Chaka Khan, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White – Echoes Of An Era (1982)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 48:47 minutes | 1,74 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | ©
Echoes of an Era is an album by American R&B/jazz singer Chaka Khan, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White, released in 1982 on Elektra Records.
Echoes of an Era sees Khan interpreting jazz standards like Thelonious Monk’s “I Mean You” and Duke Ellington’s “Take the ‘A’ Train”, as well as “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most”, “All of Me”, and “I Loves You Porgy”. The album was originally not released as a Chaka Khan studio album (who was signed to Warner Bros. Records at the time) but as a band collaboration under the moniker Echoes of an Era and with all six performers credited on the album cover.
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Chaka Khan – Chaka (1978/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 43:26 minutes | 1,61 GB | Genre: R&B, Soul, Funk, Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Bros. Records
Chaka is American R&B and funk vocalist Chaka Khan’s debut studio album. The record, originally released in 1978, features Chaka’s iconic single “I’m Every Woman”, as well as “Ain’t Nobody” and “I Was Made to Love Him”.
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Chaka Khan – C.K. (1988/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 44:34 minutes | 535 MB | Genre: R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records
CK is the seventh studio album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on the Warner Bros. Records label in 1988.
CK was Khan’s first album not to be recorded with Arif Mardin, instead it had with the exception of two tracks Russ Titelman at the helm as producer, with whom she had collaborated on hits like “Ain’t Nobody” (1983), “Eye to Eye” from 1984’s platinum-selling I Feel for You as well as “Tight Fit” from her previous album Destiny. Musically CK combined a variety of genres such as soul, R&B, funk, pop as well as two jazz titles and altogether the set was more laid-back, less hip-hop influenced and production-wise not as complex and synth-driven as I Feel for You and Destiny.
Three singles were released from C.K.: Womack & Womack’s Latino-flavoured “It’s My Party” which reached #5 on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart, “Soul Talkin'” and “Baby Me” which became another Top 10 hit on the R&B chart, peaking at #8. The CK album itself also charted higher than the preceding Destiny, reaching #17 on the R&B Albums chart.
CK opens with Khan’s cover of Stevie Wonder’s 1970 hit “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”, again featuring the composer himself on harmonica, just like on “I Feel for You”.
One of the two tracks not to be produced by Russ Titelman was the funky and improvisational “Sticky Wicked”, Khan’s first proper collaboration with Prince after having covered his “I Feel for You” in 1984 and turning it into a million-selling hit single. CK also includes a second Prince composition, “Eternity” (produced by David Frank and Khan herself), and some ten years later Khan and Prince were to team up for a full-length album together, Come 2 My House.
“CK” features one track written and co-produced by Chris Jasper, former member of the Isley Brothers, who was also responsible for writing and producing much of the Isley material from 1973 through 1984 before the Isley Brothers breakup. Jasper can also be heard singing background with Chaka on “Make It Last”.
CK features two recordings of jazz classics that since have become mainstays in Khan’s live repertoire, “The End of a Love Affair”, a tribute to Billie Holiday who first recorded the song on her 1958 album Lady in Satin, and Alec Wilder’s “I’ll Be Around”, the latter with a guest appearance by another legend in the jazz genre, Miles Davis, who in fact also features on the Prince track “Sticky Wicked”.
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Chaka Khan – Destiny (1986/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 47:16 minutes | 1,76 GB | Genre: R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino – Warner Records
Most of the solo albums that Chaka Khan provided in the 1980s are excellent. 1986’s Destiny falls short of perfect, although the LP is impressive more often than not. Many people were surprised to hear how rock-minded much of Destiny is, but then, Khan’s former band Rufus had major rock leanings in the beginning: 1973’s Rufus and 1974’s Rags to Rufus underscored Khan and Rufus’ appreciation of Ike & Tina Turner’s soul/rock and were hardly the work of R&B purists. Nor is Destiny; while some of the material is straight R&B (including “Tight Fit” and the exuberant single “Love of a Lifetime”), Khan successfully combines R&B and rock elements on “My Destiny” and “Who’s It Gonna Be” (which Janice Marie Johnson of A Taste of Honey fame had recorded on a little-known solo album in 1984). And some of the tunes are really more pop/rock than R&B, including “Watching the World,” “The Other Side of the World,” and “So Close.” As much as Destiny has going for it, the LP isn’t without its shortcomings. “Who’s It Gonna Be” would have been better off without the fake applause that producers Arif and Joe Mardin pointlessly added, and the post-bop jazz offering “Coltrane Dreams” (which features saxman Sam Rivers) is too brief for its own good. Rivers, a major talent, doesn’t get a chance to stretch out, and the piece ends up sounding undeveloped, which is quite frustrating because Khan can be a great jazz singer when she puts her mind to it. But while Destiny isn’t perfect, the album has many more pluses than minuses and is easily recommended to both R&B and pop/rock enthusiasts.
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