Chaka

Chaka Khan is not so much a singer or vocalist as she is a force of nature. Without exception, she is my favorite chanteuse.And I always thought she was a sexy MF.Chaka always has reminded me of brass. Certainly, her voice always has had the bombast and ferocity of the most powerful trumpet. But historically, she also has done a fantastic job at arranging her lead and background vocals into orchestral, contrapuntal harmonies.If I have to choose between listening to Chaka sing her arrangements or Earth, Wind & Fire's legendary Phenix Horns, it's a coin flip. When I close my eyes and listen to her, it's almost as if I see colors to which I previously was blind.Aside from her range and power, what amazes me about Chaka is that after all these years of performing, she has retained most of her voice. There are some notable and unfortunate circumstances where great singers cannot perform nearly as well as we remember because their voices finally gave out after decades of use. (Aretha Franklin and Philip Bailey immediately come to mind; Whitney Houston seems destined, prematurely, to follow.) But Chaka continues to wear it out. Oddly enough, the most recent of her work I've heard is a pedestrian cover of EWF's "Shining Star." She performs well enough, but the musical arrangement is average (and "average" and Chaka Khan never should appear in the same paragraph).At some point, I'll dig a bit and pull out a couple of cuts with Chaka doing jazz (which actually is her best genre now). Here, though, I'm going to break off a track from her second solo album, Naughty. Everyone remembers "Clouds," the first single released from the album. Most people, though, don't realize that the B-side of "Clouds" was equally fierce."What You Did" probably is the single on this album that sounds closest to her work with Rufus. Mark Stevens' bass echoes the funky licks that Bobby Watson used to lay down for Rufus, and the synth work is reminiscent of Hawk Wolinski's palette years earlier. (Trivia: Mark Stevens is Chaka Khan's brother.)But, in the end, the track is about Chaka and a voice that confirms her original instrument remains unique and enduring in soul music.P&L,Soultronica