I picked up a few volumes in the Neo-Soul United series which I really enjoyed. There's also a good UK series, Organic Soul.

NuSoul, NeoSoul, Organic Soul, not sure about the labels but I enjoy a lot of what I hear. If you like it as well, which artists do you prefer the most?

My favorites include:
Lizz Fields
Julie Dexter
Michael Bohannon
Martha Redbone
J. Michael
Lewis Taylor (who could be considered power pop soul, perhaps?)
Maya Azucena
Jill Scott
Fertile Ground

These are the ones that easily come off the top of my head:

Alicia Keys
John Legend
India Arie
Maxwell
Erykah Badu
D'Angelo
Lauryn Hill
Tony! Toni! Tone!

I'm not sure I like the term neo/nu soul even though it seem to be the general term for r&b utalizing real instrumentation as opposed to loops and samples.
I don't think there is anything new about it really as it generally seem to a some kind of retro-movement with artists trying to get back to how it was in the 70s before the world of MIDI technology kicked in.
Obviously there are some hugely talented artists trying their hand at this style but I think the songwriting skills leaves much to be desired. They often tend to favour groove and rythm over melody, making the result a bit too jamsession like for my personal taste. After all, this is not jazz music.
A few standout artist deserve a mention, like the ever so talented Frank McComb. Honestly, I doubt this man can do anything wrong at all.
He has both the vocals as well as the jazz chops to get things right. Something I feel many of his neo-soul collgues sadly lack.

quote:

Originally posted by K-Bee:
I'm not sure I like the term neo/nu soul even though it seem to be the general term for r&b utalizing real instrumentation as opposed to loops and samples.
I don't think there is anything new about it really as it generally seem to a some kind of retro-movement with artists trying to get back to how it was in the 70s before the world of MIDI technology kicked in.
Obviously there are some hugely talented artists trying their hand at this style but I think the songwriting skills leaves much to be desired. They often tend to favour groove and rythm over melody, making the result a bit too jamsession like for my personal taste. After all, this is not jazz music.
A few standout artist deserve a mention, like the ever so talented Frank McComb. Honestly, I doubt this man can do anything wrong at all.
He has both the vocals as well as the jazz chops to get things right. Something I feel many of his neo-soul collgues sadly lack.

K-Bee, even the artists themselves who are labelled "Neo-Soul" detest the fact that they are labelled "Neo-Soul". They just want to be recognized as "Soul", and not contemporary R&B or HipHop (altho in an earlier post I already said that these artists employ a bit of an infusion of all three). People have to realize that the label "Neo-Soul" was coined by the media or maybe by the recording companies themselves to promote the fairly new genre. The word Neo-Soul didn't really start appearing until quite recently. I mean, nobody even called it "neo-soul" back in the late 90's when the pioneers like Maxwell, D'Angelo, Badu, and Lauryn Hill took off, at which point in time they were second fiddle to contemporary R&B when it comes to popularity and mainstream status. But that's the point. They don't want to be mainstream. Their music tends not to play on radio (except for a few exceptions like Alicia Keys who has crossed over to the mainstream), and only on select music genre specific networks like BET for instance.

There is nothing new about it, you're right. Maxwell's music has a lot Marvin Gaye influence, for example. In fact it is acknowledged that it is sort of an attempt to revive 70's soul. I personally like this new umbrella category because, like you said, it has a lot of groove, and groove and rhythm plays a big role in my determining whether I like music or not. But of course people have their own set of opinion.

I'm not sure if you can generalize the entire genre as sounding like a jamsession. Have you sampled any of India Arie's acoustic sound? Or D'Angelo's risque style?

No I know "jamsesseion" may not be the right word in order to cover this kind of music. Still, it has a more loose feel to it than the typical "urban" and higly programmed music, and the single tracks tend to be way longer often incoorporating soloing as well. Stuff like this is often unheard of within the usual contemporary r&b circles.
In a way I believe neo-soul owes a lot to the whole brit-funk/acid jazz movement of the late 80s/early 90s UK music scene. Artists like Omar, Brand New Heavies and Incognito. Maybe Omar in particular...his "There's Nothing Like This" 1991 single is probably one of the first ones that could be considored neo-soul, if we look upon things from a musical point of view. This was in the New Jack Swing heyday and I believe it was quite risktaking to put out a cut sounding like Omar's (on an indie label obviously, but he was later picked up by a major)