Susaye Greene, the last member of the Supremes, has, in her sophomore CD, Brave New Shoes, created the album she's always wanted to make. As much a canvas for studio experimentation as it is a celebration of Greene's often underappreciated singing/songwriting abilities, Shoes is an album with enough varied sounds to appeal to underground hip-hop heads, lovers of the lost arts of traditional soul, R&B, and jazz, and even a classic rock enthusiast or two.
"Ray Charles taught me that if you enjoy and are influenced by all kinds of music, then thats what you should do", the singer has said bluntly about her work to date; "That's why he was around for so long. Thats why, if I like a rock song, a jazz song, an aria, or even a nursery rhyme, then I'm gonna sing it, and put my whole heart into it."
While the same could be said about Susaye's last album, No Fear Here, a passionate set of songs ranging from alternative ballads, to jazz-tinged soul, to even a Rogers & Hammerstein tune, in this follow-up, Greene has pushed her eclectic tastes to an even higher plane.
Here, Greene has abandoned the retro sound of her No Fear Here, in favor of a mesh of musical genres that she has dubbed Bio-Soul, mixing the smoothness of R&B, the hard-hitting swagger of industrial rock, and the wall of sound exemplified in electronica and dance music, all wrapped up in a package of polished production and solid songwriting skills.
This lattice of influences is seen in standout tracks like the futuristic Livin In A Vacuum, the fast-moving, fun-filled club pace of Time, the jazzy funk of Get What You Give, which possibly best shows Greene's melodic strength and lyrical capabilities, and a cover of the Led Zeppelin rocker, The Ocean, in which Susaye's wail may even match Robert Plant's.
So as not to scare Supremes loyalists or the musically conservative, however, Ms. Greene has taken care to mix this newfangled stuff with enough nostalgia to keep in touch with her fans. Among the work people may recognize, is a reinterpretation of club hit High Energy, a standout from Greenes former group, the Supremes.
"I always enjoyed performing it on stage, and I felt it was still relevant. "
The centerpiece of the album, originally a collaboration with English saxophonist Courtney Pine, entitled Children of the Ghetto Revisited, (an Urban Drama), touches on social issues in a masterfully unique way, due to the added perspective of rapper ingenue, Schism, as well as Susaye's still poignant vocals.
The Last Supreme steps out in her "Brave New Shoes", even to the extent of the cover art. Her intense portrait of Supremextreme, the comic book character she has created, captures the essence of her artistic talent. Painting, one of the many passions that she is following aside from music, can be fully appreciated on her website, http://www.supremextreme.com, where her personal gallery can be viewed. Her artwork can also be seen on Deviantart.com at http://www.supremextreme.deviantart.com , the world's largest online art community, which she thanks for rekindling her love of painting.
"DeviantArt is a place where artists of all ages and backgrounds, from all around the world come together to support and encourage each others talent, and display their artwork. Being able to view over 14 million works of art and personally contact any of the artists has made me realize my artistic strengths once again. . I'm thankful to all of them for that. There's a cultural phenomenon of community going on there right now that has never been seen in the world before."
Because of this support from other artists, Susaye Greene has recently started to work on the animated films for her created characters, Supremextreme and the Shadow Ranger, projects that were on hiatus for a period of time. "Supremextreme is maxin the millenium!", says
Susaye Greene, and so is she.
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