Soul on Jazz

1	My Indiscretions 4:25
2	Dear Ruby (Ruby, My Dear) 4:42
3	Compared to What 4:59
4	Nature Boy 4:57
5	Bop-Skip-Doodle 4:24
6	Unrestrained 3:48
7	Mercy, Mercy, Mercy 4:51
8	Keep Your Head to the Sky 4:56
9	Sometime Ago 3:47
10	Tell Me a Bedtime Story 5:14
11	On the Red Clay 5:01

Barnes & Noble

Vocalist Philip Bailey is best known from his days with Earth, Wind & Fire and his own R&B hits, including “Easy Lover” with Phil Collins. But there’s also a not-so-hidden jazz-inflected singer within this talented stylist. On the aptly titled Soul on Jazz Bailey takes on standards (“Nature Boy”), jazz adaptations (“Dear Ruby,” a vocal version of Thelonious Monk’s “Ruby My Dear”), “On the Red Clay” (from Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay” and Herbie Hancock’s “Tell Me a Bedtime Story”), and modern jazz classics (Eugene McDaniel’s “Compared to What,” Chick Corea’s “Sometime Ago,” and the Cannonball Adderley hit “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”), among other material suited to his expressive and adaptable falsetto. Bailey lends a contemporary sheen to it all, never reaching for a forced retro feel that wouldn’t sit well with his own genuinely funky sensibility. With just-right assistance from producer Bob Belden and a host of fine players used to skipping between genres, Bailey pulls off an unexpected project with panache. William Pearl

All Music Guide

There was a strong jazz vibe running through some of Philip Bailey's sides with Earth, Wind & Fire. On Soul on Jazz, his second release for Heads Up International, co-producer Bailey remakes several jazz standards, some with new lyrics by his son, Sir Bailey. The foray is most successful on Thelonious Monk's "Ruby My Dear," a percussive take on Gene McDaniels' "Compared to What," and Joe Zawinul's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy." R&B and jazz stylishly intersect on the smooth airy ballad "Unrestrained." Bailey redoes the EWF classic "Keep Your Head to the Sky," giving it a mellow sheen that's close to one of his past cuts, "Children of the Ghetto." On that and his dusky cover of Herbie Hancock's "Tell Me a Bedtime Story" and the loopy "Bop-Skip-Doodle," Bailey flexes his legendary falsetto. More jazz-oriented than Dreams, Soul on Jazz benefits from the sharing of production chores with Myron McKinley, Bob Belden, and Scott Kinsey. The album is definitely on track. Ed Hogan