Nicki Richards

About Nicki Richards Nicki Richards is the real deal - a world class singer, songwriter, producer, arranger and performer who brings the sizzle and the thrill back to that rarified realm known as "music beyond category." Born into a household rich in jazz and the gospel of the Primitive Baptist Church, yet raised on the radio of the ..70s and ..80s - when airwaves overflowed with amazing R&B, rock, pop and dance music - diva Richards delivers a dizzyingly eclectic musical palette to your eardrums. Every composition is hers and she arranged them all in her living room laboratory of beat banks, keyboards, computers and microphones. ......... Nicki Richards' long-awaited new album is simply titled, Nicki - 17 songs for the 17 years she's been away since her 1991 debut Naked (To the World). It's 76 mind-blowing minutes of the hippest trip in the galaxies aboard Starship Nicki, with guest stars bassists Marcus Miller, Will Lee and Victor Bailey, pianist Joe Sample, the legendary Tower of Power Horns, gargantuan drummer Dennis Chambers, harmonica maverick Gregoire Maret, guitarists Ciro, Sherrod Barnes and Monte Pittman, a sprawling A-list of singers that includes Lisa Fischer, Cindy Mizelle and Nicki's mom Donna Blackmon, and Nicki's rock steady co-producer, mentor and drummer, Mr. Lenny White (of Return to Forever and Twennynine fame). "SHOCK-A-LOCK-A!" ............. Her sophomore CD reflects not only the sounds of her most lasting influences, but how their timeless masterpieces assisted Nicki in sculpting signature statements all her own. To listen to "I Have Loved You Always" is to imagine Stevie Wonder reconstructing Joni Mitchell's "Two Grey Rooms" while ensconced somewhere deep in the Spanish countryside. Listening to "That Ain't Right" puts you in the mind of Prince teasing, "Dig if you will the picture of Sly Stone having his way with Percy Mayfield's 'Please Send Me Someone to Love.'" The ego strokin’ “Say What” finds Nicki recalling nightclub glory days over the beat of Taana Gardner’s bedrock “Heartbeat” groove with a mid-song break straight out of Miles Davis’ “So What.” And if you fantasized about what Nicki's CD opener "Let's Dance" might taste like, it would be Tom Browne's "Funkin' for Jamaica" and George Duke's "Reach For It" blended over Krush Groove'd ice with an extract of the GAP Band's supremely chocolaty "Shake." Sip at your own New York funk-fortified risk! ........... The answer to the obvious first question of why has it been so long since we've heard from “Darling Nicki” is an involved one. Though her debut album was miles ahead of almost every "R&B" CD out at the time, record company turmoil took an unfortunate toll on Nicki the artist, yet freed her up to make an outstanding living as an in-demand A-list session and touring singer for the likes of Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, Lenny Kravitz, Frankie Knuckles, LL Cool J, Anastacia and the Reverend Al Green, to name just a few heavyweights. She married and divorced, saw the world, and lived and loved enough for two lifetimes - memories that fuel her heavily autobiographical Nicki CD...because the artist within her never slept. ........... That meant holing up in her home studio, sacrificing bright sunny days for a sometimes painful but ultimately cathartic stretch of soul searching and soul-baring. Out poured songs about longing for that one supreme love for the ages, cleansing paeans for clarity and understanding, and anthem-like prayers for humanity following both 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. Most important were the songs that found her turning a personal corner to manifest change within herself. "I was ready to take the bull by the horns on all fronts," Nicki says, "and pull my life in a different direction. At first I was going to title the album Things Are Different Now, but it was too much of a mouthful." ........... Nowadays – rockin’ concerts with Madonna - Nicki fiercely leads the churchy closing vamp of “Like a Prayer” before crowds of 85,000 to 90,000 people! ............ -A. Scott Galloway (Read Full Bio in My Blogs)