(December 31, 2016) On her delightful debut album, Gorgeous Chaos, Cleveland born, Philadelphia trained jazz singer/songwriter Laurin Talese made a ballsy move: She covered a beloved song off of one of the most respected cult albums in Black American Music by a vocalist who is widely considered to be among the upper echelon of pure voiced singers on Earth, Bilal Oliver or simply “Bilal.”
(December 31, 2016) On her delightful debut album, Gorgeous Chaos, Cleveland born, Philadelphia trained jazz singer/songwriter Laurin Talese made a ballsy move: She covered a beloved song off of one of the most respected cult albums in Black American Music by a vocalist who is widely considered to be among the upper echelon of pure voiced singers on Earth, Bilal Oliver or simply “Bilal.”
That she didn’t cover a hit like “Soul Sister” or “Sometimes” from Bilal’s seminal debut, First Born Second, speaks to both her good taste and good sense, as Bilal wholly owns those jams. Instead, Talese covered a deep album cut, a rarely mentioned fan fave that never fails to delight when performed. It’s one of those obscure tracks that insiders pride themselves on knowing when the casual listener is hyping the charting single as the limits to their musical depth of knowledge. “Love Poems” is also one of Bilal’s most beautifully smooth midtempo grooves and Laurin Talese and Co. managed to do the impossible by elevating something already sky high.
On one of the most criminally overlooked jazz and soul album of 2016, Gorgeous Chaos, co-produced by Adam Blackstone and Ulysses Owens, Jr., boasts duets with Vivian Green (on the dearly departed George Michael’s “Kissing A Fool”), Robert Glasper, Christian Sands, Eric Wortham II, and most importantly on “Love Poems,” bassist Christian McBride. It’s McBride’s killer upright bass with Owens’ drums that are the drivers of this stunningly re-arranged classic with a picked-up tempo and swinger’s pace. With Sands bringing up the rear on the keys, Laurin Talese’s voice on a sure lead and gossamer supporting vocals only has to float through the musical bed they expertly lay for her.
McBride’s bass solo alone is worth the listen, with everyone else accenting his strokes and giving him ample room to play. The follow-up by Sands and Owens in their back and forth musical dance is an instrumental duet showcase all its own. Not that the silken Talese is anything to sneeze at, keeping up with these seasoned kats at every turn and making Bilal’s classic a new jazz standard ripe for reimagining. Her close out layered scatting vocals are just a joy to the ear.
For Bilal fans who are hard pressed to imagine anyone else covering his work, this refreshing cut alone is worth closing your eyes and really paying attention to the powerfully controlled passion that’s going on among the technicians here, and then do it all over again for this cut worthy of the album’s name, Gorgeous Chaos.
By L. Michael Gipson
Laurin Talese – “Love Poems”