Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / July 9, 1987, edition 1 / Page 18
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Soimy M iteri ' Foot StafWritmT™ It all started in a church in Nsw York. A group of youngsters ••ng in the choir; among them 'v%r* Frsddis Jackson, Paul Laurence and Sonny Moors. Tfcay called themselves the Laur ence Jones Ensemble. For a while singing in the church brought contentment, but it wasn t long before restlessness set in and five Laurence Jones Ensemble members, including Jackson, Laurence and Moore had set their sights on careers in secular entertainment. They left Nothing could go wrong or so they thought. But their timing was all wrong. It was the 70s and disco reigned supreme in the mu sic industry when LJE struck out on its to Sonny Moore, a resides in Char is beginning of hi s ventures entertainment. Fortunately it was not the ending. For *sch of them, success came in different ways. Freddie Jack son made it big with his sansa . tional debut album, Rook Me To Psul Laurence, made a name ‘^ftr himself producing the like* of 'Melba Moore and Evelyn King tend Sonny Moore's lyrics were ''used by the both of them, as well as Michael Henderson and Freddie Jackson. Moore reflects at their humble beginnings, "There we were Wendy & Lisa Strike Out On Their Own Wendy 4k Lisa, the guitar and keyboard mainstays of Prince’s recently-disbanded group The Revolution, have cut their first al bum and signed with Columbia Records. The Wendy 4k Lisa LP, co-produced by .Wendy 4k Lisa and former Revolution drummer Bobfay Z—is scheduled for release the laid week in July. Wendy plays acoustic and electric bass, guitar, some keyboards, percus sion and drums on the LP. Lisa plays acoustic piano, Fairlight synthesizer, DX7, Matrix 12, Mir age, Sonic and Hammond B-S synthesizers. Both sing lead vo cals. Everyone know* that Wendy h Lisa were considered (to quote Rolling Stone) "wricked musi cians." But few realise that the duo began working together on song wrriting and vocals nearly three years ago. They composed tunes like "Mountains* (on Princs's Pa rade album) and "Sometimes It Snows In April* (from Princs's Around The World In A Day). In addition, Wendy ft Lisa frequent ly created arrangement* and per formed backing vocals on Prince LPs (they handled key arrange ments, for example, on the aong "Purple Rain*. While the pair were with Prince, they composed over 30 songs, working privately on ‘ music in which a strongly person si style emerged, music they ssl ' dom showed to even their closest .-friends. When they struck out on Pjhsir owm, however, Wendy 6 jXisa discarded nearly all of their ^previous com positions and £ started from scratch, deter mined to create music untinged by the Prime influence. What emerged was not quits ^liks the styles any of us have aver heard before. Says co-producer Bobby Z„ "It’s based on Lisa's abil ity to chord and color and -Wendy's ability to com* up writh '^Interesting melodic lines. Bong structure flows out of Lisa. And Brandy can surround a song with intriguing base and guitar parte. She has an unusual sens* of tem po and puls*. 8h* plays guitar with great timing and heart She rlpa your guts out. But Wendy and Lisa’s vocal ability is th* most impressive thing on the album." f l Thing* oln i Charlotte ^' writing ballads and lovs songs and getting the doors slammed in our faces at the same time. We didn't change our style we just stuck with the kind of music we believed in until we got a chance. As a songwriter, Moore con fesses that he is in love with love ballads. "They seem to linger longer, and have a lasting im pression." Writing songs was also a very natural way for Moore to express his feelings. "I think I wrote about everything. If a girl I liked broke up with me, instead of lash ing back at her, I would say how I f ----*-- - folt by writing a eongf 1. Q* UP Off Your Love written by Sonny Moor* and Paul Laur •no* for Ev*lyn King in h*r comeback was the first song that broke for the oongwritiMgaam. It hit back in 1963. Then it was off to Detroit where Laurence and Moore teamed up to produce, You Wouldn't Haw* To Work At All for Michael Hander eon. That was a few years ago!. To day, Moore and Laurence are working very closely with Melba Moore's spouse, Charles Hug gins, president of Hush Produc » tions to have one of their songs, You Are My Lore ussd as a them* song for a movie. But even man exciting than the movie score. Moor* and Laur ence haw* future plans to writs a couple of tun** for th* soon-to-be reunited Earth, Wind A Fir*. "I was talking to Paul th* other day and he told me that Maurice White is putting the group back to gether again. Maurice and Paul mat in LA and when asked his opinion about tbs E W&F, Paul told him that in his professions! opinion th* group should go back to th* basics. So that’s what they're doing. Paul and I hope to have a couple of tunes on that al bum." With Laurence being located in LA and Moons, here in Charlotte there's a lot of distance to be filled before a song con be written. The solution to the problem, Moors ex plains, depends on where the source of inspiration for the song came from. "If the idea was created here ia Charlotte, then Paul comes here, if in LA, then thjajj's where I go. Sometimes are go where the song has the best at mosphere to develop." Writing songs is not all that concerns Moore who is "a car penter by day and musician by night." Realising the abundance of talent here in the city, Moore has his eye open for someone he and Paul could produce. "We're looking for someone or a group that we could turn into star mate rial and ere really want it to come from hers." Moore likes to think that he and Paul are far beyond any of the songwriting teams today like Huff and Gamble. Asa matter of fact ho says: " I think that we're foe hottest thing happening right now." ■ ' House Of Raeford Tutfcey Breast Grade X AJ4A Self-Basting SI None Better I ib. Jm Hofly Farms Breast qa Quarters.u>. •%J%7 HT Sliced 4 mq Bacon.12 ck. Ground Beef 4 aa Battles.is. Ruth’s Pimento aa Spread.... v/» 0* *Ow Kohler Roast Beef ' ^.$449 Ub. ” Large Kaiser aa Row.6 a •%#%# Ham Lb 2.99 "™- — — .. , 25C Off Ubd uuv 22 Oz. Zlploc Large . 4 ja Freezer Bags iscl X»^KSf . .2.39 GOCOffLabd Snuggle Fabric o «ia Softener mo. / %J Ruffles Potato aa Chips.6 5 Oz. •%#«/ Keebler Soft 4 Ar Batch Cookies 120. 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The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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July 9, 1987, edition 1
18
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