Chaka Khan at Midnight

灵魂放克歌姬夏卡康偕同伦敦交响乐团联合录制全新专辑全新专辑 天后Sheila E.、爵士钢琴名家Joe Sample鼎力相挺 2006 BET终身成就奖得主 8项葛莱美奖得主 4项全美音乐大奖得主 惠妮休斯顿百万金曲"I’m Very Woman"原唱 Classikhan可被视为夏卡康自1982年精心挑选制作的爵士专辑"Echoes of an Era"新的延续。此专辑里她结合了爵士乐和传统流行乐，与伦敦管弦乐团合奏录制。她的拥护者，爵士钢琴名家Joe Sample和知名打击乐器演奏者兼歌手Sheila E.亦鼎力相助。专辑里多首曲目："Hazel’s Hips"、"The Best Is Yet to Come"、"To Sir With Love"、"Crazy"、"Round Midnight"，都曾被演奏成其他诸多版本，首支主打曲"Hey Big Spender"在多部歌舞剧中一再重现，台湾天后张惠妹也曾经在专辑里翻唱过这首歌曲，然而夏卡康却成功注入自己独特的风格。 这张专辑收录许多节奏缓慢的流行抒情歌曲，其中"Teach Me Tonight"更是一首闪亮代表作。另外，她还把Willie Nelson创作由Pasty Cline与胡立欧唱红的"Crazy"改作为蓝调的曲风。甚至还协力写了一首"I Believe"，展现她和钢琴的绝佳组合。 除此之外，本专辑还收录了1960时期的歌曲，007系列电影主题曲"Gold Finger"和"Diamonds Are Forever"，夏卡康用自己的风格重新诠释，令人惊喜。电影Sidney Poitier(吾爱吾师)主题曲"To Sir With Love"由她改编后，配上悠扬的弦乐器，更能衬托出夏卡康著名的低回声音，为悲剧电影的情节哀悼，为之动容。 本张爵士专辑融入了多元音乐因素，再次为夏卡康缔造独特风格，也持续奠定她在音乐界的稳固地位。 by Andy Kellman Although the misleading title doesn't indicate it, Classikhan can be seen as a follow-up to the Echoes of an Era album Chaka Khan made with her all-star cast of jazz musicians in 1982. The disc is neither a best-of nor a bunch of re-recordings. Instead, it's a set of jazz standards and traditional pop that she recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, with a little additional help on a handful of cuts from pianist Joe Sample and percussionist Sheila E. Followers of Khan who know the singer's work well beyond the chart hits know that something like this is hardly out of character for her. While it's true that many of these songs -- such as "The Best Is Yet to Come," "To Sir With Love," "Crazy," "Round Midnight" -- have been worn out by so many other renditions of varying quality, Khan injects plenty of her tirelessly singular personality. Most thrilling of all is a pair of nods to Shirley Bassey, John Barry, and James Bond. Weighty versions of "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Goldfinger" come near the tail end and steal the show, indicating that Khan would be a natural Bond-theme successor to the likes of Bassey, Carly Simon, Gladys Knight, and Tina Turner. The only obvious problem with the disc is its title. Longtime Khan fans are likely to glance at the cover of the disc and see it as a another career retrospective -- or, at most, re-recordings of the singer's old material -- that they don't need to hear. That's clearly not the case here.