Music Bender

So who is Ledisi? Those who listen to neo-soul may tell you Ledisi is one the most unique voices in R&B today. Her voice lies somewhere between the hues of Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Chaka Khan. Hers is a mixture of the soulful, funky and jazzy vibe that Erykah Badu brought to the music scene in the late ‘90s, but Ledisi seems genuinely born from an old spirit and legacy of our African American ancestors.

“I’m not really fond of the terminology neo-soul,” says Ledisi from her home in Oakland, Calif. “Because it’s not really different soul, it’s the same thing. Neo means different or new. I’m not far from soul (music), but I am far from being characterized. But we need labels, I guess, to sell records. I’ve been compared to Nina, Ella and Chaka, but to me I sound like me. Nobody else sounds like me. I don’t sound like anyone else, like no one else sound like me. We all take what we learn and see and we jumbo it up.”

Ledisi spent most of her childhood in the late ‘70s in Oakland, Calif. Her family’s legacy began shaping Ledisi at an early age for what many critics are now calling the new high priestess of soul music.

Ledisi’s father is Larry Sanders, known by fans in the ’70s as “The Prophet of Soul.” Her mother is R&B artist Nyra Dynese – who co-wrote with Sanders on the ’70s the hit soul classic “Pillow Talk.”

And if that wasn’t enough of a legacy to emulate, Ledisi, which means to bring forth in Nigerian, is the granddaughter of the late-great blues singer Johnny Ace.

“I started in R&B and went to opera,” Ledisi explained of her voice training. “I started studying opera when I was nine, and then gospel came when we moved to California. I didn’t know how to sing gospel without hurting myself. And I didn’t start listening to jazz until I got into college.”

“But I was influenced by Tina Turner. Louis Armstrong and Chaka. Everybody think I learned scatting by listening to Ella, but I learned scatting by listening to Bird (Charlie Parker) and (jazz pianists) Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk,” Ledisi continued. “And I’m really just recently getting into (John) Coltrane.”

“But people don’t realize how much jazz instrumentalists have influenced R&B singers. Like a lot of people don’t know how much Sun Ra influenced Parliament, know what I mean?”

The gift of Ledisi’s voice developed at such an early age that at age eight she was invited to perform with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. She found out, however, that she would have to abandon a lot of her opera technique to become a true soul diva. Gospel music showed her the way. “What gospel brought to me was to be fearless. And you have to be soul bearing. Opera is just so technical.”

In 2001, Ledisi released, with her band Anibade (her middle name), an album called Soulsinger on her own LeSun label. It became an instant underground neo-soul classic. She tackled such subjects as a father sexually abusing his daughter on “Papa Loved to Love Me.”

The next year, Ledisi dropped an album with more of a jazz flavor called Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue. Many of her fans hated it and only a few critics loved it. “The jazz purists didn’t love it. They were afraid of it. But when bebop came out, people didn’t get it. They got it later.”

Today, the hard-to-find LP is considered a neo-soul classic and fetches upward to $180 on eBay auctions on the Internet. “People hated it but now they can’t find it and are mad because they can’t it find it,” Ledisi said. “When we put it back out, we will put it out the right way. It’s not time to put it back out now.”

Ledisi got her deal with Verve after producer Rex Rideout produced her version of “Forever, For Always, For Love� on the Luther Vandross Tribute Album. She says her new album, Lost & Found, is still her, albeit in a new direction.

“I’ve grown. It’s different from the last two records, so people are going to really be surprised,” Ledisi said. “My singing is different, the production and my writing have grown. People will listen and tell that I am a much happier person. It sounds to me like I sound, with elements of how I use to be. I want my music to be brighter now. There’s enough darkness in the world today.” With the album hitting shelves this past Tuesday, Ledisi is just getting started. She is doing a mini-tour in select cities to let people know what to expect.

As for her thoughts on her new major record label home, Verve Forecast? “So far, they let me go with the flow. Of course, they have their input, they have to. But I had a lot of freedom because they know I have already established myself with who I am.”

And some final words of wisdom for all her fans as well as any aspiring artists who look to her for inspiration: “All you have to do is keep having faith, even when it look like things won’t work out. And all you have to do is keep kicking butt.”