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Chezere’s Musicology

Chezere has been compared to everyone from Shirley Bassey and Tina Turner to Lenny Kravitz and Nenah Cherry. French Vogue Magazine once quoted "If Lenny Kravitz and Nenah Cherry had a child, she'd be called "Chezere" and she'd put her parents to shame!"

Chezere is one of only a few artists who appeal to a mass and varied audience, which is reflected through the diverse musical styles released under her name. One moment she's doing a killer "House" track; thent it's Acid Jazz with UFO and Urban Species; and just when you think you've got her figured out she hits you with a soaring rock vocal.

Let’s take it back…all the way back: 1990 - 1995 In London, Chezere’s career really kicked off when she was given the opportunity to be the vocalist for Big Audio Dynamites’ second band “Screaming Target”. Screaming Target comprised of punk rock legend, Don Letts, Greg Roberts and Leo Williams, in collaboration with producer and remixer Tim Bran. Their debut performance at the Transmusical Festival in France received rave reviews. They released one critically acclaimed album ‘Hometown Hi-Fi''.'This was the launching pad which saw Chezere convert her natural insatiable energy as a vocalist to engmatic stage performer.

Not long after her time with Target was over, Chezere would lend her skills as a performer to another London sound, Urban Species.. While many other bands who surfaced in the "acid jazz" explosion of the early 90s suffered a premature demise, Urban Species battled through promoting; Peace, Love and Unity and having fun doing it. Urban Species are one of the UK's most innovative Black music groups and remain one of UK Raps most successful exports to date. After opening for Bands such as MC Solaar, Jazzamatazz and the Stereo MCs Urban Species quickly developed a fierce show and were fast becoming known for their live exploits. It wasn’t long before they were a headline act and would earn the reputation as one best live act around prompting UK newspaper The Guardian to say “if there is a better live act, this reviewer hasn’t seen it."

Chezere toured with Urban Species as their lead vocalist during the promotion of their ground breaking Classic Album “Listen”. Described by Melody Maker as “Possibly the finest Debut of the year ” and “The best album Talkin Loud have ever put out” by Sky Mag, the album received universal acclaim and was an immediate success. Commercial chart success came with the hit singles “Spiritual Love” and ”Brother”, firmly confirming their arrival and unprecedented exposure of a UK rap act. The Band was also finding success across Europe, most notably in France even managing to eclipse that of their UK achievements. In the States they picked up a following in New York’s underground, receiving considerable airplay. The album was released on London Records after a jaw tropping performance at the New Music Seminar in New York , a showcase that blew away both media and public alike. Over the next 18 months they would take their unique blend of Hip - Hop to places as far a field the Far East and Africa. Working with artist like Blues legend Terry Callier and respected UK Rappers MC Mello and Blak Twang, while also being in good company of a rosta of talented and up and coming artist such as MJ Cole, Elizabeth Troy, Jeffery Darnell and Imogen Heap, enables doors to open for Chezere to embark on her solo album with Virgin Delabel France.

Upfront…and Personal - Chezere : 1995 - 1999, a project three years in the making was Chezere’s debut album. Not only did it contain every ounce of her funk, soul and rock style within the songs it also contained a collaboration of her musical black book Derrick McKenzie and Stuart Zender who were the drummer and bass player for Jamiroquai. Chezere also collaborated with Simon Hale (Strings Director for Jamiroquai), along with members from Incognito and Galliano “Upfront”, and left an impression on every ear that came in contact with it. The experience she gained whilst being a part of both Target and Urban Species - along with the experiences of working with and for numerous projects – has been the catalyst for her first solo effort, where she toured with acts such as Eagle Eye Cherry, Guy Chadwick and Massive Attack .

Lenny Kravitz himself demanded to meet Chezere to let her know that he did not like her music, he loved her music! Lenny was also anxious to have Chezere tour with him for all of his European leg of his tour; unfortunately Chezere had other obligations that she had to fulfill.

Collaborations: 1997 - 2000 The Roots, who were once an opening act for Urban Species, asked her to lend her vocals on their Things Fall Apart tour throughout Europe singing their signature song “You Got Me”. Chezere also teamed up with Japan’s UFO (United Future Organization) to do “Friends (We’ll Be)” on their 3rd Prospective album. The German master re-mixers Jazzanova liked the song so much they decided to add their own magic to it and to this day the song remains popular.

You can catch her sultry tones in nearly every lounge and bar that plays cool beats around the world. House; did anyone say “Where’s the party at?: 1999 - 2005 House Music is a part of Chezere and has been since the early days so it came as no surprise when Roy Davis Jr. remixed her single “Where Does Your Mind Go?” from “Upfront…and Personal”. The song was an instant club hit.

Then “We Are One ” dropped a collaboration with Ernest St Laurent making it to the top five in some of the world’s dance charts. Paris couldn’t get enough of her and soon she had Bob Sinclar of Yellow Productions and The Troublemen of KIF Records knocking on her door.

Keeping up the heat, it was on to DJ Mark Grant and the single “Hey You” in Chicago; then she collaborated with Olive Records and brought out her own project “The Core”. You can even get some of her songs from that project as a ring tone!

Itchy Feet; Gotta Tour!: 1990 - 1999 Chezere has played some of the biggest festivals in Europe such as Glastonbury, Reading and The Phoenix Festival in England; the Nice Jazz Festival in France and The Roskilde Festival in Denmark, just to name a few entertaining crowds from the hundreds to the tens of thousands.

The Present: After many years in music Chezere moved to Los Angeles in 2004, a city she has called home before. Initially Chezere decided to take a sabbatical for a short period of time but soon found out music was in her blood. In 2006 she joined up and coming soulful rock band Whut4 as the lead vocalist. The project went on for over 2 years and was given the accolade of "Unsigned Artist of the Month" by Keyboard Magazine in October 2007. However, on the brink of the album release the producer decided to withdraw from the project. Chezere decided to not let this faze her and since the latter part of 2008 has been recording tracks with producers from LA to Chicago.

With music at the forefront of her ambitions Chezere is once again ready to take on the world by storm. The story is not over yet.