If ever a woman appeared gerrymandered for commercial success, that woman is Lael Summer. A Senior at USC, her mother is spoken word artist Marla Mase (who has a masterful current album, Half-Life) and her mentor Tomas Doncker of True Groove Records, for whom she recorded her debut album Burden to Bear last year.
I caught Lael in concert back in 2012 and was looking forward to a late night performance at the Blue Note before I realized the time!!! A somewhat too late for me 1230am and I am guessing it was my loss. Lael is an AOR soul singer, she seems to be tapped into not retro soul but a genre that hasn’t been successfully mined in decades . If you listen to UK soul, what you will notice s how electronic based it as. Lael’s sound is very organic. When I saw Hall And Oates earlier this year (Lael covers “Do What You Want, Be What You Are” on her current album) there was synths but no protools, Lael has that realness to her sound. Plus a terrific backing band, the True Groove All Stars.
In the True Groove world, Lael is what passes for mainstream: she sounds like a pop star and she looks like a pop star with both the charm and the chops to break AOR, and though her songs are the usual self help and sex, Lael is all convinced power singing and smarts.
Here is the Spotified setlist, and please not the Amy Winehouse cover!
Next time, may sure you’re not a pussy like yours truly and see her whatever the time might be.
