KEISHA WHITE JAZZ CAFE REVIEW!! (1/2)

The Keisha White that stood before a packed Jazz Café was one of a singer that exuded confidence, grace and tremendous singing capabilities. So captivated were the audience by the soul starlet that when she had finished her last song, chants of ‘Keisha, Keisha, Keisha’ brought her back on the stage once more.

Words by ‘Boywonder’

The stage is something that she is used to and as a 14 year-old school girl, Keisha White found herself standing on a similar stage in front of an audience of music execs. Incredibly, undaunted by the situation, she went on to sing If You Should Lose s Good Thing by Aretha Franklin acapella and blew everyone away. Now 19, she looks fondly on that moment saying, “I remember the song as being one that stood out with the record labels and it was the very first song I ever performed live.” Needless to say, that career defining moment lead to her being signed on the spot and as she sang it for her encore, we could clearly see why.

On her lukewarmly received debut album 17, Ms White went on to experiment with many different music styles, from a rocky debut of Whatcha Gonna Do through to the commercial sounds of Don’t Care Who Knows featuring the rapper Cassidy. Of the debut album she remains poised saying, “It was an experiment and I wanted to show people that I’m capable of numerous styles of music.” However, the disappointing sales of the debut album enabled her to establish a sound that she felt most comfortable in and heralded the arrival of the soulful sounding artist we have now. As she explains “the change in direction musically, was not that I wanted to change from the dance tracks, it was more that the songs I’m singing now work better for me”. Her new sound has resulted in her fan base changing and she is now reaching audiences beyond Channel U and MTV’s TRL. Through her experiences, her vocal ability has been constant and generated much praise with her seen as ‘One to Watch’ and ‘The Next Big Thing’. Of the compliments, she now feels undaunted. “It’s all good now but at first I was thinking that I really need to deliver and it was slightly nerve racking. But I see it as being positive as people know and appreciate what I do”

Now she’s back with her second album, Out of Hands and is ready to remake her mark on the music scene. She was headlining a gig at the jazz café to showcase tracks from the new album which is more in keeping with the song sung by the 14 year-old school girl…

After a nervous start with Complicated Emotions and Brother she soon overcame it with Love is the Deepest Hurt. Dressed in a brown camisole top and white skinny fit jeans, she took a break to thank us all for coming down and clearly couldn’t believe the turnout. After singing on the funk filled, bass guitar rifts of Baby Come to Me she dedicated the next song “for all the lovely ladies out there”. The single, was Out of My Hands (the name of her second LP) and was performed with a confident swagger, which lent perfectly to the haunting piano chords. It generated a very strong crowd reaction whilst What’s On Your Mind translated into pure poetry. To the next song, she ordered everyone to sing and went into her massive top 20 hit The Weakness in Me. Before we were able to give applause, she went into her stand out performance of the night. The ballad was Stronger Man and showed off the depths of her vocal ability to full effect and left us all amazed. It was a definite 10/10 performance and should most definitely be a future release. The gig ended with what will be her latest single I Choose Life and explained how “the words are so beautiful with a powerful message that talks about appreciating life”. The song then turned into a jam session for her and her band and after giving us a massive thank you for coming, she left it to her bands to carry on.

There’s a popular saying that the future is orange, but I now suspect that the future will most definitely be white – Kiesha White.

http://www.myspace.com/officialkeishawhite

http://www.keishawhite.co.uk

Out of My Hands is released on July 3rd on Korova Records

(stay tuned for part 2)