Julie Dexter And Khari Simmons: Moon Bossa, CD

Julie Dexter - born and brought up in Birmingham, England, now living in Atlanta. One-time featured vocalist with Courtney Pine’s group, three well received solo independent albums to her name. Khari Simmons – bass player with India Arie since 2001, still touring and recording with her, leader of his own acclaimed soul/jazz group Jiva, and also a resident of Atlanta

They are working together for the first time on a very special album ‘Moon Bossa’. An album very much in Khari’s preferred musical style – Soul Bossa – a style featured on classic albums by the likes of the Soul Bossa Trio, Sergio Mendes and George Duke, to which he adds a personal touch by mixing it with modern soul and dance music. He describes it as ‘a homage to various styles of bossa nova’ from the simplicity of vocal and guitar to a mix of new soul and hip-hop.

‘We pay homage to the Seventies, and to a variety of great songwriters like Swing Out Sister, Everything But The Girl, Sergios Mendes and Antonio Carlos Jobim’. In fact, the album travels and visits every aspect of the genre, every decade from the Sixties to the present.

A&R advisor on the project was Incognito’s Bluey, who also contributes a stunning broken-beats Incognito Remix of the Swing Out Sister song ‘Fooled By A Smile’. Continuing the Anglophile flavour of the album are excellent covers of Everything But The Girl’s ‘My Baby Don’t Love Me’ and Basia’s ‘Promises’, while Brazil is represented by Jobim’s timeless ‘Wave’ and the Sergio Mendes song ‘Salt Sea’.

A strong selection of songs written primarily by Khari complete the set, including ‘The Dove’ – also featured in a Jiva Remix – and the infectious instrumental ‘Sea and Sky’.