Lost, Found and Famous
(Published on Oakbook.com 2007)
By Kwan Booth
A year ago, trying to get an interview with former Oakland songbird Ledisi would have been as simple as picking up the phone and dialing the same 510 phone number she’s had since 1995. Let’s say that was during her “lost” period. In the twelve months since however, she’s been found-in a big, big way.
First Verve Records “found” her and released her major label debut Lost and Found in late August. Then the Grammy Foundation”found” her and nominated her for two of it’s most prestigious awards. Finally Hollywood, mainstream media and seemingly the entire music listening world discovered the singer who’s been one of soul music’s best kept secrets for over a decade. Just try getting that simple phone interview now.
“I’ve never had this much work before,” says the excited singer when she finally gets a second, “whenever I do one thing, ten things come with it.” A quick look at her recent schedule-including a cameo in the George Clooney flick Leatherheads, gigs singing for Tom Cruise and Will Smith and appearances through the end of the year at major festivals around the country-is proof that the secret is finally out. And everyone involved with the songstress thinks it’s about damned time.
For the last 10 years the singer, whose name means “to bring forth” in the Nigerian Yoruba language, has been bringing a sizzling gumbo of lovelorn R&B, juke joint funk and straight ahead jazz to music lovers from the Bay Area and beyond. She’d gained a loyal following, kudos from heavyweights including Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan and Rachelle Farrell and released two critically acclaimed independent CD’s (2000’s Soul Singer and 2002’s Feeling Orange But Sometimes Blue), but says she was getting fed up with the daily grind and the constant pressures to fit into an industry that favors image over talent. “I was trying to listen to everyone else-‘lose this amount of weight and do this with your hair and you can be the next this’ and I was like ‘eww’.”
“People knew me but they didn’t know what to do with me” she says of the execs who told her to change her style and look to appeal to a larger audience. “I’ve been proving for years that there was a market for me and that I know my audience and I know how to sell my records but I felt like I was going to quit because I was being forced to be put into a box.”
So in 2004, with intentions of working in theater, she packed her bags, locked the doors to her east Oakland home and made the move to New York. Once in the Big Apple however, despite receiving love from audiences nationwide, she was surprised to find that the city that never sleeps had apparently slept through her previous successes. “I came in there like “What do you mean? I’m Ledisi. I done sold records, and they were like “Child, please!'”
Being forced back into the rat race of constant auditions and call backs was stressful, but ultimately proved to be her saving grace. “It kicked my butt,” she confesses, “but it really taught me a lot. It really helped me.”
It also got her a recording contract. Through work on a tribute album for the late Luther Vandross, Ledisi’s voice caught the ear of Verve Records-a powerhouse jazz label with a roster that includes legends like Herbie Hancock and Ella Fitzgerald. Although she’d been writing material for Lost and Found for months, the deal gave her the encouragement to get back in the studio.
She says that the new album, in addition to being her coming out party to a larger audience, is a proclamation announcing that she’s found herself, is comfortable in her own skin and is officially back in the game-fully formed and ready for the success that’s finally coming her way.
“I have my armor now and I know what I’m dealing with and I can fit in any room and I don’t care anymore” she says of her new found confidence. “I want to learn from you.”
The opening lines of “Been Here,” Lost and Found’s opening track, let’s listeners know that the honey voiced singer has been pushing for herself for a long time. “I been waiting for y’all understand/I’ve been waiting for y’all to clap your hands/I been waiting on you, waiting for you/Cause I been here, all the time.”
Sounds like the wait is finally over, that is, unless you’re hoping for an interview.
