By Micheal Marsh
Kim Waters latest CD project, “You Are My Lady”, released March 27, 2007, on the Shanachie Records label, was a slight disappointment for me. It’s an okay CD, but I was expecting more from Waters after his last few releases. Waters begins his set with a cover of a Ne-Yo’s, “So Sick”. This tune is primarily an instrumental tune with Timmy Maia singing the chorus in the background. Waters’ version is okay, but not earthshattering. Next up is the Marvin Gaye classic “Got To Give It Up”. This one really rocks, and it would have been my favorite cut on the CD if Waters had stretched it out for 11 or 12 minutes, like Marvin Gaye did on the original song. Waters’ version of "Got To Give It Up" only goes for four and a half minutes, and I found that to be very disappointing. With the third cut, Waters covers the Roberta Flack/Donny Hathaway classic “The Closer I Get To You”. Lisa Fischer adds her sweet voice on this one, and she sounds real nice with Waters sax in the background. With the fourth cut, Waters presents us with his first original song, a jamming number entitled “Flying High”. This one is my favorite cut on the CD, as Waters really cuts loose on this one. The fifth cut is another Waters original selection, “Two Keys To My Heart”. This one is very slow and mellow, almost dragging along. It’s okay, but doesn’t move me very much at all. On the next track, Waters picks up the pace a little bit with a real nice mellow groove, entitled “Sweet Romance”. Next up, Waters covers an old Freddy Jackson classic, “You Are My Lady”, the title cut of the CD. This is another slow dragger, with background vocals provided by Selena Gibbs. The lovers in the house will probably like it, but it didn’t move me that much. Next up comes “East Coast Strollin’ “, which is a pretty nice upbeat jam, with some interesting background guitar accompaniment provided by “Wa Wa” LeGrand. Track nine is another cover tune, on which Waters provides his saxophone version of the Natalie Cole classic, “Inseparable”. I definitely liked Ms. Cole’s version much more, as I found Waters’ version to be a little on the bland side. Waters ends his CD project with a vocal/instrumental number, “I Want You Tonight”. Waters plays all the instruments on this one, and provides all of the vocals. This one is another slow dragger, but unlike the other ones on the CD, I like this one, as it has a very erotic flavor to it.
Overall, I give Kim Waters three and a half stars out of a possible five. I like half of the CD a lot, but it’s that other half that pulls it down from what it could have been.
Michael Marsh is the jazz reviewer for TNCP. To make contact, you may e-mail him at tmarshmellow@aol.com for review.
