|  Ebony
Alleyne's magnificent album of generic live "real" smooth
sophisticated soul music, with a huge orchestra (sixty strings,
thirty brass), with a Burt Bacharach/Dionne Warwick flavour overall
was released on the 25th June on Expansion Records! Much of it was
conceptualised and recorded well before Nora Jones, Joss Stone,
Corinne Bailey Rae, and most particularly Amy Winehouse, all hit
with basically the same thing. Everyone involved with making it,
believed the Ebony album to be utterly utterly wonderful, and they
are all so proud of it.
It initially took a year
and a half to make the first draft, and now a further three years
to fine tune and change and add new tracks til it felt like a complete
masterpiece, and the legendary A&R genius, Muff Winwood, oversaw
it all personally. "Walk Away And Never Look Back", was
the first song they recorded. Ebony was introduced to the soul scene
by reactivating the old classic Okeh label, owned by Sony, and pressing
up tiny limited edition batches of three different singles on the
Okeh label. These were produced on seven inch vinyl and "Walk
Away And Never Look Back" was the first of the three singles
to be released.
Renowned producer Ian
Levine has always had the ultimate faith in Ebony's artistry. As
he wrote in an article in 2002: “Ebony Alleyne had become
slightly legendary in the music business already. At 19 years old
she'd had one of the highest advances, in a bidding war where every
major UK record company wanted to sign her…. When she performed
at Togetherness I've never seen a standing ovation like it, even
for Phillip Mitchell or JJ Barnes, and this was an artist the audience
hadn't seen before. Ebony Alleyne has arrived. Without wishing to
pat myself on the back, I was so proud to be part of something that
truly justifies my working in this sometimes miserable business.
The Ebony Alleyne album
is, to me, the finest point of a career that now spans 27 years
of producing records, but I've never had a chance with a budget
like this, or with a voice like this, to really go to town and make
the kind of records that I always longed to make all of my life.”br/>
THE LAUNCH OF THE ALBUM:
‘Never Look Back’
Life is all about timing. Ebony's time is now. It took a long time
to get the album right til we were all happy and ready to release
it, but now here it is…
Her time was not ready in 2003, but now in 2007, it's all coming
back together to the point when Ebony gets launched properly as
she has always deserved.
Ian Levine and Ebony just cut a brand new track, "You Caught
Me Off Guard", and they have shot 5 videos for MySpace, and
Expansion Records, under the auspices of Soul legend Ralph Tee.
All three are one hundred percent committed to the album ‘Never
Look Back’.
It's a new day and a
new future for Ebony Alleyne. |
