The incomparable Sy Smith
- Written by Thomas Estey
As a producer, Sy displays an expected but not-before seen maturity on SRWGC. When she does play keys and synth bass, she does both effortlessly; but she brings in some of the top sidemen when the songs call for a different touch. Sy enjoys international acclaim having toured/recorded with some of the best-known recording artists including Whitney Houston and Meshell Ndegeocello. She’s currently a featured special guest on tour with Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti and is featured on his Grammy-nominated DVD “Live In Boston”. SRWGC features many of these previous/current bandmates including legendary percussionist Sheila E. (with whom Sy has toured/recorded) and violinist Lucia Micarelli (bka Annie on HBO’s Treme). Vocally, Sy’s soprano soars effortlessly; she shows off a sure-footed whistle tone (a la Minnie Riperton), confident jazz chops (Sy has been featured with numerous orchestras in tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, including at Carnegie Hall & Kennedy Center), a full-out commanding belt in her upper register – but usually her whimsical, conversational tone is utilized to tell the stories on this project. Still carrying a strong pen, Sy reveals victories won and battles still being fought as she allows her listeners into the most intimate spaces she’s ever exposed. The title track is a powerful, if haunting, ode to people who come through the harshest of trials and still bloom as beautifully as roses. Sy is that defiant rose throughout this entire project.
Sometimes A Rose Will Grow In Concrete: The Little Album That Could…by Sy Smith
My name is Sy Smith and I’m a singer, musician, songwriter and as of recent, a producer. I just released my 5th studio project “Sometimes A Rose Will Grow In Concrete” back in February of this year (Feb 16, 2018 to be exact) which I wrote and produced - in its entirety - myself. My sound has been described as “nu soul”, “progressive soul”, “neo soul”, “electronic soul” and “underground soul” among other genre-bending/genre-avoiding descriptors; I’ve even been called by some of my peers the “Queen Of Underground Soul” (which is humbling). I’ve certainly allowed music to be my cerebral playground over the years - planting my feet firmly in the foundations of funk and soul, and then dipping my toes in futuristic sounds, swinging wildly in jazz rhythms, playing peek-a-boo with house, and hop-scotching back to my soul roots whenever I feel the need to return “home”. The need to be free from labels and liberated from categories has certainly not made me an easy subject for most music critics who tend to see R&B as a monolithic genre; these critics tend to view R&B as devoid of nuance and usually devoid of substance too. I never fit that bill. So, maybe I’m not R&B as far as they’re concerned. Thus, I’m probably in some sub-genre that’s not worth writing about.
This has been the dilemma for many of us underground soul artists. The fact that many of us don’t sound like what’s typically played on “urban” radio, and the fact that most of us are independent artists has made our journeys pretty daunting and difficult. Venues assume we’re either rappers or we’re making music like Beyonce (no shade, I stan pretty hard for Bey). Labels assume we’re earthy, patchouli-wearing, incense-burning remnants of the early 2000s. Radio stations… well, they’re in the business of radio. Even though “urban” tends to be synonymous with “Black” or “African American”, most of the urban stations are owned and operated by huge corporations that have no true interest in the Black community or Black culture. And because of all of this, the people for whom we make this music, these words and sounds that come from our very souls, rarely get to hear wind of us, let alone actually hear our MUSIC.
This piece is not really supposed to be about the struggles of being an independent soul artist though. I’m supposed to be writing about why I switched up my sound. But I feel like I should give you some backstory on who I am and what I do before I talk about this new project. The fact is, I didn’t consciously seek to switch up my sound for “Sometimes A Rose Will Grow In Concrete” (I know this is a long title. I’ll abbreviate henceforth to SRWGC.) When I started recording SRWGC back in late 2015, I was just doing what I always do, writing songs and recording them as they came to my head. No goal in sight, just doing what I do. The first song I wrote and ended up KEEPING for this album was probably the title track though, and that’s when I knew I had stumbled on the song that would be the driving force behind this album. That’s when I knew that I needed to have my “singer/songwriter” moment for once, because I had definitely been running away from the piano for the last few years (it’s really hard to get the confidence to play when you’re constantly touring with some of the greatest pianists walking the earth - I’m looking at you Geoffrey Keezer and Taylor Eigsti). But when I wrote/recorded that song “Sometimes A Rose…” I knew that I needed to sit at my piano and write my entire album just like this. I needed to mold the chords/rhythms/harmonics around my voice’s tendency to swing a little to the right, and my melodic tendency to go left. I needed to be able to play every song on this album with a full band, or a tight jazz trio, or just by myself - in the comfort of my home. Just me and my piano. And that’s how this album and its sound was born.
I was intimated at the prospect of producing my project myself, but I knew this would be the only way to achieve the sound I wanted. I know and have worked with so many talented producers who offered to help. I also reached out to some producers who never returned my calls. LOL. So I took on this task, and simply took my new project song-by-song. Some tunes made it. Some didn’t. My engineer Grant Nicholas played a huge role in helping me bring this sonic vision to life too. He obliged my antics, my seemingly strange ideas and my sometimes very backwards way of working when most other engineers would have just looked at me like I had three heads. I called my good friend/fellow producer Ty Macklin to do drum programming (I still haven’t convinced myself that I’m a decent enough drum programmer. Yet.) after I laid rough ideas to a click (for tempo). When Ty returned the song to me with his drum idea, I’d get to work laying synth bass, replaying keyboard parts, sometimes bringing in horns (or getting my engineer to dust off his trumpet!) and bringing in Jairus Mozee (aka JMo The Great) to lay guitar on most of the tunes. Part of being a great producer is calling the right cats for the sound you want to achieve, everybody can’t play everything. So, for two songs, I felt like I needed an actual jazz trio to play the songs I’d demo’ed in order to give those tunes the authentic sound they called for; thanks to the Myron McKinley Trio for bringing “Now And Later” and “Perspective” to life! I’m also into layering live elements with programmed ones, so I had drummers Lee Pearson and Stacey Lamont Sydnor add fills and dynamics to songs “Camelot” and “Sometime A Rose…”. In the same vain, I had violinist Lucia Micarelli do a string arrangement for the previously mentioned tunes too. And the legendary Sheila E. provided the percussion sounds that harken right back to the Motherland on “Catastrophe”.
All in all, I am truly proud of this album, but this feeling isn’t unique to most recording artists. Our albums are our babies, and we usually love on them like newborns; watching each development unfold excitedly, and telling our friends about each first step and first word ad nauseam. What is different for me, though, is hearing these songs being played on the radio and listening to them as their PRODUCER. That’s pretty exciting for me. I’m brimming with pride just thinking about that first time I heard the title track being played on Stevie Wonder’s Inglewood-based station KJLH - that’s a new kind of thrill for me. Especially as women are still dreadfully under-represented in most music circles (as producers, engineers, and session players), and even as Recording Academy chief Neil Portnow tells women that we need to “step up” if we want to be represented (really, dude?); I am proud of the entire effort that went into this project. SRWGC will always be my baby, just like my other albums have been. And yes, the sonics might feel different than some of my other works, but the DNA is all the same; authentically and unapologetically Sy Smith - the little girl from DC who could.
If you’d like to learn more about me/my music, find me online at the following places:
All of my music, including this new album, are available for purchase at iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and streamable at all major streaming platforms. Thank you.
Photo: Shawn Carter Peterson
