Soul

The Nigerian born singer-songwriter's third US release is another powerful blend of reggae, soul, hip-hop, and world beat. Very few artists could immerse themselves in various genres and convince with such originality, but Nneka does so effortlessly. "Soul Is Heavy" is infused with as much tenderness as it is with defiance and probing questions about the ways of the world. On "J," she sings, "Everything isn't what it seems to be" and grapples with the complexities and tensions of love, politics, and spirituality.

The late bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn was honored Wednesday in the city where he performed on some of R&B's best-known hits, with musicians leading a lively funeral march down Memphis' Beale Street. Musicians played trumpets, saxophones and drums — and more than 100 fans walked and danced — during the New Orleans-style march to remember Dunn, a famed session musician who died May 13 at age 70 while on tour in Japan. Musicians played "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" as they ambled past bars along the street, known as a capital of blues and...

Raphael Saadiq The Way I See It (Columbia) ESSENTIAL "Sometimes" Throughout his career, Saadiq has fiercely maintained the sound and legacy of classic soul as the genre has been overwhelmed by manufactured sterility. On his latest effort, Saadiq creates a seamless, supremely melodic set that evokes '60s and '70s soul. It makes sense because as a member of Tony! Toni! Tone! and as a solo artist, he has already made some of the most memorable soul of our era. There are quotes from Motown, Philly soul, and Stax, among other influences, but the great...

John Mayer made a promise at his last Boston-area concert. Back in 2010, around the time he had made disparaging comments about his racial tastes in women, Mayer told the crowd at the Comcast Center that he was going to stick to singing and playing his guitar instead of letting his loose lips mouth off. Good call. We haven't heard much from the singer-songwriter since then, but his new album makes it clear that the intervening years have been tough. "Born and Raised" finds Mayer in full-on soul-searching mode, and it's an honest, and oftentimes compelling, statement on his road to redemption.

For one night, Raphael Saadiq fans got a sense of what it's like to be inside the R&B singer-songwriter-producer's head. As his 90-minute Paradise performance demonstrated, Saadiq's brainpan is a place where synchronized dance moves and vintage soul music are all you need to get by. Where, just like on his Grammy-nominated 2008 album "The Way I See It," the spirit never half-steps, the mood only slows in order to bring your baby a little bit...

For the hybrid genre called "neo-soul," 2001 was an exceptionally strong vintage, with Erykah Badu's second album and debut efforts from Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, India.Arie, and Musiq released in the space of a few months. Somewhat lost in the shuffle was the young Philadelphia singer Bilal, whose witty, groovy gem of an album, "First Born Second," earned critical plaudits but was largely ignored by the purchasing public. Since then, while Keys and Scott have gone on to fill arenas, Bilal has stayed under the radar, devoting himself in large part to production work...

Lenny Kravitz can be a walking contradiction. On the one hand, he sings of letting love rule and being a "minister of rock 'n' roll" who has come to "save your soul. " But on Sunday, he also strutted around in a glittery silver belt befitting an overripe Elvis Presley in Las Vegas, while flanked by towering "LK" letters that lit up like the flashing sign used by hard rock blowhards Kiss. Kravitz fans are used to the duality, and you have to say this for the man: He knows how to put on a show.

British singer Michael Kiwanuka's retro-soul sound evokes memories of Bill Withers and Otis Redding, yet the 24-year-old Londoner is hailed as one of the musical hopes of this year. The son of Ugandan immigrants took to the stage at Islington town hall in London ON Thursday after a 2011 that saw him support Grammy-winning singer Adele on tour. Fresh from winning the BBC Sound of 2012 in January, Kiwanuka is playing a series of warm up gigs around Britain before the release of his first album "Home Again" in March.

IN STUMP and victory speeches Mitt Romney characterizes President Obama as "the most pessimistic president" ever. Then Romney deftly promises to lead the charge to "save the soul of America. " I have yet to see another candidate or media fact-checker call attention to this unacknowledged appropriation of a slogan of the and the civil rights movement. More than 50 years ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his colleagues in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference proclaimed an audacious hope in speaking of saving the soul of America.

The Queen of Soul is back, hoping to help her hometown Detroit Tigers bounce back in the AL championship series. Aretha Franklin sang the national anthem, with plenty of soul, of course, before the Tigers played Texas in Game 3. The Rangers led 2-0 in the best-of-seven matchup. Franklin, sporting a Tigers hat, was greeted by cheers from the Comerica Park crowd when she walked onto the field. Many in the stands had goose bumps by the time her deliberate rendition was done under a full moon on a crisp and clear night with a huge U.S. flag covering much of the outfield.

A FOOD SWAP, a coalition of schools for boys of color, and a socially conscious chocolate company all have something in common. They're occupants of Space with a Soul, a new, collaborative office space for start-ups - but unlike other incubators, most of these start-ups are not tech companies. Instead, this incubator in Boston's Innovation District is designed to create a thriving community of start-up nonprofits, said founder Stas Gayshan, a Boston lawyer. Gayshan, 29, said he's created the answer to the question: "How can people focus on their cause and not worry about the Internet bill or...

Every dance track on the radio today, every wedding that ends with the anthem "Last Dance," owes a debt to Donna Summer, the Dorchester-born singer and songwriter who died this week at 63. Summer's big, smooth, confident voice, honed through years of singing gospel as a child at Grant AME Church in the South End, helped catapult her to stardom. As a singer and a lyricist, Summer channeled emotion and empathy. To generations of young people in dance clubs, her songs represented power, sensuality, and freedom.

Donald "Duck" Dunn, the bassist who helped create the gritty Memphis soul sound at Stax Records in the 1960s as part of the legendary group Booker T. and the MGs and contributed to such classics as "In the Midnight Hour," "Hold On I'm Coming" and "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay," died Sunday at 70. Dunn, whose legacy as one of the most respected session musicians in the business also included work with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd's Blues Brothers...

Upon meeting the vocal group Human Nature, Smokey Robinson felt like a prophecy was coming true. "When Berry Gordy started Motown, there were five of us in a room and he sat us down and said, ‘I'm going to start my own record label, and we're going to make quality music. Not just black music, but great music of the highest quality that will last,' " says Robinson recalling a conversation that took place ahead of Motown's 1960 launch. The record label (and sister imprint Tamla)

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent Braintree town councilors approved a supplemental appropriation for $4,410 to All Souls Church on Tuesday, after debate about the expenditure earlier in the evening. Councilors on the Ways and Means Committee were taken aback by the request, which was to be added on to a $82,500 appropriation from the Community Preservation Committee to help finish repairs to the roof and replace several gutters. The additional money will be used to put snow guards on the roof to help the repairs last longer, church...

The most distressing line on Nick Lowe's new album goes like this: "I'm 61 years old now/ Lord, I never thought I'd see 30. " If he hadn't made it, we would have missed out on the stretch of exquisite pop albums the English singer-songwriter has been crafting over the past two decades. From his origins as a knockabout pub rocker in the 1970s to his reinvention as a refined crooner with a shock of silver hair, Lowe has split his career into two fascinating flip sides.

For an established hitmaker, the decision on how much of a new album to play in concert is always tricky. Last night at the Citi Wang Theatre, Sheryl Crow and her smoking new 10-piece band leaned heavily on her recent soul-flavored release, “100 Miles From Memphis.’’ It might have been a little too heavily represented for some in the two-thirds full crowd. The response was vocally enthusiastic but many folks stayed seated during even the most upbeat of new tunes. But, possible set list gripes aside, there was no quibbling with the spirited performance on display for just a shade over...

WATERTOWN – As Anwar Souini describes it, he was browsing the North African section in a Central Square record store in Cambridge one day in 2006, when he came across a CD that intrigued him, by a group called Atlas Soul. That the shop even had a North African section was refreshing for Souini, who left Morocco to study in the United States in 2001, arriving at the University of Wyoming, of all places, a few weeks before 9/11. "I wasn't lucky," Souini says of the timing.

The movie "In America: The Story of the Soul Sisters" will be screened Saturday at 7 p.m. at First Parish in Waltham. Director Rahman Oladigbolu will be on hand for a discussion afterward. The award-winning film examines issues surrounding immigration and intraracial struggles through the friendship of a Nigerian medical student and a young African-American woman. The story is set in Boston and won an award at the Roxbury International Film Festival. Seating is limited and there's a suggested $10 donation.