Re: NJC: N'Dea Davenport recording new album with BNH

nice read! although i only know a few BNH songs, i think they ARE good.

David Rowe <[email protected]> wrote: This will no doubt be of interest to some of the BNH fans on this list.

http://tinyurl.com/lb5xt

She ain't Heavy, she's our Brother Sister
20 April 2006

FUNK-SOUL brothers the Brand New Heavies know a good vocalist when they hear
one, and one of their original frontwomen is now back with the firm.

The band - who this month released their greatest hits package, The Platinum
Collection - are back in the studio making a new album with N'Dea Davenport.

The Heavies started back in the mid '80s with Jan Kincaid, Andrew Levy and
Simon Bartholomew jamming at the Kinkaid family house in the leafy suburbs
of west London.

Soon their demos were being played at emerging funk clubs in the capital,
like the Cat In The Hat.

Impressed by the success Sony had enjoyed with The Pasadenas, Chrysalis
snapped up the Heavies for their new imprint, Cooltempo, and for a while the
guys were cooking on a very funky kind of gas. Then came acid house, and the
cue for every A&R man in the land to search out that hypnotic beat.

Jan remembers: "One minute they saw rare groove as the way forward, the next
they wanted us to be a house band. It couldn't go on.

"But it wasn't a problem, we just slotted back into what we were doing -
which was gigging everywhere. It would have been a lot worse to have got as
far as an album and then never have seen it come out. That would have hurt."

Then came Woodford dance music visionary Eddie Piller. A man who would later
sign the likes of Jamiroquai and the Young Disciples, Piller had been
charting the band's progress for some time and stepped in with an album deal
on his Acid Jazz label.

Their eponymous album became an underground classic and with clubbers even
then looking for an outlet other than pumping house, it quickly crossed over
to America on import at a time when so many US acts were causing a stir via
import on these shores.

At the same time, as they have done after each success during the '90s, the
Heavies just kept going back to the stage, building a loyal live following.

And they were not exactly averse to changing their vocalists.

Initial singer, Jay Ella Ruth, quit shortly after the first album to pursue
a solo career, so, fresh from a US album deal with Delicious Vinyl,
Atlanta-born N'Dea Davenport was invited to join.

And her first job was to re-record the vocals for the American market.

"We were hell to market out there,'' remembers Andrew. "We were a mixed race
band, which isn't usual out there. They weren't sure whether to take us as
R&B or pop at first. We were young people playing what they saw as old
music. We wore weird clothes and talked funny. It was great."

It was at this time, that the Heavies started to wow the hip-hop fraternity,
seemingly impressing the home-boys with the way they could play live the
funk music that they sampled so much.

One memorable gig in 1991 ended up with Q-Tip, from A Tribe Called Quest,
freestyling over their set.

The second album, Heavy Rhyme Experience Volume 1, followed and included
collaborations with the likes of Kool Rap G and Guru from Gang Starr.

"It made perfect sense," says Jan. "Hip-hop kids loved all the old samples
and suddenly they could see this new band playing the funk just like they
heard it on their old albums."

By the time they returned from this trans-Atlantic soiree, London Records
had taken the band from Acid Jazz, and the guys set to work on the third
album, Brother Sister, which included big crossover hits like Dream On
Dreamer, Midnight At The Oasis, and the Back To Love track Graeme Park would
so expertly mix.

It put the band on the funk, chart and dance maps in one fell swoop.

But by now Davenport was getting restless and moved back to New Orleans to
pursue her solo career.

In stepped another US singer, Siedah Garrett - famously the other half of
the Michael Jackson duet, I Just Can't Stop Loving You.

But within six months, Siedah was also hot-footing it back to the States.

"We were really happy to get a huge talent like hers, because she'd already
done so much, made her big records and her money," says Andrew. "But I don't
think she realised just how long she'd have to be over here. Being a Heavy
is hard, hard work!"

Los Angeles singer Carleen Anderson did a stint, but now, Davenport is back.

But, just in case she's forgotten the live drill, she'd be wise to take some
advice from Anderson. Those gigs can mean up to 18 songs a night.

Anderson points out: "I love the old tunes like Dreams Come True and Never
Stop, but wherever we go in Europe, the fans know all the words to every
song, and that they have high standards. Each night different songs are
harder than others.



 
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