Growing up in New Jersey, Victoria White began her musical life listening to jazz artists like Sarah Vaughn and Miles Davis. Eventually her interest grew to embrace a wide array of styles and genres to form her own eclectic sonic blend. Fortunately now for fans of jazz, rock, folk and R&B, it was all of these influences that began the rudimentary bedroom recordings of the songs she began writing as a teenager. Years before she began working with famed R&B guitarist Sheldon Reynolds —who produced her highly anticipated debut album The Upside, set for release May 13—White was recording her voice on one tape recorder, her guitar on another and mixing them to create coolly primitive tracks of her earliest material.
Well known for his 14-year-stint with the legendary R&B group Earth, Wind & Fire as well as playing with The Commodores and Chicago, Reynolds discovered White when he was on a music industry panel at the Oasis showcase in Myrtle Beach. When she sang her beautiful original song “Girl Of Your Dreams” with just an acoustic guitar, he felt he was listening to a major artist in the making.
Legendary EWF founder Maurice White, who was looking to sign outside artists for the first time to his Kalimba Music label, is excited about making Victoria White the company’s first official artist, Kalimba was known primarily for its Earth, Wind & Fire releases, including The Promise (2003) and a re-issue of In The Name Of Love (2006). The singer’s poetic, easy grooving first single “Can’t Buy Love” ships to smooth jazz and Adult Contemporary radio outlets on March 16, followed by a major internet based marketing campaign.
White composed every song on the album by herself with the exception of the ambient, acoustic guitar driven “Forgiven,” a co-write with Reynolds which has a distinctive vibe that brings to mind an exquisite, jazzy soul simplicity. The thick-bass bottomed, “fighting through adversity” themed track “Keep On” features the lush, beautiful piano of one of smooth jazz’s most acclaimed performers, keyboardist Brian Culbertson.
Completely reflecting the DIY spirit of today’s best indie singer/songwriters, White earned a small but loyal batch of fans from her self-recorded project Home, which she sold via CD Baby. A handful of the songs from that collection were revamped for The Upside. White adds, “On both those recordings and for the original tracks for the new album, I realized I couldn’t afford to hire people to help me, so I had to teach myself to use the computer recording equipment. I just believe that if an artist has something important to say, a lack of financial resources should not stop anyone from chasing their dreams.”
When asked what inspires her she says, “In the end, what inspires me most is the possibility of reaching someone with my music…and I’m grateful now, for the chance to be heard.”
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