Chaka Khan - Funk This

Excellent Album

I was very pleased after hearing the album. Chaka is truly an outstanding
vocalist; and her voice and music are extraordinary. The arrangements are quite uplifting and move the spirit and the soul. Very enjoyable music and entertaining. November 15, 2008

Chaka does it again

What'z Up Wit Cha? Chaka Khan


Sheila - This is such an honor and a pleasure interviewing you are definitely one of the people on the list that I said I must interview this person.
Chaka - Thank you.

Sheila - So Interpretations, the project. I heard the album and I was just blown away.
Chaka - It is good. Isn't it? Everyone did a good job. I think that Ledisi really did a great job.

Sheila - Whew, she killed it. She tore that song up. I loved her and of course I loved you and I was really taken by The Randy Watson Experience featuring Bilal who did "Can't Hide Love". I was like, "Who are they?" No disrespect but I had never heard of them before.
Chaka - Yeah, they were pretty good. I know them and they are good.

Sheila - I noticed that you were the only industry veteran included of your caliber. I mean, Angie Stone has been around for years as well but ...
Chaka - I was the oldest person on the album.

Sheila - Now see, I wasn't gonna say that. LOL
Chaka - Hey, it is what it is.

Sheila - Were you surprised to be included?
Chaka - I would have been surprised not to have been included. We all go back to Chicago.

Sheila - I should have known that. I ready your book.
Chaka - You read my book?

Sheila - I sure did. I got home with your book at around 4:00pm. I was done by 1:00am.
Chaka - Everyone says the same thing. It's really an easy read.

Sheila - No, that's because we don't want to put it down. It was such a great read. It's so inspirational. I was like "Wow". In this story you are a heroine. You went down those roads but look at where you are today and the lives that you have changed in the process. I just think that you are phenomenal.
Chaka - I'm glad to be here to tell the story.

Sheila - Amen to that. What does it mean to you to be included in a project like Interpretations?
Chaka - I'm really honored. Maurice has contributed so much and this is our way of giving back to him. His impact on music and this industry has been huge. Their music has really inspired me as an artist.

Sheila - That's really interesting to hear you say that because you don't really think about how artist whom are pretty much peers would inspire one another. Would you want an Interpretations project such as this one done of your music?
Chaka - Sure. I'd say, go for it.

Sheila - Who would you pick to be on it?
Chaka - Well I know I'd pick Ledisi but that's a hard question because there is so much good talent out there today. As with the EWF project the challenge comes in trying to make that song your own.

Sheila - By the way, I love what you did with RESPECT for the Aretha Franklin tribute. Not that I was surprised because I know who you are but you are right in that there are times when people remake someone's song and the magic is lost and then there are some songs that just don't need to be remade.
Chaka - I absolutely agree. I have people suggest to me all of the time that I should remake a song and I tell them, 'Hey, that's been done already'.

Sheila - I noticed that with your jazz album, all of the songs still had your special touch to it. It honored those songs but it had your signature.
Chaka - That's the only way I can do it. It has to be my way and I've been blessed to have the music in me allowing me to do that.

Sheila - That's a gift.
Chaka - Yes, it really is.

Sheila - Its a great achievement for Maurice White and the other EWF members to be celebrating 37 years of history making music and the years alone are quite an accomplishment.
Chaka - Well, I dropped my first project in 1973. It wasn't too long after them.

Sheila - What event would you say has been your greatest accomplishment?
Chaka - Working with Miles Davis. That's something that I'll always cherish. I guess right now it would be working with Ramsey Lewis.

Sheila - Now I'm skipping ahead of my questions but are you working on a project?
Chaka - Yeah, I'm in the studio right now.

Sheila - Wonderful. I would love to do whatever I can to help with the promotions, not that you probably even need it.
Chaka - Oh that would be great. I appreciate that and I want you to call my office and work that out.

Sheila - I sure will. I have to tell you that I'm not musically inclined but I love the music and I do what I do because I love the music.
Chaka - If it wasn't for you, what good would I be? If it wasn't for people like you, where would the artist be? It's those journalist like you and your willingness to support our projects that helps us to get and stay where we are.

Sheila - Oh thank you so much for saying that. I do what I do especially for veteran artist like you. Your contribution to Interpretations is your giving thanks to Maurice and EWF and my supporting projects like this is my thanks for all of the contributions that you wonderful artist have made to music. All to often I hear people complain about the music but it's those same people that won't go out and purchase the music of those artist that they claim they love so much.

Chaka - That's so true and I'm so blessed, really to still be in the mix but that's why I can't listen to the radio.

Sheila - It's difficult. Really it is but I say thank GOD for advances in technology because we don't have to listen to the radio. We can research out our favorite artist and purchase their music without having to wait for the radio to play their songs. When I interviewed Alexander O'Neal, I asked him to imagine how much farther his career would have been if he had been privy to the technology that is out today and he said to me that in the earlier days of his career, Black artist weren't even allowed to cross over.

Chaka - Now that's just too much to even think about.

Sheila - Well with technology; for example do you have a Myspace page?

Chaka - Yeah I do. I also have a message board on my website and once a month, I go on and I chat with people.

Sheila - REALLY?

Chaka - Yeah.

Sheila - Do they know it's you?

Chaka - Yep. I got my website and I interact with my subscribers. The truth of the matter is that I really don't have the time to be on there everyday. It takes up so much time.

Sheila - Yes it does. I've had conversations with some of my industry friends regarding how they can use technology to their advantage. For example, many of them have thousands of fans particularly on Myspace. That's technology at its finest. Look at Prince. I tell you that man is the truth. He was the first to take full advantage of technology. I swear, a college needs to have a Prince class and study this man because he is so brilliant.

Chaka - Yes, he is the best. As you know I've worked with him. I'm with you about technology. Very soon I am going to be auctioning off those suede pants that I wore on the Sweet Thing album. You know the ones I had on sitting on the lip couch.

Sheila - Get outta here.

Chaka - No really, I am.

Sheila - Do you know that is my favorite cover of yours? I love the whole suede with the feathers. I always have.

Chaka - I recently ran into the guy that designed and made that outfit. I was out in Chicago and we hooked up. He made a lot of my outfits in those days and we talked and decided that we were gonna do something together. We are going to have a line.

Sheila - You most definitely should because I love the leather pieces that you wear. They are always so unique and I know that you've always worn leather.

Chaka - Thank you.

Sheila - Chaka, I can talk to you for hours. I am really enjoying this conversation. I almost forgot that I was conducting an interview but I don't want to take up too much of your time. This has been so beautiful and I thank you for taking the time to talk to me.

Chaka - Sheila, anytime and I look forward to talking to you again. GOD bless you.

Sheila - Same to you.

Visit Chaka Khan on her official website at http://www.chakakhan.com and stay tuned for her new project!

© 2007 Sheila Chadwick for Word On The Street October 21, 2008

Chaka's still got it!

Chaka's Grammy-winning return to the music scene, shows that she's still got it! Hard to believe that it's been almost 10 years; way too long to go with a voice like hers. The tracks that I liked the most were all the original material; so with that said I believe that the inclusion of Beyonce & Mary J. Blige was unnecesary because she did not need them. Her voice is soo strong and doesn't need any other voices to distract from hers.
Overall I enjoyed the CD and all of Chaka listeners should agree that she has a voice worth waiting for. September 6, 2008

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!

If you don't already own this one, you MUST purchase it! This is the hottest Chaka production to come out in a few years. She is singing her face off! The new material is terrific and the covers are just as wonderful. Sung by anyone else these songs would be lackluster and mediocre at best, but in Chaka's extremely capable hands (or should I say, "vocal chords") each song takes on a life all its own. July 30, 2008

This is the funk-soul siren's creative rebirth.

Chaka makes her best and funkiest album for over two decades, and her powerful voice -- that first hit the airwaves with Chicago funk band Rufus in the 1970s and punched out the mighty "Ain't Nobody" and "I'm Every Woman" in the 1980s-- on this recording shines throughout.
"Funk This", which debuted at number 15 on America's top 200 album chart - her highest chart position since her first solo album in 1978 peaked at number 12 - is a return to Khan's purity.
Recorded in analogue, it's how she sounded before the "I Feel for You"-style disco anthems of the '80s.
The album opens with an autobiographical song she co-wrote with Terry Lewis. Over the slap-wristflick of retro-funk, Chaka recalls growing up fast in "Chi-town" where her "Momma was strict about them kids".
The vocals are tight and scratchy-raw. They capture the pent-up frustrations of a young girl whose curfew meant she was "Missing the funk of the night".
The mid tempo dancer "Back In The Day" has that Rufus sound to it, and that is also evident in the covers of two Rufus classics "Pack'd My Bags/You Got The love" featuring Tony Maiden.
The funky mid tempo dancers "Superlife" , "Sign Of The Times" and "Hail To The Wrong" keep up the pace, whilst the melodic mid tempo floater "One For All Time" is also classy.
Most of Khan's musical heroes are women: she's particularly effusive on the subject of her friend Joni Mitchell, who she says is "a genius and always just a beat away from funk." The new album features a cover of Mitchell's "Ladies' Man", on which Khan pours the ache of personal experience into lines such as: "Couldn't you just love me like you love cocaine?"
The beat ballads "Angel" and the raunchy version of "Foolish Fool" are also good. On "Angel", Chaka works through of her own drug use. "Troubled little angel," she sings "inconsistent flying blind most of the time/ Drama Queen/ Preening and untangling the feathers in her wings/ Captured by her dreams desperately she sings".
"Funk This" is a mixture of originals and covers of some of the best Rhythm and Blues, Funk, Blues, and Soul music from the past thirty to forty years.
One of the songs to show off her delicacy of touch is her cover of the Jimi Hendrix's "Castles Made Of Sand". A mid-tempo song about the impermanence of dreams and the dangers of living in a fantasy world, where Ms. Khan utilizes her voice to help generate a mood appropriate to the song.
This song is also a good example of her ability to put the song ahead of her ego instead of making it about her and her talents. While younger, less mature singers will look for any excuse to unload pyrotechnics and show off their abilities, Chaka is content to let the mood of the song dictate her performance. Listening to her duet with up- and-coming powerhouse singer Mary J. Blige on the most exciting track of the album "Disrespectful" that difference is made perfectly clear. The song is a Blige composition.
"It's the kind of song two women can really sing together," says Khan, who admits that when she listens to the track now she can hardly tell where her voice ends and the younger singer's begins.
You certainly wouldn't want to be the man on the receiving end of this duo. As the jerky beat smacks you round the face, Blige and Khan take total control of the song and the relationship it describes. "You can't make me lose my mind," they roar. "I'm too strong for you".
Also amazing is Chaka's versatility as a singer as demonstrated by the range of material that "Funk This" has to offer : from the full throttle Funk of the opening track "Back In The Day" to the ballad "Angel".
She shows that slowing the pace down does nothing to detract from her sincerity as a singer.
Too often people with strong voices become stentorian when faced with a ballad and equate emotion with loudness and straining for the upper regions of the scale.
Music icons like Chaka Khan are often stifled by the pressures of delivering a successful album to their fans.
"Funk This" is an album for all skeptics.
Through the preparation for this album, Chaka has admitted that she has "been on a little journey in the last few years".
Sometimes the path to re-discovery leads us back to where originally we began. Chaka Khan's "Funk This" reminds us why we fell in love with her over 30 years ago.
The reason is because she's hopelessly...FUNKY ! July 10, 2008

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