W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

I’m not sure how I stumbled upon Jalen N’Gonda and his debut LP, the aptly titled Come Around And Love Me which was released a couple of weeks ago, but boy oh boy am I happy that I did.  To make discovering him when I did even better was the fact that he was going to be playing New York City at the relatively new venue, Racket on September 16th.  How often does it work out that you hear or read something about a new artist only to find out that they played locally the previous week and you’d missed? 

The 28 year old N’Gonda was born in Maryland where he grew up on a steady diet of his father’s classic Motown record collection along with a decent smattering of jazz, old school soul/R&B and hip hop.  When he was 19 he decided that a move to Liverpool would be the best way to advance his career and he’s been a Liverpudlian ever since.

Having recently toured opening for The Sacred Souls as well as sets at Newport Folk and Montreal Jazz Festivals, not to mention quite a few more than successful UK and European headlining tours, Jalen and his 4 piece band were ripe to hit the States on a headlining tour here as well.

I’d never been to Racket, which was the club he was slated to play but I’d been meaning to get there for some time now.  I must say that in it’s former incarnation as The Highline Ballroom, I had not been a fan but I had heard good things from some well respected show goers so I was particularly stoked to be catching Jalen here last Saturday night.  The opener, local neo-R & B rocker Abby Jeanne has been playing the DIY network of clubs here in Manhattan and Brooklyn for some time now.  Abby and her band took the stage promptly at 8PM as advertised (always appreciated) and she took no time at all to jump right into a spirited and quite fun set of originals, both new and old mixed with a great selection of covers, particularly the closer of Eric Burden’s “(Don’t Let Me Be) Misunderstood” which had the crowd dancing like they were at a sock hop circa 1962.

By the time Jalen and band hit the stage promptly at 9 PM, the room at Racket was very nearly filled and from the immediate reaction of the crowd, the majority of those in attendance were already quite familiar with the material from Come Around and Love Me.  I stated earlier that the new album was aptly titled because there is no way around the fact that N’Gonda’s music is very much romantic lover’s music.  Anyhow the set started off with the final cut off of the album, “Rapture” with Jalen’s funky guitar strum kicking things off before his falsetto voice sings the opening line of “These are the times I long to see you”.  It didn’t take much more than a minute of hearing Jalen’s sultry singing to realize that god damn, this dude could sing.  Sure you’d already heard some amazing vocals on the album but to be able to reproduce them in a live setting is an entirely different story.  N’Gonda clearly is the real deal.  Next up was the lead track off of 2018’s EP Talking About Mary, “Don’t You Remember” a slow sexy tune that harkins images of slow dancing on a smoke filled dark dance floor just before closing time.  It proved to be a perfect number for Jalen to show off his much fuller and deeper natural (non falsetto) vocal abilities.

N’Gonda and his band would go on to showcase another one off the new one called “That’s All I Wanted From You” before jumping into the first cover of the evening, Eddie Kendricks’s “Day By Day” and Jalen absolutely killed it.  We would be treated to another three new songs from Come Around interspersed with affable and humble stage banter which came across as 100% natural with no forced or rehearsed incantations.  It was during one of these discourses that Jalen informed us that he was suffering from a massive hangover which might push some of what he was saying into incoherency.  None of which came to fruition quite honestly.  He would go on to play another cover by yet again another master, in Smokey & The Miracles’s “Special Occasion” and yet again, he would have made Robinson proud with his take on the song.

The set would continue with mostly new material which was just fine by me (and virtually everyone else in the room).  Jalen would end things with the first song (and title track) from the new one “Come Around and Love Me”.  After a brief (and very loud) encore break, the band keyboardist took to the stage to invite Jalen back out, to which N’Gonda humbly did, but unlike any of the previous songs presented thus far, it was just Jalen and his Fender Jazzmaster for this one.  And what came next was the biggest surprise (for me) of the evening.  In quite a departure from the Motown soul based R&B to which N’Gonda is making a name for himself with, Jalen started playing Jimmy Reed’s classic delta blues number “Baby What You Want Me To Do?”  before he was joined again on stage by his band for two more off the new one which rounded out the entire album having been played.

All in all, it was a fantastic evening of retro soul by a newcomer who deserves some serious attention.  Jalen displayed that what we hear of his voice on his recorded output is for real.  Its certainly not a byproduct of modern studio wizardry.   Furthermore he has a comfortable yet humble stage presence which you can realistically see growing exponentially as his popularity likewise grows.  And if there is a god up above (especially one who’s a fan of classic 60’s soul), Jalen N’Gonda’s star is going to shine brighter and brighter as the word gets out. 

Abby Jeanne

Jalen N’Gonda