INCOGNITO

Singer Maysa Leak has left the fold, but Incognito's big, brassy British soul remains the same on 100 DEGREES AND RISING. Electric pianos lay down jazzy R&B vamps, strings sweep in with graceful accents, and horns play with and respond to the vocals, all over a variety of percolating funk beats. Put these parts together and you might call it acid jazz. It's a modern name for music that sounds like they used to make it--group-driven, roots-conscious and, above all, sophisticatedly soulful. And the superb new trio of vocalists that contributes to this, the band's fifth album, slides right in as part of the collective. As the title implies, sweat drips and tension bubbles beneath the smooth surface of 100 DEGREES AND RISING in the tradition of all great urban soul. From the foreboding stabs of strings that kick off the opener, "Where Did We Go Wrong," like something out of the old sound of Philadelphia, Incognito honors that tradition. "Roots (Back To A Way Of Life)" announces itself with a blast of brass straight out of Earth, Wind & Fire's "Shining Star." "Too Far Gone," an electric piano ballad featuring a marvelously melancholic vocal turn by Barry Stewart, has the feel of early Stevie Wonder. And Incognito can simply lay back and groove too: "Barumba" is Spanish soul, and "After The Fall," one of the album's three instrumentals, has a breezy flugelhorn feel, like Chuck Mangione overhauled and reimagined by the Brand New Heavies.

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