Mint Condition back in London!

Mint Condition will be back in the UK on the 4 & 5 June at the Jazz Cafe, Camden, London.

To book go to http://www.seetickets.com...2=ven-srch


Modern, infectious soul grooves fringed with Latin and jazz, buoyed by fiery dashes of rock and funk; when musicians create ---as well as sustain---that level of quality for nearly two decades, they are more than an average group or band.they become, in fact, Mint Condition.

After five successful studio albums, over a dozen hit singles, multiple world tours and collaborations with some of the biggest stars in the genre (Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, Janet Jackson, Charlie Wilson of the Gap Band and Maurice White of Earth, Wind &Fire, to name a few), Mint Condition is a rarity in today's R&B, their generation's lone example of 'old school' bands that now serve as templates for many of their peers. And it's their classic, yet contemporary approach, combined with Stokley's agile and emotive tenor, which fuels their sixth studio CD and the second release from their independent label (Cagedbird Entertainment), eLife.

In fact, the perpetual balancing act is what inspired eLife's opening track, "Baby Boy Baby Girl" (featuring Anthony Hamilton). And it's that sort of ingenuity keeping MC alive and thriving in the music biz. Every member of the band came of age in the Twin Cities (St. Paul &Minneapolis) and were inspired by Prince's electrifying hybrid of funk, soul and pop (now known as "The Minneapolis Sound,"). The young men knew of one another peripherally, but the collaborations didn't fall into place until they united under Central High School's performing arts program.

After the band's line-up was finalized, it was a gig they played at the now-famous First Avenue club in 1989 that caught the attention of The Time's former members turned super-producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who had just launched their own label, Perspective Records (a subsidiary of A&M). To this day, the band credits the duo for encouraging, as well as respecting, their creative input and autonomy in the studio.

The band's first single, "Are You Free," generated some buzz, but it wasn't until Washington D.C.'s WHUR-FM (Howard University's famed college radio station) broke the follow-up ballad, 1991's "Breakin' My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)" that the band experienced their first runaway smash. "Breakin'" peaked at number three on Billboard's R&B chart and number six in Pop's top ten, remaining on the charts for 34 weeks. After that, two other stellar albums---From the Mint Factory and Definition of a Band--- and a chain of hit singles followed, including "Forever In Your Eyes," "U Send Me Swingin," "Someone to Love," So Fine," "You Don't Have to Hurt No More" and "What Kind of Man Would I Be."

Even when the Perspective label folded and the band moved to Elektra, their fourth CD, Life's Aquarium, spawned the Billboard R&B top five hit, "If You Love Me." The band also ensured its longevity by building a reputation for energetic and engaging live performances.

And if the sudden implosion of record labels weren't enough of a change, another one loomed on the horizon; in 2001, two years after…Aquarium's release, Keri Lewis departed from the band to produce and tour with his future wife, Toni Braxton; according to his band mates, the split was an amicable one. "We talk on the phone at least once a month and we run into him every now and then. We're even talking about him joining us on stage for a few dates this summer," says O'Dell. And in the years that followed, the band, now departed from Elektra, decided to follow Prince's iconic example and start their own label; its first release under the Cagedbird Records imprint (distributed by Image Entertainment), 2005's Livin' the Luxury Brown, debuted at number one on Billboard's Independent Albums chart and gave the band yet another R&B hit, "I'm Ready."

The CD eLife, like the band itself, is irresistibly eclectic; it positions Mint Condition as a five-man oasis in R&B's parched landscape and reinforces their relevance amongst the old and the new school. "We can straddle the fence in both worlds," Stokley says. "You can't get the full experience on CD, nor can you get it all by just watching us perform live. Stay tuned to what we're doing, because our goal is to entertain and inspire. It's about forward movement."