Entertainment
In Brief
tory bind
m hmov
Matty Rich n't been to
film cbool, but he tudied
every film boo he could get
hi h nds on when he decided
t e 17 h w going to be a
filmm ere
That de ci ion w
rompted by the beating of his
brother by ten ids with
ba eball bat who'd gotten
kicked out of a party in the
projects. Matty' brother w
n innocent by tander.
"Straight Out Of Brooklyn"
i Matty's 100 at life in New
Yor' Red Hook Housing
Project. The movie, in a hard,
· unflinching way, tel the story
of a youth desperate to get hi
, family out of the hood,
He paid for the first eight
'minute by using hi mother's
and isters credit cards. He
then ent on ew York's
WUB radio, asking tho e in
· the commWlity to invest. He
got sn,OOO and went to work.
· While editing the film, he met
ro director Jonathan Demme
("Silence Of The Lambs"),
who put him in touch with the
right people in Hollywood.
The movie is a must ee.
- Racism alive
in America
Ask Melba Moore, who
was booed by a crowd of
nearly 40,000 at Giant
Stadium when she sang the
Negro National Anthem, "Lift
Every Voice and Sing" as the
NY INJ Knights football team
competed against a team from
Germany. Her 13-year old
daughter, Charl i watched
tearfully as Melba finished me
song amidst the boos, hisses,
and shouts of "nigger" and
"communist" .
Melba Moore
Hou ton' dad
marrle maid
Whitney Houston's
'77-year old father, John
Houston, recently wed
Barbara Griffith, Whitney'
Trinidadian maid. For a
moment it appeared as though
he and Whitney'S mom, Cissy,
were reconciliating. Not a
chance now.
- Complied by
K •• cen Sark.-
LI.a Collin. contributed
to
rbon copy urrent tr nd and
f ds thi i -m n t am ha r ted
i own powerful ound, deftly c p
tured in th production by J 11 ybean
Johnson nd th group i If on
Me nt to Mint. Coverin a
range of mil temtory fr m t
first in le "A� You Fre " to the
oulful 11 d "Breakin' M Heart"
nd the tender "Forever In Your
Eyes" to the funky groove of tracks
like "True To Thee," "She's a
Honey" and "Do U Wanna" on to
the jazz-tinged "Single To Mingle, "
Mint Condition di play an un
relenting nse of commi tment to
their craft.
Formed in the early 'SO's, Mint
Condition's original members lead
inger/drummer Stokley William ,
guitarist Homer O'Dell ana key
boardi t Larry Waddell. All at
tended S1. Paul Central High
School and ere later joined by fel
low Central graduates, key
boardist/ xophonist Jeff Allen,
keyboardist/guitarist Keri wis
and Chicago native bassist/guitari t
Rick Kinchen.
As reflected in MEANT to be
MINT, the si multi-talented
musicians combined a variety of
influences and experiences. to shape
their own sound. Stokley begarr
playing classic West African instru
ments at the tender age of four,
while O'Dell grew up listening to
his-father play blues bass and sin -
ing with him in a family group.
Larry played in a recording arts
band at school, and mastered key
boards by listening fo jazz greats
like Oscar Peterson and Herbie
Hancock.
EXPOSED TO HIS father
extensive jazz collection, Jeff
MI T CONDITI N MEMBERS (l-r) Ricky K., L wrence Weddell, Keri Le
played keyboards and sax in local
bands throughout his high school
years, and Keri was mastering key
boards, percussion and gui tar while
attending chool. Rick's first and
strongest influence was his family,
all of whom played instruments and
encouraged his interest in music.
Rick developed his skills as a bass
player, influenced by Stanley
Clarke and Louis Johnson of The
Brothers Johnson. He moved to the
Minneapolis/St. Paul area in 1984
and quickly found a musical home
with Mint Condition.
Featured a the 1986 Minnesota
Black Musician Awards program
and building a strong core follow
ing for themselves in a five state
area (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa,
Dakota and Nebraska) as a result of
their dazzling, highly energetic live
Show, Mint Condition came to the
attention of Jimmy Jam & Terry
Lewis as a result of a showcase
performance in Minneapoli in
1989.
The members of Mint Condition
are very clear in articulating their
direction: "What we're 'trying to do
is draw from the wellspring of the
African-American musical tradi
tion," says Stokley. "Our approach
to making this first album was to
focus on r&b but with strong over
tones of funk, jazz, gospel, African
rhythms, a little blues - really, all
kinds of music," adds Keri. Larry
notes, "Everbody in this band con
tributes to the music we make,
bringing his own individual in
fluences into our sound. "
Highlighting tracks from
MEANT to be MINT is no easy task
for the m,embers of Mint Condition,
who w te all twelve songs on the
UKEWISE, "Forever In Your
Eyes" displays the group's ability to
work a powerful ballad, while "I
Wonder If She Likes Me," with its
funky bottom and heavy rock guitar
album in variou coJlaborative
combinations and laid down some
truly tough-to-core rhythm tracks
and erious heart en' soul vocal for
their recording debut.
"The cut 'True To Thee' is
erious basic funk," notes Stokley,
"while 'Try My Love' has orne
jazz influences that even stretch to
a big band kind of sound." O'Dell
ays," 'Do U Wanna' is trying to
experiment with getting back to
that fun funk drive, that craziness of
the early Parliament stuff, and
'Breakin' My Heart' shows the
more sentimental side of the
group."
JODECI
- u u
With a striking blend of rich
gospel/soul and traditional R&B,
JODECI have emerged as a group for
the '90s and beyond. Their Up
town/MCA Records debut album,
Forever My Lady, boasts 12 exciting
tracks, including the first single,
"Goua Love," a funky New Jack
Swing number, "Play Thing," the
romantic ballad, "Forever My Lady"
and emotionally charged "The Times
e Share. " Five songs on the album
were co-produced by AI B. Surel, a
recording artist who knows hot,
thrilling vocals when he hears them.
It is these vocals that separate
JODECI from many of their R&B
contemporaries, according to De
Vante, the band member who writes
mo t of the material and handles
most of the production chores, "A
lot of groups, like Guy and Bell Biv
DeVoe, they use a lot of hard beats'
and street sounds. We center every
thing around the vocals, so every
thing clicks from there."
JODECI also pays attention to
what they're singing about. "We
want people to get the messages,"
ays DeVante, "from 'I'm still
wailin' on your love, baby' to
'You'remyfo ver lady.' Alotofthe
songs I wrote were concerning feel
ings I wasn't necessarily experienc
ing at the time. But since I wrote
them, I've experienced them. The
songs must have been a premoni
tion."
Comprised of two sets of brothers
-Jolo (age 19) and K-Ci (21) from
Charlotte, North Carolina and Mr.
Dalvin (19) and DeVante Swing (21)
from Hampton, Virginia - thl is a
band proud of its family ties. In fact,
the name JODECI i an amalgama
tion of JoJo, DeVante and K-Ci.
lien nd O'Dell.
shows ye t another side of the group.
Keri ingJes out "She's A Honey"
and "Here We Go Again" the
more "street-oriented songs, 'up'
tunes that we have a whole lot of
fun performing live. "
"We're truly thankful to Jimmy
Jam and Terry (the executive
producers of the project) for giving
us the chance to express ourselves
so completely and with such
freedom on our first album," the
members of Mint Condition state.
Whether they're lettin' loose with
hard funk grooves or soothing
hearts with tender love songs, Mint
Condi tion is continuing an essential
tradition as a 'live', self-contained
band who can not only play and
sing but can also wri te and produce.
MEANT to be MINT is a powerful
introduction to this talented group
of musicians.
BEFORE THE REL E of
Forever My Lady, the brothers
JODECI (alone and indifferent�om-
A wave of the future'
JODECI MEMBERS - D Ivin, K·CI, DeVante and J�Jo.
binations) were making some noi e
on the charts on other artists' records.
K-Ci and JoJo's graceful harmonies
can be heard on Father MC's current
smash, "Treat 'EmLiIct! They Want to
Be Treated," and throughout Jeff
Redd's Quiet Storm album. De Vante
received writing/co-production
credits on the AI B. Surel platinum
Private Times and the Whole 9
album. K-Ci ha also worked with
Telvin Campbell. '
This 'kind of popular success can
be traced to JODECI's Charlotte
roots. As young boys, loJo and K-Ci
frequently ang with the Tiny Grove
Baptist Church choir. In another part
of the North Carolina city, Dalvin
and DeVante, who e famlly had relo
cated to Charlotte from Hampton,
VA, were performing wi� Rev. Don
DeOrate and the DeGrate Delega
tion. And while the brothers' choirs
were from the same community and
often appeared together, "we didn't
know each other," ays De Vante,
"even though we were doing the
ame thing." .
It w sn't until Dalvin and De
Vante entered some talent how
together that they tentatively began
to branch out into R&B. Dalvin
recalls, "My brother and I entered
these talent shows not to win, but to
see if we could really do it." They
definitely did it, well enough in fact
, .
to cause DeVante to suggest they cut
tracks for a demo.
Before recording began, how
ever, De Vante hooked up With JoJo
and K-Ci. "We were datin' the same
girls," says DeVante. "And we all
are crazy about girls. But when we
got to know each other, we decided,
'Rather than fight over girls, why
don't we get together and make some
music?' So we decided to form a
group."
The tale of their path to Uptown
is a true Cinderella story or, in this
case, a Cinderfellas story. With a
four track tape and 300 dollars be
tween them, JoJo, De Vante and K-Ci
ignored their parents' wordS of dis
couragement and hopped in
DeVante's '88 Ford Escort to find
fame and fortune in New York. After
a few wrong turns, they eventually
arrived at MCA Records' Manhattan
offices.
"WHEN WE WERE deciding
who we wanted to record for," says
De Vante, "we looked on the back of
a bunch of our favorite albums and
sawall of these artists were on MCA.
So we decided that's where we were
going first."
Directed to Uptown Records in
MCA's New York offices, JODECI
Played their demo tape. After one
ong, they were told to sing live.
They did and sang magnificently.
Within 45 minutes JODECI had a
recording deal with Uptown/MCA.
Se sions for ' JODECI' debut
album ran from late 1989 until
December of 1990, with DeVante
directing the sessions. Al B. Sure!
shares production credit on "Come
and Talk," "Forever My Lady," "My
Phone," "I'm Still Waiting" and
"Stay."
What separate the group from
mostother youngarti ts is JODECl's
go pel vocal background.