VERNA FRANCIS / “What Kind Of World”

 

I am a country girl at heart. I love nature. I was thinking of the area that I grew up in. As a child I used to climb trees, go fishing in the river, pick blackberries and apples. I visited there recently and all the fields and open spaces that I used to play in as a child had houses, superstores and factories on them. It just felt as though all the open spaces were disappearing. I know we can't change the world, but if we look after our small corner of it, then we can make the world a better place in which to live.
—Verna Francis
http://blog.jazz-not-jazz.com/archives/2005/05/12/an-interview-with-verna-francis/

There are easily a gazillion girls trying to make it as a vocalist in the music industry. Generally, they all have a visual presence, some stronger than others, and they all have some talent, again, some more than others, much more. And they have websites. And they are earnest. And generally have something to say, even it is usually the same something. I mean, after a while, they blur together and it becomes harder and harder to listen for extended periods because the themes of the music, the beats, the way they line out their melodies, it all starts sounding cookie-cutter generic. I don’t want to be snide or insensitive, but it’s hard to get enthusiastic about contestant four thousand, five hundred and sixty-eight….
 
So anyway, here comes Verna Francis, hailing out of England and doing dance music. After checking out some of her tracks on the internet, generally thirty seconds here, occasionally a minute or two there, I decide to spring for her debut project—Down To Earth, a double CD album. I put the second CD in first and by the third track I am bored and about ready to pitch it out the car window: it’s one long, thumping house jam that reprises the cuts from the first CD as an extended dance floor workout. I suppose if one is doing aerobics or an all-night dance marathon this makes sense. Yet every time I reached for the eject button, Verna would lay out a lyric and instead of over-singing, she would under-sing, I mean she didn’t have no histrionics with her, no string of ultra-high notes, no hollering and screaming. There is a quiet strength to her voice that is attractive, but that damn thumping—I can listen to house, but this does not appeal to me. Nevertheless, still she’s singing with a subtle strength I admire.

By the time I put the first CD in the player, I’m almost to my destination, so I don’t really pay attention. Later, much later, something tells me to go back to the album. Specifically, it’s my inner voice telling me, man, you couldn’t have been so stupid as to buy an album you really don’t like. Of course, I’ve got to defend myself, howsoever lamely I rebut the argument: well, you know, when you’re searching for new music, you sometimes make mistakes. We’ve done it before, I say to myself, and we’ll probably do it again. But, my rational self is having none of those lame comebacks: look fool, you listened to some of this, what were you hearing? So I dig the album up and put the first disc in, and damn if I don’t find what I was hearing.
 
And what I was hearing was a combination of broken beat and funk, plus touches of deep house here and there, and very, very interesting lyrics, which Verna wrote. I’m hooked. I end up checking out the first disc for about seven or eight spins—one day that’s the only thing in the CD player all day. Now, I can even listen to the straight-out house second disc without winching. So I realize what it is: I’m a sucker for songwriting. Pretty faces/pretty voices, they are a dime-a-dozen, but songwriting talent, especially moving beyond simple formulas of ‘he done me wrong’/‘he love me strong’/‘mama said…’/‘god saves, trust the lord,’ and a million variations thereon, well, songwriters who can transcend that get my attention.

So, I’ll share four of the ten songs on the album. “Earth Is The Place” is Verna’s remake of a song from a Nathan Haines’ album on which she sang and which became a big club hit. You can virtually hear the sisters shouting the hook: “Cause I’m a woman!” “Keep On Dreaming” and “Look” are two positive, up-ful, love songs whose meanings go far beyond starry-eyed one-on-one, me & you against the world, even though that’s literally what the songs are about. Verna has a talent for articulating the spiritual essence rather than focusing purely on the physical and thus her love songs sound like more than the standard love song. And the last cut is my favorite: “What Kind Of World” which is one of the hippest ecology songs since Marvin’s “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology).

A shout out to the production team of arranger/engineer and beatmeister/percussionist Felix Hopkins, trumpeter Scott Baylis and Verna Francis herself. The three of them co-wrote all of the songs except for “Earth Is The Place.” After this strong debut, I’m looking forward to their next offering.

—Kalamu ya Salaam

 

          I love, love, love the lyrics         

I can relate to a lot of what your saying. I dig Verna’s tune-smithing a lot. The first track I listened to was “Earth Is The Place.” I love, love, love the lyrics. (“I feel when I wanna feel / I act real when I wanna act real / I spend what I wanna spend / And I end when I wanna end / ‘Cause I’m a woman!”) I like the muted trumpet solo in the break. I like her vocal style—strong, but playful. (Reminded Asante of Angie Stone, by the way. I wouldn’t have thought of that, but I hear it.) Problem is, I’m not a club person and I hate that beat. It annoys me so much, I really can’t listen to the song. If there’s a funk, or downtempo or broken-beat remix of “Earth Is The Place,” I’d probably dig it a lot.

Now, as for “What Can Of World,” I dig that just the way it is. I’m a sucker for ecology songs, especially the ones that fit into the flow of our normal existence, as opposed to the ones that are redolent of granola-munching, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing tree huggers. (Not that there’s anything wrong with granola-munching, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing tree huggers. They’re actually some of my favorite people. They just shouldn’t be allowed to program the music at parties.) So, yeah, “What Can Of World” is hip, in the same way that recent tracks like Mos Def’s “New World Water” or Ivana Santilli’s “Sun + Moon = Tomorrow” or Erykah Badu’s “Today (Earth Song)” are hip. Young folk spreading the word that we have to love what we got. It’s not deep and it’s not complicated. You wouldn’t trash your own backyard (well, most of us wouldn’t), so by the same line of reasoning, don’t trash our planet. Don’t buy products made by companies that destroy, pollute or use up our finite natural resources. Hell, don’t shit where you eat. That’s what it really comes down to. The end.

—Mtume ya Salaam

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 18th, 2005 at 12:59 am and is filed under Contemporary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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