BeatRoute Magazine BC Edition November 2018

MUSIC REVIEWS
Charles Bradley
Black Velvet
Daptone Records/Dunham Records
Just as early hip hop was built off the beats of both
classic, and underground soul groups from the mid-
60’s into to early 70’s, Charles Bradley’s final album,
Black Velvet, is a compiled retrospective of Bradley’s
recording career, and his decade-spanning work with
producer Tommy ‘TNT’ Brenneck and the players and
crew at Daptone Records in Brooklyn, New York.
Bradley’s soul was the real deal, a vocalist who hit
certain notes that only a few before him could hit
with such conviction. Bradley’s voice was a conduit
to his heart, as much as it was a unique instrument.
His tone split through the mix over grooves that
always had that slow-riding bounce, head bobbing
in a long Impala while the additions of percussion,
and the horns never sounded digital. Considering the
serendipitous nature of living, it’s both to Daptone’s,
and Bradley’s good fortune that they found each
other. The rotating cast of sidemen whose recording
room and techniques have resulted in some of this
era’s most classic-sounding wile forward thinking
soul music found a vocalist who was as warm as the
sound their music created, and Bradley, whose mix
of wailing Bobby Bland, elemental James Brown, and
sincerity of Sam Cooke needed the best elements of
uncluttered mid-60s Memphis soul along with the
cinematic quality of funk in the early 70s.
Among Black Velvet’s ten cuts, there isn’t one spot
where the horns have a manufactured digital warmth,
the kick drum sets the pace while the rest of the kit
has an airy, distant feel so common to old records
where everyone played in one room, quiet enough to
catch the mic bleed of a bit of everything. The bass
is punchy, but dialled back in the midrange, creating
a melodic thump, with lyrical lines throughout but
never upsetting the groove. Some players just have
that feel on bass, how long to sustain a note, and
when to mute another in passing, to give the beat
its lower melodic push. There might not be a better
live room anywhere currently than in Brooklyn at
Daptone records.
“Can’t Fight The Feeling” brings shots on the
downbeats with Bradley hitting those James Brown
moans and oh’s each time, while the horns rise and
fall in between with a guitar hook that sounds just
like jelly moves. The band settles into a vamp with
slight organ backing, with Bradley taking the lead,
his churchy, uplifting lines over a chord run that
gradually leads to the chorus. There’s a rave up break
in the middle with Bradley pleading to his baby,
“Please take a chance on me,” that has a bit of Archie
Bell & The Drells’ “Tighten Up”, though with more
accented push, compared to that cut’s lounge-y flow.
On “Luv Jones”, the mens choir hangs with the horns
though the pre-disco intro, the kind of sound that
defined early 70s pop culture. The verse’s repetitive
lines would make an excellent sample on a hip hop
record, and the groove is a good shaker that blends
in without having to jump out and be the most
distinctive thing.
It’s on “I Feel A Change” that Bradley gets heavy, on
a ballad with dramatic changes in the choruses, the
song accents the attention to detail that Brenneck
put into arranging these cuts, with instruments
maintaining a melodic motif with subtle moves
around those parts, each instrument always in its
place but never feeling shuttered, and invoking an
ever-heightening drama. A lot of records going for
a classic-sounding vibe tend to try these moves, but
can tend to sound a little forced, where the grooves
on Black Velvet leave plenty of room for melodies to
swoop in and out.
The title track is an instrumental, and given
Bradley’s propensity during live performances to
leave the stage and embrace as many people as he
could, sharing his heart and love with everyone he
could find, a cut like “Black Velvet” might make a
great mid-show opportunity for Bradley to commune
with the people. Slow and swaying, One could
imagine Bradley imploring the crowd to love each
other as much as he loved them. “Stay Away” has
some cool fuzz guitar, like Eddie Hazel, or from Burnt
Offering by labelmates The Budos Band, and Bradley’s
cover of Neil Young’s classic country rock standard
“Heart Of Gold” is a cool take on the familiar, Bradley
off-timing the melody just a little, while the horns lay
down Young’s harmonica melody with some jump,
giving an old cut a fresh sound.
Charles Bradley’s story is one of adversity,
persevering through harder conditions than just
about anyone who can afford to go to the record
store might have to, finding strength and love in
music, and letting those things lead his path. He
shared those parts of himself with everyone who
listened to his records and saw him play, and cut
some of the defining soul music of our era, and Black
Velvet being his final, posthumous record makes
excellent contribution to that canon. While young
cats like Leon Bridges and Curtis Harding deftly take
up the sound of classic soul, their time to define
will come. With his producer Tommy Brenneck, his
contemporaries Sharon Jones and Lee Fields, and
the ace crew of musicians rolling tape at Daptone in
Brooklyn, Charles Bradley was able to live a dream
musically, and make music that helped reinvigorate
an essential sound for his time.
• Mike Dunn
• Illustrated by Vince Lin
November 2018 27