April 9, 2010

It's been four years since Stephanie Mills released her last album.
What has the soul singer been doing during that time? Well, she's been preparing for her new album by just, well, living.


"I think, when you're doing an album and you're actually writing songs, it does take a minute for you to live a little bit and get ideas," says Mills, on the phone from her home in Charlotte.

"Because it's a process. It's not just automatic. It's not like you go into a studio and say, 'Oh, OK, going to write.'

"It's really, really, really a process.

"And as I was reading with Sade, she said the same thing. It took her a long time because you live and you write songs and you experience things and, then, you go back in the studio and you put it together. It's really an artistic process."

Standing 4 feett 11 inches, the Brooklyn-born R & B songstress (who will be performing with The Whispers tonight at the Durham Performing Arts Center) has been working long enough to know how the artistic process works.

From the days when she riveted Broadway audiences as Dorothy in "The Wiz" (usually bringing down the house whenever she sang the signature song "Home") to her eventual career as a solo artist, dominating '80s R & B radio stations with hits like "Never Knew Love Like This Before," Mills has been a highly recognizable, veteran voice in that musical realm known as "grown-folks music."

Mills (who celebrated her 53rd birthday last month) is putting the finishing touches on her latest album, "Breathless," to be released on her own independent label, CJ Entertainment. However, she couldn't wait to drop the first single, a cover of the Beatles' "Yesterday," especially since the song goes out to a dearly departed friend: Michael Jackson.

"Well, Michael and I were really great, great friends," she says. "We dated in the early '80s and the '70s, and we were good friends." Mills insists she's not only paying her last respects to the King of Pop on the song, but she's also paying tribute to deceased friends and collaborators Teddy Pendergrass and Robert Brookins. "I really kind of relate it, or you can relate it back to when I recorded 'Home.' And when, you know, a lot of my friends had passed on with 'Home,' and I wanted people to remember their spirits and how wonderful the music was. It's the same thing."

As for the rest of the album, Mills and producer Josiah Martin (artists Dave Hollister, PJ Morton) worked together to update Mills' style of adult-contemporary performing.

Mills says some songs on the album are two years old, while others she just finished a month ago. "It truly, truly is a process, because you want the songs to be good," she says. "You just don't want to slap something (together). You really want it to come from your heart. And if you believe it and if you like what you're writing, then everybody else will like it."

Mills says she has been having quite the time preparing "Breathless" on her own "because you can do it at your own pace, and you really have the artistic freedom to do what you want to do with your album and your pictures and everything," she says. "It's really better. It's a better, I think, representation of yourself."

These days, who Mills represents is a singer and mother (she has a 9-year-old son, Farad) who wants to remind audiences that, for her, singing is living.

"I want therm to know that I love to sing, and that I love to tell a story with my music," says Mills. "And I want them to feel that and sense that when they listen to 'Breathless.' And when they do listen to 'Breathless,' they're definitely gonna know that."



http://www.newsobserver.c...z0keTcIYUP
[Edited 4/30/10 7:01am]

Great article. I hope the new project is better than her last album. I was not impressed with her last effort at all.

daPrettyman said:

I feel you on that one. Her last album "Born For This" was horrible. She sounded great but the material and production were far beneath her. Hopefully, she'll have better producers this time around who will guide her in the right direction.

I'll have to check this out.

The first single is a cover of the Beatles' classic, "Yesterday", which she dedicates to Michael Jackson.

I. Hate. That. Song.

Identity said:

Like her singing but the guitar arragement wasn't working, it isn't symbiotic with Ms. Mills singing. I hate gibson acoustic guitars they sound blah to me.


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[Edited 4/28/10 6:29am]

Maybe Stephanie should make a jazz album because R&B is having a tough time. She would have a faithful audience and better producers. Plus, her voice is well-suited for that kind of sound. It's sad when people that have her talent are thrown away in the entertainment biz. Then again, I'm sure that Steph kept her name alive and made money by touring these past years.

Identity said:

Nice! That's one of my favorite Beatles songs and Stephanie does a good job with it.

SoulAlive said:

I heard this a month or 2 ago. I like it

jeami said:

Yep,she's doing very well with touring.She frequently plays my area on a bill with The Whispers and (sometimes) Howard Hewitt.I agree with you,jazz may be a good direction for her to pursue.She certainly has the voice for it.

kitbradley said:

I was curious about that CD,but never got around to hearing it.I guess I'm not missing much,huh?

TD3 said:

I like the stripped-down arrangement I wonder,is this the direction of the entire album? Or will some songs be more fleshed out?