62 year-old Charles Bradley has been through a lot. Having spent most of his life trying to make ends meet, he began working as a chef in kitchens from upstate New York to Alaska, while simultaneously moonlighting as a James Brown impersonator under the name Black Velvet. Bradley never quite got his due in the funk scene, until he was recently discovered playing in a small bar in Brooklyn by Daptone Records’ Gabriel Roth. Roth introduced Bradley to Thomas Brenneck, and from there a musical collaboration began.
Bradley began working on No Time For Dreaming with Tommy Brenneck and Homer Steinweiss at Dunham Records studio in Williamsburg, and the result is an album of deeply personal, sometimes autobiographical, soul tunes that convey raw human emotion – unmistakably the work of someone who has seen it all. The distinctly powerful sound of the album is created by The Menahan Street Band, a supergroup composed of member of The Budos Band, Antibalas, El Michels Affair, and Lee Fields and the Expressions.
Included below are two of my favorites from the LP.
No Time For Dreaming is out now on Dunham Records. Purchase here
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