Aisha Khan – The Magnificent Twelve: Vinyl, LP, Album

Description

Way back when I was very young and first fell in love with music, I was listening to, among many other things, a lot of the great female Jazz vocalists. In particular I dug Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald. One of Ella’s late 50’s albums, Ella and Her Fellas, was reissued in the early eighties and I played it to death. It featured a flawless collection of duets with various singers (solo and vocal groups) such as the Mills Brothers, Ink Spots and Louis (Armstrong and Jordan).

I think that’s where the seed was first planted.

Fast forward a few decades, I had stopped singing for about 15 years and then much later came back to my first love. It was then that the idea began to crystallise more clearly. I often thought of doing duets because I have always loved the magic of collaboration and as my song writing developed I occasionally wrote songs I thought might make good duets. Eventually I gathered my meagre courage together and began asking some of my musical friends if they would like to record a duet with me. They were mostly the Roots music artists of my generation who I had, in essence, grown up with and who I really respected and admired. I thought at first that I would record a couple of duets on my next album but the project grew until it became obvious that it would be an album entirely composed of duets with most of my contemporary musical heroes.

I think it was one of the greatest and most wonderful surprises of my life that the artists on this album said ‘yes’ and for that I will always be grateful.

I hope you find a new favourite on this collection and that there is something for everyone.

Track list:

A1 Good Morning Midnight (with Big Joe Louis) 4:31
A2 Laying Down My Cards (with Big Sandy) 3:26
A3 Come on Little Baby (with Paul Ansell) 3:08
A4 Travelling Heavy (with Madeleine Rose Witney) 4:38
A5 Shake it For Your Mama (with the Hey Las) 2:57
A6 Eyes of Grey (with Paul-Ronney Angel) 4:56
B1 Big Jamboree (with Ray Gelato) 2:46
B2 Transatlantic Boogie (with Carl Sonny Leyland) 2:54
B3 Looking For Another Girl (with Deke Dickerson) 3:23
B4 Besame Mucho (with Carlos Bandido & Tony Diavolo) 4:13
B5 Sugar and Spice (with Howlin’ Ric) 2:43
B6 When Hell Freezes Over (with Jackson Sloan) 2:55