Stay Tuned! (Ensoul Records)
Dominique Fils-Aimé
Released February 2019
Juno Award Winner Vocal Jazz Album of the Year 2020
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lq8POn_yDJLKWroptyJXIMol_N8yZrKNo
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2W5iEk6ZM6Gqf0uYtZEaFA?si=s5IKkIFPSeq9uQ5Dn1f1tw
About:
Montreal artist Dominique Fils-Aimé’s ambitious mission to explore the history of African-American music continues on Stay Tuned!, the second instalment in a proposed trilogy. This album journeys into jazz and early R&B, delving into the civil rights movement of the ’60s and transforming that knowledge into songs that burn brightly with the spirit of revolution. Fils-Aimé does this while imbuing the lyrics and her stunning vocals with a palpable sense of strength and resilience that powerfully evoke the past, present and future.
Track Listing:
1. Good Feeling (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 00:50
2. Constructive Interference (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 02:18
3. Where There Is Smoke (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 03:29
4. There Is Probably Fire (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 04:09
5. Gun Burial (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 03:03
6. Big Man Do Cry (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 03:14
7. Magic Whistel (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 00:51
8. Some Body (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 04:04
9. 9LRR (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 01:53
10. Revolution Serenade (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 03:25
11. Sun Rise (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 01:59
12. Free Dom (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 04:41
13. Joy River (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 04:11
14. Stay Tuned! (Dominique Fils-Aimé) 00:37
Personnel:
Dominique Fils-Aimé: vocals
Jacques Roy: bass
Salin Cheewapansri: drums
Elli Miller Maboungou: percussion
Nathan Vanheuverzwijn: keyboards
Étienne Miousse: guitar
Jean-Michel Frédéric: piano
Hichem Khalfa: trumpet
Kevin Annocque: didgeridoo
Recorded at Studios OPUS in Assomption (Quebec), Canada under the supervision of Daniel Lepage
Produced
and engineered by Jacques Roy
Mastered by Harris Newman
Photography: Kevin
Millet
Artwork: Siou-Min Julien
Executive producer: Kevin Annocque
Review:
There’s an elegant simplicity to the music on Dominique Fils-Aimé’s stunning second record, Stay Tuned! — there’s not an element there that doesn’t need to be. “Gun Burial,” one of the album’s endless series of highlights, consists of little more than Fils-Aimé’s voice, a bone-dry drum track, and a creeping bassline (a string section appears and then vanishes just as quickly); the gorgeous “Constructive Interference” also makes ample use of Fils-Aimé’s soulful alto, layering it tower-like over a crackling rhythm track and a few pulses of bass; and the showstopper “Free Dom” lets the vocal stand alone for a full two minutes, providing both rhythm and melody, before the rest of the band joins in, adding just the outline of shape and texture. The judicious paring-down only heightens the album’s impact: every song lands hard and works its way immediately into the bloodstream, and Fils-Aimé’s masterful performance—she is a master of both vocal control and expressiveness—lends a scorching potency to every word. Which is good, because for however stripped back the arrangements are, her lyrics are rich, carefully crafted, and full of strength, power, anger, and pain. She deftly juxtaposes ballads of love and heartbreak, like the stirring “Revolution Serenade,” with moments of bracing, solemn urgency: halfway through the buoyant jump-rope chant “9LRR,” a voice in the background begins reciting the names of the Little Rock Nine. Stay Tuned! Is a riveting record that uses minimal arrangements to deliver maximum impact.
J. Edward Keyes
