Allow me to introduce or reintroduce you to Leon Ware. Born and raised in Detroit, the prolific songwriter, producer, and singer naturally joined the Motown family in the 1960's. He was responsible for writing tunes for Motown acts such as The Isley Brothers, The Four Tops, and Michael Jackson. Ware's 1976 Musical Message went through a few changes before it was released. After completing the first version of the album, Leon Ware held a listening party at the home of Marvin Gaye. Marvin fell in love with the album's polished soulful light funk and jazz sounds and asked for the tracks. Ware obliged and Marvin recorded the songs for his intimate I Want You album. Leon Ware was back at the drawing board. He created a new set of songs, Berry Gordy and Marvin requested the tracks as a follow up to I Want You but Ware had other plans and released his masterpiece Musical Message. The highly overlooked album, a standout in the Motown catalogue, served as a blueprint for disco. Today's Soul Tracks selection, 'Comfort (AKA Come Live With Me, Angel),' a song Gaye recorded for I Want You, was not included on the original release but was included as a bonus track on the 2003 re-release. 'Comfort (AKA Come Live With Me, Angel)' is just as sexy as the album cover. Smooth and sensual, the duet with Minnie Riperton is definitely grown folks music.
It's been difficult to find any non-Michael Jackson related content since his early departure last week. However, I was able to come across the beautiful tributes of one artist to some of our beloved soul sisters. Artist Steve Lopez created marvelous paintings of Aretha Franklin, Minnie Riperton, Tina Turner, Sade, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Chaka Khan and India.Arie. Each painting features the lyrics of a particular song in the foreground. If I could afford it, I would buy all of them. A video accompanies the making of each painting. Check out a few of the videos below.
