Kashif – Who Loves You?
Kashif, responsible for dozens of timeless soul songs of the 80s (Evelyn “Champagne” King, Melba Moore, Dionne Warwick, George Benson, Howard Johnson, Meli’sa Morgan, Whitney Houston) releases an expanded version of his “Who Loves You” CD which originally came out in 1998. The new disc comes with five bonus tracks, three of which had been released on his 2003 album “Music From My Mind” plus the track “Right Now” and a live version of “Help Yourself To My Love”.
His first two solo albums from 1983 and 1984 rate among my all-time favorites, simply because he started to work with a very special synth and keyboard sound which defined a lot of the music from that era. His songs “I Just Gotta Have You (Lover Turn Me On)”, “Stone Love”, or “Baby Don’t Break Your Baby’s Heart” have become classics. As have his songs for other artists: the immortal “So Fine”, recorded by Howard Johnson in 1982, was written by Kashif as well. And think about Evelyn “Champagne” King‘s brilliant 1982 LP “Get Loose” which included the groundbreaking “Love Come Down” or my favorite from that particular album, “Back To Love”.
And the list is endless: Kashif, who recorded with the group BT Express from 1974 to 1978 before he became a solo artist, is also responsible for the still highly attractive “Never Say Never” album by Melba Moore (1983) or the mesmerizing “Inside Love (So Personal)” by George Benson. In 1985, he was part of the production team on the first Whitney Houston LP and came up with her hit “You Give Good Love”.
Kashif also wrote a successful book (“Everything You’d Better Know Abouth The Music Industry”) and does a lot of community work for which he received a lot of accolades and awards. There is also a fantastic episode about him on the TV One series “Unsung” and the good news is that he is coming to Europe after a well-received gig with friends at LA’s Catalina Bar & Grill on November 12th: Michael Jones (his real name), who turns 56 on December 26th, will play London’s Jazz Cafe on January 6th. And there will be a new double CD project coming in February titled “Love & Music”. So with this latest compilation CD, where Kashif worked with Gary Tayor, Gerald Albright, Sheila E, Liz Hogue, and Johnny Britt, I’m more than happy that this, may I say, legendary, artist is back on track.
