Eddie Chacon & John Carroll Kirby
New York’s wonderful Le Poisson Rouge club has an exciting show coming up this month. Five-paw-rated producer, keyboardist, and composer John Carroll Kirby (latest release “Septet“) and singer Eddie Chacon, who the club describes as the “subversive R&B crooner”, will join forces on September 13th for an intimate evening in the round, on stage in the center of the room with the audience surrounding all of the stage. The show will only take place in LA and New York this fall.
Eddie, certainly best known for his work in the early 90s with Charles & Eddie and their big hit “Would I Lie To You”, last year released his amazingly intimate, introspective, and quiet solo album “Pleasure, Joy And Happiness” on the boutique Day End Records, produced by John who also plays all keys and co-wrote the album. The Moog-heavy album with Eddie’s ethereal and sometimes plaintive vocals is pretty short with a run of less than 30 minutes, but excitingly effective and haunting. Forget all the remixes which are circling around, but rather concentrate on the raw and refined original album which starts out with the superb “Trouble” featuring John’s wicked Moog work. Eddie’s voice is everything from a near whisper to a confident, falsetto-fied cry.
Eddie retired years ago to start a career as a fashion photographer and creative director but thankfully circled back to singing again. The album also includes some wistful and restrained percussion work by Lemar Carter, Kanye West’s drummer, and the eight pieces of the album simply ooze class, timelessness, and deepness, such on “My Mind Is Out Of Its Mind” or the repetitive, confident “Wicked World”. Says John about the collaboration: “What a rare and cool challenge it was for me to help Eddie re-emerge after a long hiatus. I was excited to produce a record for him that captured the chill, laid-back wisdom and easy vocal mastery he has that you don’t see that much these days.” Adds Eddie: “I used to think to myself, if I ever make a record again, I’d want it to be a record you’d have to be my age to make.”
