Voice 'Gumbo' album - MusicRemedy

Don’t look now, but music is changing. And I’m not talking about downloading or filesharing or emcees endorsing cowboy boots or any of the usual “music is changing” hooha that web writers get paid hefty salaries to pull out of their ass. The people who make our music are changing. How, you ask? Simple. They’re becoming us. Or, we’re becoming them. Whichever you prefer. You no longer have to be some kind of conflicted basket case, needled-up attention whore or adolescent horror story in order to succeed as a musician. All you have to do is make good music – and you’re free to be yourself. And Los Angeles-bred, New Orleans residing, two-children-one-husband-having workinglovingstrugglingcomplainingcooingcajolingrapping Renaissance woman Voice is nothing if not herself. And she seems to have the good music part down somewhat too.

A child actress coming from a family with roots in the entertainment industry, Voice was almost a showbiz train-wreck herself. Fortunately, her people’s roots run way deeper than Hollywood, both her parents calling New Orleans, Louisiana home, and raising young Voice equal parts in both cities. Her mother is celebrated jazz vocalist Zardis, who mentored under Horace Silver, Herb Mickman (former musical director of Sarah Vaughan), the late Billy Higgins and Barry Harris, among many other notables. Her sister was part of PG-13, a group that had a song called “What’s Your Name” on the Sound Control Mob’s Compton Compilation, which was released in 1989 and featured the first commercially released song from MC Eiht’s crew Compton’s Most Wanted. And that is the Voice paradox in a nutshell: 50% jazz, 50% foot in yo ass. Her tone is smooth, warm, sultry, steady; but it’s the faintest tilt that she gives the most random words and syllables that reminds you (if you are actually listening) that she ain’t here for baby-talk and holding hands, unless you’re her baby or her man.

Voice was first introduced to the world (well, Japan) on 2002’s The Christie And Dupont EP, an import-only release on Canadian label Public Transit Recordings produced by PTR mascot Moonstarr, who has gone on to become Voice’s most constant partner in crime, producing her follow-up outing “BB Girl”, which appeared on the Scattered Snares Across The Track album from the same year (Twisted Funk Records). Her debut solo album Gumbo, also released courtesy of the venerable folks at PTR, is an intoxicating… stew of the cities and experiences that birthed it: Los Angeles, Toronto, New Orleans, New York, hip-hop, jazz, house, lounge, being broke, being frustrated, finding love, creating love, putting it all together and moving forward. You know, everyday life shit. Just way more interesting.

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Voice - Gumbo