From singing on Broadway and teaching voice in Berkeley to performing around the globe, having the guts to compose and manufacture her own soul-baring music, and the good fortune of being born in New Orleans (soul music central) to two fine singers (and a drummer for a step daddy to boot), Ledisi extends from roots any artist would proudly claim. Lost and Found marks the next level ascent of a trained, tried and true artist for whom the underground was a nurturing cocoon. Now…watch this black butterfly soar.
Ledisi (means to bring forth in Nigerian) was born in the Big Easy where she sang with New Orleans Symphony Orchestra when she was eight years old and spent many adolescent hours watching her mom perform with a local R&B band, often in a nearby park. After the family relocated to Oakland, CA, Ledisi followed her mom's lead and sang in a local band but left to form her own group and identity. She's most noted for her continuous performances in +Beach Blanket Babylon, a long running San Francisco-based cabaret that features song parodies, celebrity impersonations, and enormous hats; she got the gig after being nominated for a Shellie award in 1990 for her role as Dorothy in a local version of +the Wiz.
She later formed Anibade, Ledisi's middle name, which depending on what you read means "to bring forth luck" or "my mother is great" in Yorubu. The players are: Sundra Manning (keyboards and chief songwriter), Cedrickke Dennis (guitar), Nelson Braxton (bass), Wayne Braxton (saxophone), and Tommy Bradford (drums); while the lineup is similar to Chaka Khan & Rufus, the sound -- on record anyway -- is mellower than Rufus' energized, excellent-engineered sounds. Ledisi sometimes fuses R&B, hip-hop, urban, jazz, and funk in the same pot.
They built a hot reputation in the Bay area at Bruno's, the Black Cat, and Rasselas (local clubs). Fans kept asking about a record so the band cut a demo, "Take Time," that radio station KMEL aired and got a good response; the stroke prompted Ledisi to seek a deal with the major recording companies, all who praise and turned them down in the same breath. Frustrated, but not thwarted, they cut the critically acclaimed Soulsinger and released it on LeSun Records (owned by Ledisi and Sundra), January 1, 2000. "Papa Loved to Love Me" -- a personal account of a father sexually abusing his daughter -- is one of the CD's most riveting and controversial tracks.
The CD has done well without the benefit a major distributor. LeSun's grassroots promotion/publicity campaign has been highly successful, they go beyond the mere artist/company web page and saturate the net with info accompanied by a full gigging plate where they knock 'em dead while promoting and sell their CD, tees, and other items. Amazon ranked Soulsinger number five in Los Angeles (September 2001), and it's popular in Finland, Norway, London, and Amsterdam.
She's done a jazz album with bassist Marcus Shelby for Noir Records -- Shelby's independent based company in San Francisco -- that further illustrates her amazing skills. Her resume includes singing in choirs, performing jazz, and studying opera and piano at the University of California Berkley's Young Musicians Program for five years. She's also done commercials and soundtracks for the Sci-Fi Channel along with appearing on the same stages with some of the world's most beloved entertainers. Andrew Hamilton, All Music Guide
