18 December 2013 - 0 Comments

There aren’t too many artists making soul music today who had a release in 1969, back when R&B was first beginning to give the drummer some. Lee Fields, however, is one such artist, and on Saturday 11^th January this soul music giant will bring his years of experience to The Powerstation stage.

Now, this essential night of old school soul expands to include award-winning R&B singer, Tyra Hammond, best known as the voice of local soul, hip hop and R&B proponents Opensouls, as well as her band Tyra and the Tornadoes. Hammond has lent her powerhouse vocals to the likes of @Peace, Ladi6 and Scribe, and stepped out solo this year with her first single Stop Messing Round, which will be followed in 2014 with a much-anticipated debut EP.

Joining Tyra Hammond in support is Stinky Jim, DJ, music writer and head honcho at the Round Trip Mars record label, whose deep crates and immaculate selections will ensure Lee Fields’ one-night-only appearance at The Powerstation is kicked off in style.

Since the late sixties, North Carolina native Lee Fields, has amassed a prolific catalogue of albums and has toured and played with such legends as Kool and the Gang, Sammy Gordon and the Hip-Huggers, O.V Wright, Darrell Banks, and Little Royal. With a career spanning 43 years, releases on twelve different record labels, and having toured the world over with his raucous-yet-tender voice, it's mind-blowing that the music he's making today with Brooklyn's own Truth & Soul Records is the best of his career.

With a catalogue that ranges from James Brown-style funk to lo-fi blues to contemporary Southern soul to collaborations with French house DJ/producer Martin Solveig, Lee Fields has done it all. Today, with The Expressions--Truth & Soul's house band, Lee Fields continues to evolve, enmeshed into the group's sweeping, string-laden, cinematic soul sound. Their first full-length together, My World, released in June 2009 on Truth & Soul, was called "one smoking mother of an old-sound soul record" and a "throwback done right" by Pitchfork.

While drawing comparisons to groups like The Moments, The Delfonics, The Stylistics, and--of course--James Brown, My World has been able to create a space of its own due to the group's desire to interpret and further the formulas of good soul music rather than parrot and imitate them.

"In a curious case of musical evolution, the older Fields becomes, the closer he gets to perfecting the sound of soul that he grew up with as a young man," so said music writer, scholar, and DJ Oliver Wang about Fields in a piece for NPR in July 2009. The latest LP from Lee Fields and The Expressions, titled Faithful Man, is the next step towards this perfection. A step that may find Fields and The Expressions, finally being bestowed the contemporary soul music crown.

Don’t miss out on what is sure to be an extraordinary tour of both contemporary and throwback soul, as Lee Fields and The Expressions play NZ for the first time.

Sat 11^th Jan 2014 – The Powerstation – Auckland
Tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster and Conch Records (Ponsonby)

For all show & ticketing info go to http://www.muchmoremusic.co.nz/

WATCH LEE FIELDS: YOU’RE THE KIND OF GIRL VIDEOhttp://bit.ly/1bB2FE8
WATCH TYRA HAMMOND: STOP MESSING AROUND http://bit.ly/1dHtDeL

http://www.leefieldsandtheexpressions.com/

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