Upon hearing the EP Introducing Miss Charles from Nadine Charles I loudly exclaimed “El gusto es mio!” fortunately no one was around to laugh at my poor excuse for Spanish. But in all seriousness the pleasure really is all mine. Having the opportunity to listen to this great project from this wonderful artist just adds another notch to my “there really is hope for R&B scorecard”.
Seven tracks that run the subject matter gamut from: Love to loss, infatuation to even openly admitting that you’re a Cry Baby…you have to love an artist that is not afraid to be that open and honest. Musically, if you are a fan of great melodies(which I am) and dense beautiful harmonies(guilty as charged over here) you will love Introducing Miss Charles.
The production [C Swing and The Truth MoveMENT] and performances on this EP are wonderfully consistent: no throwaways here. The tracks contained herein do not reside in the “beatmaker” category, this is not a dig at any music or producer who operates in that realm, I’m merely stating that this is gimmick free music. They even have the audacity to have musical bridges in these songs that really do take you on a journey. The nerve!
If someone would have told me yesterday that I would be this excited about R&B again, I probably would have done what I usually do which is to point to the old dusty box of well worn cassettes and LP’s (yeah I said it) and curmudgeonly say “Now that’s R&B over there”. Fortunately, today I was properly introduced to Miss Charles so now I can point to my computer’s monitor and the dusty old box. Musical recommendation: hit repeat.
Ivan Orr is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and writer. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia Ivan was involved with the forming and nascent days of The Music Resource Center as its first Program Director. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Music, Ivan currently resides in Richmond, VA where he maintains an active performance and production schedule while serving as the Music Editor for Grown Folks Music, a position he has held since 2010.
