Sunkissed Ashleigh Smith

• 1 Best Friends 04:20
• 2 Sara Smile 03:59
• 3 The World Is Calling 02:22
• 4 Love Is You 03:35
• 5 Blackbird 04:17
• 6 Sunkissed 04:05
• 7 Into The Blue 05:07
• 8 Brokenhearted Girl 02:14
• 9 Beautiful And True 03:46
• 10 Pure Imagination 01:46
• Total Runtime 35:31

Info zu Sunkissed

„Sunkissed“ is the title of Ashleigh Smith’s debut album on Concord Records, describes her singing perfectly. The 27-year-old Dallas-based winner of the 2014 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocals Competition possesses an iridescent alto that radiates a spectrum of poised emotions. While clearly she’s capable of tackling material underscored by darker themes such as heartache and sobering social commentary, optimistic rays of light always shine through her voice.

The album reveals Smith to be a gifted songwriter too. She co-wrote five of the disc’s 10 compositions. Like the musicians accompanying her, most of Smith’s writing partners – electric bassist Nigel Rivers and guitarist Joel Cross – were fellow classmates of hers from the University of North Texas, where she studied jazz. Indeed, enlisting a cadre of musicians whom she’s already forged a sparkling rapport imbues Sunkissed with a greater sense of warmth and personal conviction. “I wanted people who have already been an integral part of my musical development,” Smith explains. “We were all in music class and jazz forums together; we also performed together. They played a big part into the making of who I am as a musician. That’s something you figure out not necessarily in the classroom but when you’re performing on stage.”

Sunkissed begins with “Best Friends,” a bittersweet original co-written with Cross. Even though the song glides to a percolating sanguine bossa-nova groove, powered by Cross’ acoustic guitar riffs, Smith’s lyrics touch upon on the pains of a waning romantic relationship. The song’s melody and “heart on your sleeves” lyrics also betray one of her brightest lodestars – Stevie Wonder.

With Cross, Smith also co-penned the music for “Into the Blue,” another melancholy Brazilian-tinted gem, marked by sauntering rhythms and bracing melodicism. The lyrics, however, were co-written by her older sister, Lauren, after the two were swapping stories about things that were happening in each other’s amorous relationships.

On the glowing soul-jazz original, “The World Is Calling,” Smith partnered with Rivers as a songwriter. Distinguished by sliding keyboard chords, a subtle Latin mid-tempo groove, and a jaunty melody underscored by pleads of universal love, Smith refers to this song as her “love call.” “I’m very empathic with humanity and things that are going on in the world,” she explains. “It’s important to know what’s going on around you – not just what’s happening within yourself. I think we’re becoming so self-consumed. We don’t love people enough. Loving each other more wouldn’t solve all the world’s problems, but it would be a great start.”

Similar glimmers of hope sparkle on “Sunkissed,” the title track co-written with Rivers and singer Nadia Washington. Riding atop a breezy, hip-swerving samba rhythm, Smith sings empowering lyrics to young girls of color, who oftentimes struggle seeing themselves as beautiful. “There had to be a song on this album for girls who look like me,” Smith argues, “A lot of times when I’ve mentored African-American girls, they always commented that there weren’t any role models that looked like them. They saw mostly people who looked like their Caucasian friends. This is not to say that one is better than the other. We are all beautiful. But I think all of that beauty should be represented equally.”

Smith acknowledges that the melody on the succinct “Brokenhearted Girl” resembles “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Centered on “break-up songs” and written with Kwinton Gray during a rehearsal for a Dallas show, the song purposefully eschews the conventional AABA song format.

Sunkissed contains one song – the searching “Beautiful and True” – that’s written by Rosanna Eckert, one of Smith’s teachers at the University of North Texas. With its soaring melody and lush arrangement, the tune superbly accentuates Smith’s effervescent tone and gift for articulating other people’s verses. “I wanted Rosanna to write a song because she knows my voice very well,” Smith says. “I love her ease at lyrical expression. I love how fluid her lyrical thoughts are and how well they match her musical thoughts.”

As for the covers, Smith chose wisely. Raised in LaGrange, Georgia in a musically rich household and nestled deep in the modern R&B sounds of Dallas, Smith wanted material that reflected her upbringing. Such is the case with her winning makeover of Hall & Oates’ classic tune, “Sara Smile,” which is given a discreet hip-hop bounce via punchy rhythms.

Even more indicative of Smith’s generation is her sumptuous rendering of R&B singer Chrisette Michele’s 2007 ballad “Love Is You.” Interestingly enough, Smith has been singing backup for Michele for five years. “We’re great friends,” Smith adds. “I’ve learned a lot about the music business from her. Lyrically, it’s such a beautiful song.” On Sunkissed, Smith beefs up the arrangement by incorporating silhouetting strings and fanciful Latin rhythms inside the bridge. “My version is completely different from the original. But Chrisette loves it – it’s an ode to her.”

Smith digs deeper into the pop canon and covers the Beatles’ late-’60s classic “Blackbird.” It was the song’s dark themes that first seduced Smith. “The opening is so haunting; it’s so pivotal and timeless – it brings you in immediately,” she says. Smith brightens the mood with a gently swaggering rhythm while keeping the haunting tenor of the lyrics well intact.

Sunkissed concludes with a mesmerizing version of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s immortal “Pure Imagination” from the 1971 movie, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Showcasing her love for sophisticated harmonies, Smith’s rendition features her harmonizing with herself via overdubs. It makes for an ideal ending to the shining debut of a creative singer with her own distinct style poised to take on the world.

Ashleigh Smith
“My sound is not so much straight-ahead jazz,” Ashleigh Smith claims. “It’s very R&B and funk infused. That’s a part of my upbringing and I love that about my singing.” The 27-year-old Dallas-based singer and songwriter was reflecting on what set her apart from other singers at the 2014 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition of which she won. “I noticed it more when I was competing against other people. You are what you listen to.”

Raised in a nurturing, musically enriched household with her two sisters in LaGrange, Georgia, Smith seemed destined to become a musician. Her mother, Deborah Smith sang constantly even though she’s physical therapist by trade, while her father, Edwin Smith, is a pianist and former school band director. Smith also had a grandfather who played jazz saxophone; a grandmother who played classical piano and sang; and an uncle who played jazz trumpet. At the tender age of four, Smith began singing along records that her father played. “I would just imitate everything. When I heard Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘How High the Moon,’ that was it for me,” Smith fondly recalls.

But Smith also absorbed the sounds of Stevie Wonder, Prince, Bill Withers, and Sting during her early years. Those touchstones and several others echo on her August 26, 2016 Concord debut, Sunkissed, produced by Chris Dunn and Nigel Rivers. “I listen to a lot of new stuff but I really dig a lot of old stuff,” she says. “I wanted that side of me to be a part of the album. I believe in that older R&B and pop music and the time when real instruments were used. And while some of those old recordings with singers weren’t always perfect, they were beautiful. The mistakes are what made them beautiful.”

In choosing which covers to include on Sunkissed, she was mindful of exploring fresher terrain. That explains her winning renditions of Hall & Oats’ 1975 classic, “Sara Smile” and Chrisette Michele’s 2007 soul ballad, “Love Is You.” Other none originals include a R&B-inflected makeover of the Beatles’ 1968 gem, “Blackbird,” and mesmerizing a capella version of “Pure Imagination,” which features Smith harmonizing with herself via various overdubs.

Those covers are juxtaposed with enticing originals, many of which Smith co-wrote with bassist Nigel Rivers or guitarist Joel Cross. As a songwriter, Smith explores themes of romantic heartache (“Best Friends,” “Into the Blue,” and “Brokenhearted Girl”), self-empowerment (“Sunkissed”), and universal love (“The World Is Calling”).

Before Smith won the 2014 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition, she studied classical music at Georgia’s Columbus State University on a full-ride scholarship. After attending a jazz camp at the prestigious University of North Texas, she transferred.

It was there that she met Rivers, Cross, and the cadre of other musicians, including percussionists AJ Flores and Greg Beck; pianists Shelton Summons and Sergio Pamies; and drummers Cedric Moore III, Marcus Jones, and Cleon Edwards. “The album features no big names,” Smith says. “I don’t think I tried for it to be that way. But I wanted people who have already been an integral part of my musical development. It was only natural for me that they would be on the first album because they played a big part into the making of who I am as a musician.”

Music teacher Rosanna Eckert also played a pivotal role in Smith’s musical development at the University of North Texas. The singer shows her respect to her mentor by including Eckert’s gorgeous composition, “Beautiful and True.” “Rosanna was one of my first teachers and biggest mentors there,” Smith says. “She’s a phenomenal singer, pianist and teacher. I wanted Rosanna to write a song because she knows my voice very well. I love her ease of lyrical expression. I love how fluid her lyrical thoughts are and how well they match her musical thoughts.”

Smith was already recording an EP before she won the 2014 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition. She says the process of finding her voice and material was organic. “When it came to writing, my voice is what just came out,” Smith remembers. “I was very picky in choosing the musicians to help bring that out. I’m very big on authenticity. Everything was very organic – even up to the week of recording. That’s exactly what I wanted.”

Booklet für Sunkissed