured her first professional
gig as a pianist/singer. She began performing at 13 as a violinist, and in her mid-teens as a pianist and
vocalist. At 18, she enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston to study composition and
arranging, where her classmates included Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, Donald Harrison and Jeff Watts.
She graduated in a year and taught music for awhile with Dizzy Gillespie for the New Jersey State Council
on the Arts. Through the 1980s and into the early '90s, she'd worked with some of the top names in jazz,
including Gillespie, Quincy Jones, George Benson and George Duke.
Ferrell's debut, First Instrument, was released in 1990 in Japan only. Recorded with bassist Tyrone Brown,
pianist Eddie Green and drummer Doug Nally, an all-star cast of accompanists also leave their mark on her
record. They include trumpeter Terrence Blanchard, pianists Gil Goldstein and Michel Petrucciani, bassists
Kenny Davis and Stanley Clarke, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter and keyboardist Pete Levin. Her unique
take on now-standards like Sam Cooke's "You Send Me," Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love," and
Rodgers & Hart's "My Funny Valentine," captured the hearts and souls of the Japanese jazz-buying public.
In 1995, Blue Note/Capitol released her Japanese debut for U.S. audiences, and the response was similarly
positive. Her 1992 self-titled U.S. debut, a more urban pop/contemporary album, was released on Capitol
Records. Ferrell was signed to a unique two-label contract, recording pop and urban contemporary for
Capitol Records and jazz music for Blue Note Records. For four consecutive years in the early '90s,
Ferrell put in festival stopping performances at the Montreaux Jazz Festival.
Although Ferrell has captured the jazz public's attention as a vocalist, she continues to compose and
write songs on piano and violin. Ferrell's work ethic has paid off, and Gillespie's predictions about her
becoming a "major force" in the jazz industry came true. Her prolific songwriting abilities and ability to
accompany herself on piano seem only to further her natural talent as a vocalist.
"Some people sing songs like they wear clothing, they put it on and take it off," she explains in the
biographical notes accompanying First Instrument. "But when one performs four sets a night, six nights a
week, that experience affords you the opportunity to present the song from the inside out, to express its
essence. In this way, a singer expresses the song in the spirit in which it was written. The songwriter
translates emotion into words. The singer's job is to translate the words back into emotion."
Ferrell has made her mark not as a straightahead jazz singer and pianist, but as a crossover artist who's
equally at home with urban contemporary pop, gospel, classical music and jazz.
reviews
The voice! On Individuality Rachelle Ferrell's astonishing instrument (as it certainly deserves to be
called) soars and swoops through a six-octave range, which makes her a rarity in the modern R&B of nubile
sopranos. Ferrell is as comfortable delivering a deep, velvety growl as a soprano soar. Her work as a jazz
singer-songwriter has clearly sharpened her vocal technique and added a perceptive subtlety to the
arrangements that accompany it, which dwell in sweet 'n' lowdown, unplugged bass territory. Individuality
is a compact, intensely personal album. It covers topics from sisterhood ("Sista") to jilted love ("I
Gotta Go"), all through the eyes of a mature woman. With this album's unslick production and sincerity,
Ferrell continues to set herself apart from the pack, expanding the parameters of R&B to accommodate her
and her voice, not vice versa.
___________________________________________________________
Rachelle Ferrell's latest release Individuality (Can I Be Me?) was easily one of the most anticipated
releases in 2000. Ferrell had not released a studio recording since her "jazz" recording First Instrument
was released in 1995. Ironically First Instrument was actually recorded prior to her eponymous debut in
1992. In what a very savvy move, Capitol released the R&B/lite jazz flavored Rachelle Ferrell first in the
hope that she wouldn't be pigeonholed as a "jazz" artist. The decision was perhaps a direct product of the
experiences faced by fellow vocalist Dianne Reeves, whose dexterity in both the traditional jazz and R&B
worlds has been lost on many audiences who have come to view her solely as a jazz vocalist.
Like Reeves, Ferrell was signed to a two-label deal that allowed her to record "R&B" for Capitol and
"traditional" jazz projects for Blue Note. Ferrell chose not to record for over seven years so that a
previous production deal would expire allowing her to sign a more lucrative one. She toured extensively
during the period, most notably with the Jazz Explosion tour, which at various times included performers
such as guitarist Jonathan Butler, saxophonist Gerald Albright, pianist George Duke, who has produced both
Reeves and Ferrell, and vocalist Will Downing. It has been largely on the strength of Ferrell's
show-stopping performances -- her vocal range is simply astounding as is her piano playing -- that she has
been able to remain in the memories of fickle and forgetful audiences. Despite not releasing any product
since 1995, Ferrell performances remained sell-out affairs. With Individuality (Can I Be Me?) Ferrell was
primed to continue a recording career that is arguably secondary to her career as a touring performer.
Audiences who craved a return of the Rachelle Ferrell who recorded First Instrument will likely be
disappointed with Individuality (Can I Be Me?). Employing the services again of producer/arranger George
Duke, Ferrell wrote or co-wrote all of the tracks, in the process walking a fine line between the R&B
flavored pop-Jazz pabulum usually relegated to contemporary jazz radio stations and the kind of artistry
that attracted her to listeners nine years ago, with a debut release which had little or no promotional
support. Quite frankly, as the title First Instrument suggest, Ferrell possesses the kind of voice in
which the singing of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" would be a cultural event. It is perhaps the
possibilities her talent engenders that makes Individuality (Can I Be Me?) such a mixed experience; the
studio simply cannot contain a voice that was made for the stage and a improvisational sensibility that
rarely, if ever, gets conveyed, on studio recordings.
What most distinguishes Individuality (Can I Be Me?) from her previous recordings, is her attempt to
convey a more grittier, bluesy, dare I say funky, style. This style is most evident on the title track
"Individuality (Can I Be Me?)", which serves as a re-introduction to her cores fans and those whose
musical attentions spans may change last from season to season. Thankfully, unlike many of her
contemporaries, Ferrell has chosen to eschew any semblance of an "urban" formula that could, ironically,
cross her over to urban contemporary radio. In recent years, such attempts to crossover to urban (read
young) audiences by stalwarts like Patti Labelle and Gladys Knight have been painful. Such an effort, for
all intents, crippled the career of Oleta Adams. There is something to said about the rewards of such a
formula given the fact that Dianne Reeves has not recorded a "cross-over" project since Never Too Far
(1989).
Tracks such as "Sista", the explosive "Why You Wanna Mess It All Up?" and the infectious lead single
"Satisfied" will not likely ever see the clipboards of some "mainstream" radio programmers, though the
tracks perhaps present some of the best contexts for Farrell's vocals. "Sista" is a far more weightier
conversation on "sisterhood" than any of the saccharine Babyface compositions, excepting Mary J. Blige's
"Not Gon Cry", that appeared on the Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. "Why You Wanna Mess it All Up?" provides
a musical foil, in guitarist Jeff Lee Johnson, that matches Ferrell's prodigious vocals. It in these
decided bass "heavy" contexts that Farrell vocals come close to matching the power of her live
performances. Notably the same can not be said for tracks such as like the plodding "I Forgive You" and
the forgettable "I Gotta Go".
As always, Ferrell's strengths lie in her ability to interpret and caress ballads. Such is the case with
her memorable collaboration with Jonathan Butler on "Gaia" which is arguably the best track on the
recording. The duet with Butler, who has rarely recorded the kind of material that does justice to his
fine tenor voice, will make some listeners forget how compatible Ferrell was with vocalist Will Downing on
their stirring duet "Nothing Has Ever Felt Like This" which appeared on both her debut recording and
Downing's Love's the Place to Be. On the track "Reflections of My Heart" Ferrell is joined by her brother
Russ Barnes, whose own vocal quality is reminiscent of Caribbean crooner Jon Lucien and the aforementioned
Will Downing. Ferrell is perhaps in her best element on the recording's final track, "I Can Explain". The
song, which clocks in at about eight minutes is the best showcase of her talents, in that it only features
her vocals accompanied her own piano playing. The song, which is reminiscent of the beautiful "With "Every
Breath I Take" from First Instrument, is by itself a full measurement of why Ferrell consistently
distinguishes herself from so many other vocalists. At one point in the song she holds a note for close to
14 seconds as she twist the phrase "You've got some else".
In some of the promotional material for the recording, figures ranging from fellow vocalists such as Angie
Stone and Natalie Cole and pre-eminent black public intellectual Cornel West sing praises to the artistry
of Rachelle Ferrell. West, in fact, calls Ferrell this generation's "Sarah Vaughn". Though Individuality
(Can I Be Me?) doesn't fully live up to the hype surrounding its release -- largely the product of uneven
material -- it does legitimate the experiences of so many of the folks who have been privileged to hear
Ferrell live these past years and validates claims that she is one of the singularly most important
"voices" in the industry.
