Jocelyn Brown Album Update

...Well, it's been a good couple of weeks, i've been back and forth up and down the M4 motorway a few times to Royal Berkshire where bass legend Punk Pappa resides to get all the bass parts completed for the album... We don't know what we're gonna call it yet though... Anyways, Paul 'Punk Pappa" Lancaster has really stepped up to the benchmark on these sessions, his "In the pocket" playing is prevalent throughout the album. I was sat in a room writing with Jocelyn on Wednesday, and she currently has disco producer and engineer extraordinaire John Morales staying with her. He gave me some props about the tracks, which coming from him is a real compliment, considering he did many of the Salsoul, Change, Kleeer engineering sessions back in the day... He heard the basslines and he was instantly like "Who's playing bass"?... Haha, Punk Pappa I replied... "Nice work" he replied... "In the pocket"... Which is exactly what I wanted to hear. Seriously Punk Pappa has really pulled some bass heaven out of the bag, and I am so looking forward to finishing off the tracks next week (see and hear his work @ http://www.myspace.com/punkpappa )... I've done 9 so far, including a remake of the classic "Somebody Elses Guy" (wait till you hear the bassline on this one)... I know some will say it's a sacrilege to do such a thing, but I have hopefully nailed it as the lady herself loves it... Don't worry, it's not smooth jazz or cheezy, in fact it sounds a bit like a Bond theme... Wait and see...

Jocelyn has written to five or so as it stands, she's doing her homework at night and at weekends (as she tells me) Love the way she records her ideas, she sits down with an old skool Sony Walkman with a record facility, presses the record button and just freestyles riffs, hooks and verse ideas then plays them back and picks the bits she likes best and writes around them... Really good to see her writing songs again, I see an excitement in her eyes that i've not seen for a few years, and it just seems apt that we're doing the kind of tracks she was doing when she first started out as a session singer in the prolific New York disco era of the Studio 54 generation.

point is, they are really beginning to take shape and everything is sounding just as I want it...

Miss Brown requested that she's like a ballad yesterday, so last night I set about starting it... Found some nice chords and have finished it off today. It's got heart string tugging chords and i'm really into it at the moment... Will put the live bass and guitar down on it next week and bring that son of a bitch to life!

Well there's my little update...As i've been writing this the twat next door has been pissing about with his smoke alarm and it's been constantly ringing incessantly in my ears for the past 20 minutes... I'm about to go round and smash it with a hammer!

Over & out,

SoulP

Coming soon...Jocelyn Brown & Soulpersona... The album.

...Not left any news on here for a while, figured I'd wait until I had something interesting to say...

Well, one of my dreams has come true, after knowing and working with Jocelyn Brown for many years, we are finally writing an album together. It happened quite by accident. I was at her annual thanksgiving back in November and at the end of the night, I played her a couple of tracks I'd been working on. These were tracks I had made, inspired by the the disco, rare groove, jazz funk movement in the 1979-1982 era... Instantly, Jocelyn started singing over them and making up lyrics and asked me if I had any more.... I mentioned that I had a couple and we arranged to meet the week after she could hear them... After listening to the five songs I had, I suggested that maybe we should put out an EP, the came the earth stopping moment as these words came out of Miss Browns mouth ...."Let's do 12 songs and put it out as an album"

...After thinking about it for a millisecond, I said "Yeah...Alright" and immediately took my ass home to write some more. From the tail end of December until now, I have written another 7 tracks all inspired from the 1979-1981 era when Jocelyn was known as Jocelyn Shaw, working as session background vocalist for legendary acts and artists such as Salsoul, Kleeer, Change, Bobbi Humprey, The Mizzel Brothers, Luthor Vandross, Cerrone, David Ruffin and countless others. So with that in mind, I realised that I really have to step up to the plate and try to create some music like I was living back then, in those wonderful times...

I immediately realised that the whole thing needed live bass and enlisted my best friend for many years, Mr Paul "Punk Pappa" Lancaster... I have been driving to his town of Newbury for the past few weeks and we've been laying down some bass line and guitar picking goodness, and the tracks have been brought to life. Plus I have got live percussion from a good friend and former Jamiroqui drummer/ producer extraordinaire Nick Van Gelder...

In a nutshell, I'm really excited and honored to be able to work with possibly the greatest female vocalist of our time. Jocelyn is like a second mother to me and I have learned so much from her in so many ways. I'm also really happy that Jocelyn will be writing all the songs, this is something I really wanted her to do as I know she's a wonderful writer as well as a singer... Also, Jocelyn has never done a full album of her own material with anyone before, so this is a first for her, and I'm soooo honored to be given the production responsibility...

I hereby promise that this will not be any smooth jazz, undiluted bullshit, this will be all about grooves, hooks, goosebumpy arrangements and delicious vocals... Jocelyn will also be singing all her own background too, which I cannot wait to start recording!!!

Hopefully the album will be ready for the Spring/Summer, we are trying to get it ready for the April- May period... Will keep you updated.

Love & Goodness,

SoulP