It would be too easy to just list each song on Nicki Richards’ latest release Love Life (half of a two-part album, with its conclusion It’s Complicated coming soon). While the gifted singer-songwriter casually muses on romance, culture, and society, what may go underappreciated is the quality and richness of the work that went into it. Here are some specific reasons Nicki Richards is due for her first Grammy nomination:

1. Musicianship

It’s as if she were meant to be surrounded by the most skilled musicians living because her albums seem to attract them every time. While interviewing bassist-extraordinaire Marcus Miller, drummer Lenny White, and vocalist Take 6’s Mark Kibble, about their involvement on Love Life, I noted that together the expert sidemen singing her praises had 13 Grammys between them. And that doesn’t take into account multiple wins by world-class bassist Christian McBride who. Or the layered contributions by Will Lee, Cyrus Chestnut, Emilio Modesto, Marcus Machado, Bashiri Johnson, and the list goes on!

2. Femme Forward

A vote for Richards is a vote for capable women in charge. Since the release of her self-titled Nicki in 2008, all of her projects have been under the umbrella of a female-owned, female-affirming independent business: her own label Hydrus Music. That growing discography has been self-funded, self-produced, and not shy on implementing female musicians like Rachelle Garniez, Amanda Homi, Carolyn Leonhart, and Catherine Russell. And let’s not neglect Richards’ multi-instrumentalist contributions playing keyboards, bass, flute, and even glockenspiel on Love Life.

3. Artistry and Songcraft

Nothing here is thrown together. Taking her time to develop and nurture her songs, Richards had the luxury to only release this ambitious project into the world when she felt ready. It’s apparent on the delicately constructed “Here Is My Heart,” a commissioned rewrite of Lenny White’s “Dedication.” And do not miss her hauntingly-reimagined Joni Mitchell cover “Sweet Bird” turned from its original acoustic state into an ornately waltzed, French jazz pinnacle.

4. Passion

Heart comes through loud and clear on Love Life. Whether singing of her roots and upbringing on “New Orleans,” or seeding a second-line procession on the inspirational “Anything,” she commits 100%. Whether she’s dressing down mixed messages from an unsavory suitor on “Heartstrings,” or hyping up the plusses of a good one on “It’s Your Thang,” Richards makes you believe it.

5. Engineering

Her status as an independent meant no short change on technical quality. Love Life was carefully engineered by Yaron Fuchs in Dolby Atmos, accessible via Apple Music for an immersive listening experience in your headphones, vehicle, or home for a dimensional profile that registers as tall and expansive.

6. Legacy

Richards’ has had a well-stamped passport with the best in music, sharing stages and studios with the likes of Mariah Carey, Madonna, Tina Turner, Celine Dion, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder. Even before then, she honed her chops with jazz greats like the late Joe Sample. With the full blessing of his estate, she’s reinterpreted one of his tunes as her elegant single “You Become More Beautiful.”

7. Fusion

Diversity is a strength, and Richards’ broad influences ranging from funk to jazz to zydeco and back inform the fertile soulfulness of Love Life. Her R&B is anything but cookie cutter conformity. Keeping these subgenres active and alive is critical to maintaining the tradition of American music. Speaking of which…

8. Education

Richards isn’t just a performer, but also an educator. Somehow, between writing, production, and juggling tours with Christopher Cross and Steely Dan, she still manages to invest in the next generation of creatives as a professor in vocal performance at both The New School and New York University. It’s not only Wu-Tang that’s for the children!

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If you are a voting member of the Recording Academy, you can find Nicki Richards and Love Life eligible in the following categories:

Love Life
• Best R&B Album
• Best Immersive Audio Album
• Best New Artist
• Album Of The Year

Tether Me (featuring Mark Kibble)
• Best R&B Performance
• Best Arrangement, Instrumentals and Vocals
• Record Of The Year

New Orleans (featuring Philip Richards)
• Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
• Song Of The Year

Anything (featuring Ivan Neville)
• Best Traditional R&B Performance

Here Is My Heart (with Christian McBride, Lenny White, Cyrus Chestnut)
• Best Jazz Performance

Heartstrings
• Best R&B Song

Heartstrings (Eric Kupper Remix)
• Best Remixed Recording

[First round nominations take place from October 3rd to October 15th this year.]

One of En Vogue’s best singles has gotten short shrift for much too long and is overdue for a second look. Twenty-five summers ago, their underappreciated 1997 single “Whatever” arrived, chasing the biggest shake-up they’ve ever weathered. We may never know what kept it from the #1 it could have been, but we can marvel at the pop-soul pinnacle it still is.

Starting with a bang

First off, the song slaps. Like so many hip-hop based ’90s R&B hits, its thump is borrowed — this time from the LL Cool J obscurity “Life As…” (1994). Written and produced by Babyface and Giuliano Franco, “Whatever” proved an excellent vehicle for the newly minted trio. Its careful arrangement allows standout moments for Cindy Herron’s confident soprano, Terry Ellis’ compelling, crystalline falsetto, and Maxine Jones’ brassy, expressive alto.

Their minimal and effective “bummm-bummm-bummm” harmony gives just enough callback to a cappella features of “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” or “Hold On” without becoming retreads of them. The song was so efficiently constructed, it didn’t feel like a fourth singer was missing at all.

“Whatever” is virtually flawless, but surrounding trouble stained the music. Dawn Robinson’s unceremonious departure jolted the group at a critical time while they were evolving their look and sound. The loss was not just sad but also terribly distracting, as if gunfire had gone off in the theater just before you’re due to come on stage and entertain. It just makes a hard job harder.

Something wicked this way comes

En Vogue elected to put attention back on their new music with an extravagantly freakish music video directed by Matthew Rolston, the visionary behind their iconic clips for “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” and others.

In it, the ladies embrace being a threesome not by invoking The Supremes, but the garish allure of the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus with a dash of The Witches of Eastwick. The treatment was provocative and intrepid like Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” but with much less abject terror.

Cloaked in green hues, the distorted lens settles on the office of a demented dentist or black market doctor who performs unethical experiments. Herron appears first, singing with jagged curls and stark eye shadow — her flamboyant gestures part high fashion, part psychosis. Ellis performs pale-faced and emotionless as an undead ingenue, while viced in an intimidating metal contraption. Jones showboats her shimmering voice in a chic, angular suit and a purple birds’ nest of witchy hair.

All are glamorously cold and unsettling in their coven couture. Famed choreographer Frank Gatson is responsible for their sexy, synchronized lurch punctuated with hair flails. It’s entrancing and disturbing. Not until the end of the clip do we discover this house of horrors is actually… a beauty salon.

The concept may have been too high-minded for its audience. It would be two decades before Jordan Peele’s Get Out stoked renewed interest in Black horror films. Perhaps the message got lost in the medium.

The ugly truth

The zombiesque surgeons and attendants working in the salon are actually satirizing the brutality of cosmetic surgery. By linking beauty, pain, and horror, these ladies make passive but pointed commentary on the cruelty of beauty standards for women. The contraption Ellis was screwed into isn’t fictional. That beauty micrometer was invented by Max Factor in the 1930s to scientifically measure how imperfect a woman’s face is. Its existence is an affront to self-esteem. And why do Herron, Ellis, and Jones look as if they’ve lost their minds in the midst of it all?

“I may be a fool for you, baby
Well, I can’t help myself
Maybe I’m too in love
What else can I do but go crazy?”

Babyface’s deceptively simple lyrics illustrate how one can lose themselves to love addiction. Herron’s opening line (“I’m wanting you too much”) is typical of relationships with dramatic power imbalances. When Ellis chirps with palpable fragility “do take care, please be gentle with my heart,” it speaks to an emotional vulnerability that can be a good thing in the right hands, and terrible in the wrong ones. With all these factors at play, yes, one might sometimes do “crazy” things for love.

Change it up

The high-concept video played well on MTV, but EastWest dropped the ball by not furnishing an alternate version for the Tumblin’ Dice Remix featuring Ol’ Dirty Bastard. This redux casts EV3’s breathy, passionate vocals over a well-heeled sample of Sequence’s “Funk You Up.” On paper, the combination seems odd, but ODB was perfect for the song’s madcap undercurrent. Frankly, his appearance is a miracle. Have you ever read how hard it was to get his verse recorded for Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy”?

The remixes of “Whatever” prepared it for every format. Mousse T’s remix crossed bluesy guitar with the feel of Toni Braxton’s “You’re Makin’ Me High.” Towa Tei, Lemon D. and Roni Size pull the song into atonal dubstep and drum-n-bass territories. The Tuff Jam and Mucho Soul house remixes add dimension while keeping Dawn’s elsewhere-removed vocals intact.

The label seemed well-prepared to make this single the success it could be, but it only reached Top 10 on most Billboard charts. Though certified gold, something still held it back. Was it Dawn’s nth-hour abandonment? Was it too pop for BET? Too Black for MTV? Did EastWest lose faith in EV3 and withdraw full support? It definitely wasn’t the song’s fault. These three women turned in an immaculate performance under extreme stress from within and outside their group. These ladies deserve a proper ovation for delivering a compelling art piece that, like them, has yet to show its age.

This is a companion to my 25th anniversary retrospective tribute to En Vogue’s EV3 album written for Albumism.

I am “Donnie Simpson made me buy this” years old. As host of BET’s Video Soul, Simpson was an R&B gatekeeper. His green eyes twinkled as he exclaimed with Baptist preacher fervor that Patti LaBelle’s new album was on fire! Though always complimentary in general, his passion for Patti came across differently. Burnin’ was released October 1, 1991 and he had this preteen convinced I needed to purchase it immediately.

In those days, compact discs were still sold in 12-inch longboxes so they had the visibility of vinyl LPs. Marc Raboy’s cover shot framed her in a corona of cherry and gold gradients. The flawless art with its iconic flame logo was an exclamation point, a bow tied on a Christmas gift. It became something I could not wait to open.

If you didn’t know, Patti LaBelle can sing the fine print on medication with death listed as its first side effect and you’d still buy it. Her dramatic soprano can make you get up, shout, run around, and throw something. For such a world class instrument, her albums haven’t always collected her best material, but the stars aligned for Burnin’.

For this first project of the 1990s, LaBelle called upon Michael Stokes, Prince, Bunny Sigler, James “Budd” Ellison, and Michael J. Powell (the mastermind behind Anita Baker’s Rapture) to handle production. With hits like “Lady Marmalade” and “New Attitude” on her resumé, she could have rested on those laurels, but her drive persisted. Burnin’ was the focused volley of a champion voice with still more to prove.

That voice becomes a divining tool on the uptempo lead single and opening track “Feels Like Another One” (R&B #3, Dance #17). When she sings “a premonition in my bones / I can sense it,” we become clairvoyant by extension. Rapper Big Daddy Kane’s 24 guest bars get even more mileage on the remix that trades drums and horns for breakbeats, crowd chants, and a sample of En Vogue’s “You Don’t Have To Worry.” On both versions, LaBelle’s descending, banshee-like, chromatic run utterly thrills.

Back when a slow jam could still dominate radio, “Somebody Loves You Baby (You Know Who It Is)” (R&B #2) gave reason to call the DJ and make a dedication to your secret crush. Philly soul alumnus Sigler hit it out of the park for LaBelle as he did previously on “Love, Need, and Want You.” This time, only Vanessa Williams’ juggernaut “Save The Best For Last” could keep it out of the #1 spot on the R&B charts. In 2008, Plies would turn the fan favorite into his own inspirational hip-hop anthem.

Speaking of inspiration, everyone knows this Philadelphia native is never far from the sacred even while secular. This is evident on her third single, “When You’ve Been Blessed (Feels Like Heaven)” (R&B #4), a team effort with Ellison, Sigler, Nona Hendryx, “From a Distance” songwriter Julie Gold, and LaBelle herself co-writing. Rather than send you to church, this 6/8, gospelesque stunner — outfitted with a mass choir — brings church to you. Never one to leave emotion unelicited, her multioctave crescendo launches the anthem skyward as only she can.

The fourth and final single was the charming “When You Love Somebody” (R&B #70). Its optimistic promise of fidelity is a ray of sunshine. As a tease, buttery Luther Vandross ad-libs peek-a-boo from the background throughout.

Of all its producers, Ellison shaped Burnin’ most. He has been employed on every project since co-writing the rollicking “What Can I Do For You?” for Nightbirds (1974), the Epic debut of LaBelle-Hendryx-Dash. It’s only fitting he would oversee their reunion on “Release Yourself.” The trio performed the churning Hendryx composition during Live In New York, a concert filmed to promote Burnin’ at the historic Apollo Theatre where they began in the 1960s as Patti LaBelle & The Blue Belles.

One of the brightest flares on record is the sensuous, haunting “I Hear Your Voice.” A sotto voce Prince murmurs “out… of… the lonely blue” and then boom — the smoldering midtempo opens with an 808 down low, and a twittering synth like a whippoorwill above. NPG singer Rosie Gaines provides backing vocals while LaBelle’s falsetto glides down into the first verse. Originally penned by Prince, Gaines, and her husband Frances Jules for her ultimately-shelved Concrete Jungle project, it fits well here. Like LaBelle’s previous Prince collaboration “Yo Mister,” “I Hear Your Voice” is electrifying. Listen to Prince’s original demo to hear how much LaBelle made it her own.

As with Gladys Knight’s “Superwoman” cover earlier in 1991, LaBelle joins Knight again for the ironically titled “I Don’t Do Duets.” The clever lyric (by “The Way We Were” writers Marilyn and Alan Bergman with Marvin Hamlisch) details two women dating men who fear commitment. The divas downshift to give the adult contemporary showcase only as much feeling as needed. Restraint is a beautiful color on them both.

Occupying the lane opened by “On My Own,” Burnin’ includes an even bigger pop summit with blue-eyed soul singer Michael Bolton. When Bolton first composed “We’re Not Making Love Anymore” with Diane Warren in the wake of a painful divorce, he gave it to Barbra Streisand who turned it platinum in 1989. When he recorded his own version for Time, Love & Tenderness (1991), he chose LaBelle as his partner. That recording sits proudly in the Burnin’ track list, showing off each vocalist’s best facets.

It’s not LaBelle’s first Diane Warren ballad either. Her original 1989 reading of “If You Asked Me To” fashioned the template Celine Dion would follow in 1992, but tragically LaBelle had to film its music video the same day her youngest sister Jaqueline Holte Padgett was laid to rest. LaBelle reconciles with that grief on the consolatory and uplifting “Love Never Dies.”

Towards the end, she sings a bit of “Isn’t It A Shame,” the last song recorded by LaBelle, Hendrix, and Dash prior to disbanding in 1976. Patti LaBelle again sang “Isn’t It A Shame” with Sarah Dash on stage only days before Dash’s unexpected passing September 20, 2021. The hopeful sentiment of “Love Never Dies” yet applies in the wake of that heartbreaking loss (“While it’s true I had to grieve / In my heart I do believe / we’ll meet again”).

All the blood, sweat, and tears that went into this effort earned a Top 10 placement on the Billboard R&B Albums chart. By April 28, 1992, the RIAA had certified Burnin’ as a gold-seller, and the Recording Academy honored LaBelle with her first GRAMMY win for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. She remarks in her 1996 memoir Don’t Block The Blessings, “I would have taken that award if I had been nominated in the category of Best Male Vocal Performance. I just wanted a Grammy[…] It was fitting that Burnin’ would be the album that would capture [it].”

LaBelle’s win was tied with newcomer Lisa Fischer for her debut So Intense. Breakout notwithstanding, Fischer can be heard alongside Vandross as a backing vocalist on “When You Love Somebody.” LaBelle happily welcomed her to the stage to share their moment. Fischer arrived in a feathered frock echoing the outrageous costumes that made LaBelle such an iconic group.

The win was well-deserved. Rarely have so many highlights assembled on the same disc. Singles from Burnin’ provided her most impressive chart activity since “On My Own” went #1 in 5 countries. LaBelle would record several more Top 10 R&B sets that decade, but if you could only choose one, Burnin’ would be the choice to make. The way she seamlessly melded gospel, soul, and pop made it the most potent and cohesive collection in her discography. This is no surprise. Donnie Simpson has never lead me wrong yet.