Chaka Khan is back. Not that she ever left. Like many of the artists that I grew up on, she had her youthful heyday with a seminal band, Rufus, and hit another level of greatness as a mature woman and solo artist. But as time marched on and the music industry changed in the '90s, producers and songwriters seemed not to know what to do with her. And I'm sure that Chaka didn't know what to do with herself for long stretches, musically, when she gave a lot of concerts and seemed ready to turn into a bad parody of herself. Now she's on a creative roll, and it's all about her glorious instrument, her voice.
In late 2005 she released ClassiKhan, a collection of her favorite pop tunes recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. That album has not been much discussed in the press, but it's a personal favorite of mine. Chaka poured her heart into reinterpretations of two Shirley Bassey hits, "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Goldfinger," as well as Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is" and the classic "I'm In The Mood For Love," among other tunes. That album shows off her instinctive jazz phrasings and considerable interpretive skills, as well as her sheer vocal power. It also gave a window into her personality, oddly enough, through the choice of songs and her delivery. That album made me fall in love with her all over again, though her talents have never been far from my heart.
In the meantime, since that set was released, Chaka had more personal drama. Her son was charged with the shooting death of a friend at her house. It was a heartbreaking situation, particularly as the shooting was an accident. A foolish accident, but an accident nonetheless, a fact to which she tearfully testified in court last year. Thankfully, her son was acquitted.
With that situation behind her, perhaps Chaka is happier, freer, renewed. On the recently released We All Love Ella, she sings a fun duet of "Mr. Paganini" with Natalie Cole, and then soars through a fantastic "Lullaby Of Birdland." Now she has a new album coming in September called Funk This. I don't know that the title really reflects the album's contents, but it doesn't matter. It's wonderful. Perhaps made more wonderful by the fact that she has teamed with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, whose musical brilliance I have always admired. (I have to fess up that I did spend the better part of a year working for them, but we had little contact and I was already enamored of their work.)
They are geniuses at encapsulating the spirit of the artist they work with, at writing tunes that are like testimony straight from the artist's lips. Back in the '80s when Jam & Lewis and L.A. & Face were competing studio talents, I used to say that LA & Face's songs were like gorgeous, ready-made tract houses that they invited the artist to move into, while Jam & Lewis's songs were custom-built houses to each artist's specifications. In fact, maybe I learned my professional bio writing talents from Jam & Lewis in this way. I talk to the artist, learn their language, what makes them tick and what's important to them, then I design the document around that. But back to Jam & Lewis--they really can produce the hell out of a thing. For Chaka, they also had help from Big Jim, the Avila Brothers, and Jesse Johnson here and there. The recording sounds deep, layered, and yes, funky in a profoundly old school way. In fact, they have infused Funk This with the flavor, the timbre, the orchestration elements of some of Chaka's best Rufus and solo recordings--no easy feat.
Anyway, on Funk This Chaka proves that she truly can sing anything. She tackles rock, funk, pop, jazz, and of course R&B. She goes all Jimi Hendrix on "Castles Made Of Sand," she hollers her own backstory on the funky "Back In The Day" (which reminded me of how she sang Stevie's similarly remember-when tune "I Was Made To Love Him" on her 1979 debut Chaka), she gets old school bluesy on a version of Dee Dee Warwick's "Foolish Fool," and I have to say, I ADORE how she does it.
In a nod to Prince, whose cover of "I Feel For You" helped cement her solo stardom, she does a pounding, pointed version of "Sign O' The Times," tacking on the modulating "whoa whoa whoa" strains of her own "I'm Every Woman" toward the end. She reunites with Rufus guitarist Tony Maiden on the medley of their hits "Pack'd My Bags/You Got The Love" which is deeper the second time around. She charms on her own ballad composition "Angel," and soars on the uplifting "Super Life."
There are a couple of missteps, like a tune called "Disrespect," an ill-advised duet with Mary J. Blige that sounds like a screeching catfight at a NAMM percussion showcase(uh, NAMM stands for the National Assn. Of Music Merchandisers, which stages a giant annual trade show for musical equipment). And she drags out Michael McDonald for a reprise of "You Belong To Me." Michael already did fabulously with the tune, he doesn't need to do it again, and while she's trying to pay tribute to him (she's already said, "I needed some Doobie in my funk,") anybody who tries to duet with Yvette Marie Stevens is fighting an uphill battle. (Except the aforementioned Cole on the Ella track.)
Another minor complaint: Over the years Chaka seems to have developed a new quirk among what Patti Austin has termed "vocal affectations": Where other funk singers growl, yelp, or use "ow" or "uh!," Chaka now employs a rather nasty guttural bray that I guess she feels is digging deep for the funk. It can be a little ... off-putting. But no matter. She can still effortlessly lasso a high note out of the stratosphere like no other. I'd rather listen to a donkey-calling Chaka tune than a chart-topper from any one of these little pop tarts out here.
Really, I'm just splitting hairs. There is much that is wonderful, reaffirming, interesting, and soulful in Chaka's new disk. It's a great listen, and Chaka really challenges herself, just as she did on ClassiKhan, and it's great to hear. Funk This is one of those albums that restores my faith -- however briefly -- in the music industry. I never lost faith in Chaka.
Funk This is out on 9/25. www.chakakhan.com.
