If you missed out on the Zo! featuring the Foreign Exchange Soundsystem Sunstorm album release party performance at U Street Music Hall on Sunday night, I understand. The booking seemed strange and not matching what has previously been through the venue. This is typically saved for Liv or Black Cat, so, if you didn’t look hard, you could’ve missed it. A five piece soul band and R & B singers just didn’t make sense for many I’m sure, and journeying into the Temple of Boom for that particular event just didn’t appear to seem to be a solid expenditure of time on a Sunday night. Well, if you weren’t there, you missed easily the most scintillating R & B performance I’ve seen anywhere all year. Between Lorenzo “Zo!” Patterson, Darien Brockington, Monica Blaire, Eric Roberson, Yahzarah and Big Pooh (sadly, the other rapping half of Little Brother, Phonte was not present due to illness), this was a pinnacle event for underground R & B. Eric Roberson channeled late era Live at the London Palladium Marvin Gaye for “This Could Be the Night,” and, in all seriousness, the entire audience would have appreciated a cold shower after the sultry rendition of “Make Luv 2 Me” by Monica Blaire. The Soundsystem themselves were phenomenal, as while the venue is not especially set for live performances, it is set expressly to handle lush sounds, and the velvet tones of the voices present as well as the expert handling of the instrumentation really set apart this show from most any other live concert event I have seen all year.
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A hearty hello and welcome back to emo soul Torontonian crooner Colin Munroe. 2009’s “Piano Lessons” featuring Joell Ortiz would be one of the smoothest releases of 2010, falling right in line with the Drake formula of over expressive parental torment R & B pop. However, timing is everything in music, and Munroe’s rise was a year too early. A classic example of it’s not who opens the door, but who walks through who makes the money, Munroe’s blend of folk, pop, R & B and hip hop breaks set the table perfectly for his fellow Toronto native to take the spotlight. Claiming undisclosed personal issues as his reason for his lack of output in the last year, Munroe returns with a beautiful popppy dubstep (read, popstep) interpretation of Prince’s 1984 hit from “Purple Rain.” Munroe is clearly under skilled and trend hopping in his handling of the sound, but his voice is the real winner here. We all know that English ladies Katy B and La Roux’s Eleanor Jackson are the two best pop voices for the sound. However, Munroe’s empty falsetto with the right production could pierce souls. Given that this is from PURPLE Rain, the PURPLE maestro himself, new Universal Records signee Joker, should give this acapella a whirl and see what he comes up with. One can dream, but it’s quite obvious that Munroe is onto something major here.
A bonus. The majesty of Colin Munroe’s “Piano Lessons”
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