Gloria Estefan's '98 "Gloria!" is Still Fly in '08

June 2nd, 1998 marked the return of Gloria Estefan as one of the reigning dance floor principals of her time.

Ten years ago Gloria! (1998) stormed onto the scene and still trips the light fantastic with its infectious fusion of disco, Latin, and dance styles. Looking back at the Gloria! project, it's apparent that youth is matter of subjectivity in the terms of sound. When youth is blended properly with the sophistication of age, it can make an intoxicating blend for the audiophile.


The History
After the platinum win of the compelling Destiny (1996) LP and its coinciding Evolution World Tour, Estefan wanted to rightfully celebrate what she had accomplished at that time in her career. The 1990's were spent scoring countless creative, critical, and commercial accolades. She would open the decade with her Into the Light (1991) album, born out of her tragic bus accident the year before. Her first retrospective came in 1992 with many platinum returns. In 1993 she broke down another barrier by releasing Mi Tierra ("My Homeland"), her first full-length traditional Spanish language album, and the first to be released on such a large scale platform. It remains one of the most successful tropical albums to date.

A covers project in English followed in 1994 with Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, and spun off two bursting renditions: Vicki Sue Robinson's "Turn the Beat Around" and Carl Carlton's "Everlasting Love." Another Spanish album came in 1995 with Abriendo Puertas ("Opening Doors").

Wielding the blade of the "A/C Ballad" well, Estefan also hadn't completely forsaken her dance floor roots. The single "You'll Be Mine (Party Time)" and the Tony Moran edit of the downtempo "I'm Not Giving You Up" had been dance chart hits and concert favorites. If anything, it showed Estefan that it was time to come home to "the rhythm" she had so coyly warned us about many years before.

The Record
Working in tandem with longtime songwriters/producers from her Miami Sound Machine days, Estefan conceptualized that her eighth record following Destiny would be a retrospective highlighting her best dance cuts with a few remixes added. This idea was dismissed as it seemed more ideal to just make a whole new album instead and so Gloria! was realized. The aforementioned production squad mobilized to begin work: Kike Santader, Tony Moran, Pablos Flores, Lawrence Dermer, Jorge Casas, and Estefan's husband Emilio. These men were key to the chemistry in classics such as "Conga" and "The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" that ranked as some of her finest early work. This time the salsa backbone and touches would be paired with retro disco strokes and current dance-pop alterations that were the rage at that time.

The Gloria! album is segued, lending it a breath-taking effect due to its pace. The record literally lifts the listener up and barely sets them down. Ten original songs were placed on the album along with five custom remixes (all were surprisingly solid), making the album a one-stop party shop.

Swinging open with the bittersweet taste of infidelity and unrequited love on "Heaven's What I Feel," Estefan gave a knock out performance.
The subject matter was sandwiched in a sublime melody and placed over a house-lite beat. Estefan worked the song from its midtempo frame that climaxed into the layered chorus.
Vocally, Estefan continually dazzled in the vivacious and pleading "Don't Let This Moment End." She glided in melancholy and desire over the ornate song structure without a problem. Giddy and enthused on the jubilant urban explosion of "Feelin," she added new dimension and color to the already vibrant arrangement displayed. The bilingual bang in "Oye!" stands as Estefan's spiciest performance to date. Two versions, the sleek chic album version and the raucous carnival of Pablos Flores' remix at the end of LP (in full Spanish), were wonders to behold.

The sumptuous balance between a classic Latin rhythm section and electronic programming took place on "Real Woman." The mesmeric synth stabs operated over a propulsive pound and then alternated with a pre-chorus chunky percussive break accentuated with punchy brass flavor.

Estefan fell under Wyclef Jean's tequila thrall on "Don't Release Me" long before Shakira confessed to him that her hips didn't lie. Jean opened the song as a smooth player who meets Estefan in a swank bar and has to persuade her that he isn't a "dealer from Havana." After a bit of sweet talking and an exchange of liquid seduction, Estefan surrendered to the sweetest "love hangover." As she purrs to not be released, the song grooves along before spilling into an ultimate stepping jam. The remix furthered the cool chemistry between the two.

The Impact
Gloria! was released in America on June 2nd, 1998, while most of the international market had received the LP in May. Estefan showcased the lead single "Heaven's What I Feel" with a backdrop of her other hits on VH-1 Divas Live. The show's maiden voyage featured Estefan as one of the headliners along with Aretha Franklin, Céline Dion, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey.



Gloria! gracefully landed at #23 on the U.S. Billboard 200, in England it placed higher at #16, and in Spain it dominated at #1. Four singles were released commercially from the album: "Heaven's What I Feel," "Oye!," "Don't Let This Moment End," and "Cuba Libre." Of the four in America, "Heaven" was the biggest hit, as it came in at #27 Pop. The remaining singles didn't impact on the U.S. Hot 100, but raged throughout the various U.S. and international dance charts in terms of airplay and singles sales. Overall, the Gloria! album would sell close to the near platinum end of gold with 500,000 copies. In America it marked Estefan's first non-platinum album but was considered a massive success critically and within its targeted dance music scene. In Spain, one of Estefan's major markets, the record reached platinum four times with 400,000 copies sold. In its last certification Gloria! (Spring 2001), it had shifted 2.2 million copies worldwide.

"Oye!"
Directed By: Gustavo Garzón


Estefan also secured several Grammy nominations: "Don't Let This Moment End" 1999 for "Best Dance Recording" and "Best Music Video Long Format" in 1999 for the DVD release of the videos from Gloria! entitled Don't Stop!. This album predated the American "Latin Explosion" by several months and was definitely of a higher caliber than the albums of that movement. It has been 10 years since Gloria Estefan donned her dance threads, she followed up with two more Spanish language albums and an organic English album, all were of course fantastic. Gloria! looked back and forward in equal measure and continues to shine and shimmer as a milestone for Gloria Estefan. Five stars out of five stars.-QH

[Editor's Note: This album is still readily in print and was re-issued in 2007 with slightly altered packaging.-QH]

Summer Season: Donna Summer's Pop Perfection

Disco diva. Black female vocalist. Pop figurehead. These titles are elements to a larger whole of an indomitable talent that is Donna Summer as a singer, songwriter, and performer.

Summer released her last full-length studio album in 1991; the muddled metropolitan groove set Mistaken Identity. Since then, Summer has rested on her laurels and released several nuggets of excellence such as “Melody of Love (Wanna Be Loved)” (1994), “I Will Go With You” (Con Te Partiro)” (1999), and “I’ve Got Your Love” (2005).  Each of these songs showed a fraction of the potential that a new Summer set could possess, though nothing materialized. Summer’s new album, Crayons, her 15th record to date, is a host to phonic reinvention while solidifying her uncanny skill in the realm of pop music.

The eclectic title was explained by Summer: “You take two colors and create other colors and you add a third color and there’s another color too. That’s how we are in life and that, to me, is a good indication for this album: feeling free to draw between the lines. Everybody gets crayons at some point in their lives, everybody can relate to the basics. It comes down to that child in us; I think there’s a commonality in the concept of Crayons.”

Summer handled her writing and vocal arranging with fellow collaborators JR Rotem (Jennifer Lopez), Lester Mendez (Jewel, Dido, Shakira), Greg Kurstin (Kylie Minogue, P!nk, Lily Allen), Danielle Brisebois (Kelly Clarkson), and Evan Bogart (son of Neil Bogart). These contemporary tunesmiths worked in tandem with Summer to construct vibrant exercises for her to work out.

The lead single and recent U.S.Dance Music/Club Play #1 “I’m A Fire” is a slice of arcane aural erotica. Unbridled rhythms and melodic flourishes bubble and swivel atop another, building a solid mid-tempo masterpiece. Summer’s voice brings across clever allusions to light and heat, making the song reach a fever pitch. By and large, it's classic Summer. Not since “Try Me, I Know We Can Make It” has there been such a work of sensual genius from her. The flavorful burst of “Stamp Your Feet” wins for its insanely catchy chorus which buries itself into the listener subconscious without much effort.

That voice, which can truly sing anything, shows its versatility in the juicy tropicalia of “Drivin’ Down Brazil.” “Slide Over Backwards” takes a page from the Tina Turner “Nutbush City Limits” manual, as Summer works an almost unrecognizable take complete with gutter bucket harmonica and hand claps. Again, this vocal flexing found on Crayons is on par with the vocal menagerie heard on her The Wanderer LP (1980). In addition, “It’s Only Love” (a Circuit City exclusive featured only on their copy of Crayons) shimmers in its cool chrome finish, functioning solely as dance floor adrenaline to the system of any club kids in the vicinity of this song.

Summer stumbles on the awkward “The Queen Is Back” a bragging blunder that is unnecessary, even if its intentions were started with the tongue planted firmly in the cheek. The clumsy electro outfit of “Fame (The Game)” uses way too much of the swanky vocoder. It does sport an operatic bridge and breakdown, but by the time this is reached the listener will be questioning why Summer is even applying the vocoder to herself anyway.

Such is the double-edged sword of pop art; experimentation with faddish textures can sometimes go amiss. However, in this instance the sound Summer applied on this song is one she helped create, which can be easily forgiven even if she didn’t hit the intended mark. Her aptitude to dare regardless is brave.

How interesting that Donna Summer’s direct musical follower, Madonna, was nominated along with Summer for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year and released her album Hard Candy a month before Crayons. One could argue that Summer should’ve been placed into the Hall based on her musical impact alone, not to dispel Madonna’s worthiness of admission. But when comparing the pop qualities of both records, it becomes clear which one may have a catalog that will age better. While Madonna may have come close previously, she loses the battle due to the pop mistakes found within Hard Candy.

Summer’s confidence and time tested understanding of pop is that one must navigate trends, create them, adorn them shortly, but never be dominated by them. They are only musical sketches waiting to be finished by the more musically ambitious coloring of a virtuoso. Crayons holds true to these rules of the pop music genre, and by respecting them, the charismatic Summer will always be in season. Four out of five stars.-QH

[Editor's Note: This article originally printed in the May 27th, 2008-June 4th, 2008 issue of the Dayton City Paper. For more information on Donna Summer, visit www.donnasummer.com-QH]

Carly Simon's "This Kind of Love" Examined

Carly Simon's evocative pose on the front cover of her new album is the physical manifestation of her flirtacious thoughts on love and life. After four decades of recording, she's sure to have something on her mind. Her newest outing and 21st album thus far, This Kind of Love is Simon's first project of original material since The Bedroom Tapes (2000).

Self-indulgence has sometimes plagued Simon's best work and as the 1990's closed that self-indulgence peaked on The Bedroom Tapes. Startingly flat, the lyrics wanted to paint stories, but felt half finished. Two covers records, Moonlight Serenade (2005) and Into White (2007), came before This Kind of Love. Any worried of a Bedroom Tapes repeat or that Simon may have dulled will be surprised with this album colored in light, playful Latin-jazz rhythms.

Headed by the legendary Jimmy Webb and Frank Filipetti, This Kind of Love benefits from loose song structures and Simon's spiced voice. The title track starts the record on an earthy-erotic tip, Simon's voice strums the words as easily as a finger would grace a guitar. "Island," written by Simon's son Ben Taylor, is quiet with interlocking vocals between mother and son over a lulling rhythm.

The samba element comes in silkily on the celebratory "Hola Soleil" (complete with a choir backed chorus), "Sangre Dolche" smolders, and the soul-lite stance of "So Many People to Love" is a winner. The latter finds Simon's voice sincere over the contemporary track without feeling forced like "People Say A Lot," which would've been at home on the previously mentioned Bedroom Tapes.

A mixture of musical and emotional moods make this Simon's best entry since Letters Never Sent (1994) or Film Noir (1998), versus the All Music Guide comparison to the underrated gem Spy (1979).

However, one can see how and why Spy would be mentioned. Love employs the same jazz elements of Simon's post-folk, general pop embrace that made her records sonically intriguing during her brazen 1975-1983 period. Now, Simon's a bit older at 62 and her sound is lived in (i.e.-Letters Never Sent) unlike the experimental flavor characterized on Spy. Either way, Love fits right where it needs to, proving Simon an experienced expert on love and all its intricate difficulties. Four out of five stars.-QH

[Editor's Note: Visit www.carlysimon.com for more current information on Carly Simon.-QH]