The Urbane Urbanite

 Dion Parson  Looking for some culture in New York City this holiday weekend? Treat yourself to a night of jazz at the world famous Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola where Grammy Award winning drummer, Dion Parson and The 21st Century Band will be performing  now through September 4. I was in attendance for the kickoff of Dion's 5-day concert series, where he and his ingenious musical crew treated a packed house to a 90-minute set of traditional jazz fused with soulful, islandy sounds. Percussion, saxophone, steel pans, trumpet, piano, bass and Dion on the drums provides for a perfect blend of lively Caribbean rhythms and standard jazz harmonies. Not to be upstaged by the stellar musicians that play in it, the venue itself is a site to behold. Situated inside of the Time Warner Center, Dizzy's offers a vast, elevated view of Central Park and an intimate setting (the walls are lined with b...

I was 8-years-old when I owned my very first album. Up until that point, Mom would purchase singles for me. The first single I ever owned was the Inspector Gadget theme song sampled joint by Bad Boys. And yes, it was a vinyl record. I'm sure Mom still has it. She's a pack rat. But the very first full length album that I not only owned but listened to from start to finish was Tracy Chapman's eponymous debut. The young man who drove the church van would always talk to me about this album that he could not stop listening to. One Sunday, he surprised me with a copy he recorded for me. After church, I ran straight to my tape recorder to give it a listen. Even at the tender age of 8, I could recognize good music when I heard it. I instantly connected with Tracy Chapman , especially the popular single "Fast Car." Backed by a gentle percussion and acoustic guitar arrangement, Chapman narrates a story of loss, hope and despair as her dreams for a better li...

Marsha Ambrosius gained fame as "the songtress" of the five-time Grammy award nominated duo Floetry.  But when the spoken word/lyrical hybrid split in 2007, Ambrosius set her sights on a solo career. After languishing in development hell and leaving Dr. Dre's record label, Aftermath Entertainment, the sexy England native finally drops her first solo album,   Late Nights & Early Mornings , a sensual 13 track set of unapologetic love songs and mellow mood music. A flirty Ambrosius knows exactly what she wants and isn't afraid to say it on "With You," a track she co-wrote with Alicia Keys about the overwhelming lust of a long awaited sexual rendezvous. "When we're on the phone you're giving me directions/Can't even hold the pen straight such anticipation." If you think her silky vocals leave very little to the imagination, wait until you get a load of her moans, groans and sighs.  Her sound effects are what really turn up the ...

Adele is all grown up. Already a hit in the UK,  21 , the follow up to her successful critically acclaimed 2008 debut 19 , is an open book full of brokenhearted memories and candid piano- driven ballads. 21  opens with two mid-tempo songs, the single “Rolling in the Deep” and the track “Rumour Has It,” which features a fiery Adele over a straight drum beat as she proclaims to a former lover that the new woman he's chosen for himself is not a good fit. “She, she ain’t real/she ain’t gone be able to love you like I will/she is a stranger, you and I have history or don’t you remember/sure she’s got it all but baby is that really what you want?” The 22-year-old Grammy winning singer/songwriter effortlessly croons about her life lessons and romantic past with neck-swiveling sass and heartfelt vulnerability. The most personal song on the album is the single “Someone Like You."  Backed by only a hypnotizing piano arrangement, Adele confesses her love to an old boyfriend a...

It's a shame when an artist's personal woes casts a shadow over their talent. Unfortunately, it happens all the time: Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson to name a few. Such is the case for Fantasia. Her third studio album Back to Me hits stores today, only a couple of weeks after she tried to commit suicide in her North Carolina home. Tongues are wagging about her questionable behavior and her romantic life is so deeply submerged in media scrutiny, no one seems to be talking about her stellar new album and the aptly titled, Chuck Harmony produced first single "Bittersweet," which sits at #8 on the Billboard R&B/ Hip-Hop Songs Chart. Fantasia has never sounded better or more in her element than she does on this soulful, R&B throwback of self-serving melodies. We've seen first hand from her candid interview with Oprah to her popular VH1 reality show Fantasia For Real , just how much the season three American Idol winner and Broadway...

There was no way I was going to let the one-year anniversary of Michael Jackson's death pass without paying tribute to him in some way. Like many of you, I have that where-were-you-when-you-found-out memory. I was sitting Indian style in front of my TV, clenching my jaws and biting my nails, trying to ignore the indelible song in my heart that told me the King of Pop was indeed gone. When the news was officially announced, I shed a few tears and pissed off more than a few of my neighbors by blasting my favorite MJ cuts until the wee hours of the morning. To celebrate his music on the one-year anniversary of his death, I present to you my favorite 12 Michael Jackson songs of all time. Putting this list together was no small feat. Asking me to name my favorite Michael Jackson songs is like asking Claire Huxtable which Cosby kid she liked the best. But after several days of deliberation and many hours of head nodding and toe tapping, I was able to come up with a list I...

From the moment Christina Aguilera declared herself a genie in a bottle, on the single of the same name from her 1999 self-titled debut, I was a believer. Her powerhouse voice soared leaps and bounds above that of her Mickey Mouse Club counterpart Britney Spears, who also burst onto the scene at the same time. Aguilera went on to win the Grammy for Best New Artist in 2000, beating out Spears, Kid Rock and Macy Gray.

Last weekend, somehow, I managed to break free from my Snuggie and get off the couch long enough to hit up a hood club in Brooklyn. A quick primer on me and the club: Those days are over. All of that getting dressed, standing in line (I haven't reached "baller status" where I get to cut the line to gain immediate access to the other side of the velvet rope), paying an expensive cover, buying overpriced drinks and dancing to only half of the songs the DJ plays week after week is just no longer appealing to me.

I've never known quite what to do with Kelis. Since she hit the scene with her debut album Kaleidoscope in 1999, I've tried desperately to put her in a box, all-the-while, jamming to her music.