Charles Bradley 2/18 @ the Metro

metrochicago.com

Despite a handful of 7" releases on Daptone even a voracious music fan might feel like Charles Bradley came out of nowhere. When they find out his first single was released roughly ten years ago, they might stop asking themselves where he's been and start wondering where the hell they've been. Fortunately, since No Time For Dreaming, Bradley's full-length debut and easily one of 2011 best releases, we've all arrived.

In four words you might call him "a male-Sharon-Jones", but the 64 year-old Florida native is far more. Like Daptone's aforementioned empress or local princes J.C. Brooks & The Uptown Sound, Bradley's tapped into the raw emotion and genuine grit of the best original Soul, Funk, and R&B, then framed it all in a contemporary context. It's a beautiful thing when past and present meet this cohesively and successfully.

"In one note, Charles Bradley’s voice mirrors painful plucks to the heartstrings, reminding listeners why this genre was simply, yet powerfully, titled “soul.” Like Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett before him, Bradley’s raspy delivery draws all the pain out of the human condition and sends it straight into your eardrum. While the group sounds like it could have been plucked straight from the Motown lineup, the music incorporates bits and pieces of funk and more contemporary rock to keep things fresh." -The A.V. Club Chicago