Anticipation is a 15-track debut CD by Jua, a new artist from Upper Marlboro, MD. Sounding like a blend of Luther Vandross, Will Downing, Jr and Freddie Jackson, Jua takes a sensual approach to his music, resulting in a HOT album, with silky lyrics and vocal arrangements that make you pause and take notice.
Filled with emotionally intense love ballads like Vandross or Jackson and a sparse, "unplugged" musical style of Seal and Maxwell . Andicipation clearly puts the focus on Jua's vocal prowess and the interesting content of his lyrics. That being said, more variety in instrumentation would have, overall, been a plus, and would have made this "quiet storm" even more interesting.
Despite any criticism of the arrangements, this CD is a worthy introduction of Jua to the adult soul music world. With eight awesome songs ("Higher," "Everytime," the title track, "Free Fall," favorites "Dream," "Lost Paradise," "Just Breath" and an excellent rendition of "That's All") Jua has staked his claim as a hot young artist to watch.
If you want to fall in love again with quality music and love ballads, Anticipation is a CD that you MUST add to your music collection. Highly Recommended.
Jua: Press
October 07 saw the release of the debut Anticipation the debut album from Jua, from Upper Marlboro, Washington DC, whose vocals make a nice to your album collection.
The album begins with Higher where Jua is giving hope to a woman who has been hurt and disappointed by past relationships, and telling her how his love can take her higher. The nice bass and gentle groove make me believe this is a single in the waiting to be released. Jua delights his listeners with mid tempo tracks and a few ballads on this 15 track album, which is very good for a debut. Jua’s vocals never disappointed me on any of the tracks, whether he was singing falsetto like Maxwell or just soothing you like Luther Vandross. It is clear he has spent time refining his voice and working on his craft; his ‘Best Choral Member’ award, and work with the Blackbyrds have not been a fluke. Unfortunately there were a couple of times that the production of the songs let him down, and did not do him justice. This album is definitely for the lover of good vocals and serious lyrics about love and relationships, there are no hip hop beats, booty bouncing or club anthems on this album. One of my favourite tracks is Push it Further where Jua is tempting his date to stay after dinner, let’s just say listening to that track had my mind racing and a big smile on my face. Temptation has Jua affirming that he is not about to mess up his current relationship by being enticed by his ex- that witch! Whilst Every Time has Jua affirming that he will be there every time his woman needs him, and how he has so much to share with her. The title track Anticipation is a gentle upbeat song about how he is looking forward to meeting this girl and all the plans he has for her, and how he has been thinking of her since they last met up. Lost Paradise shows the other side of Jua, where he is singing about love which has turned sour by betrayal, and he is bitter. Jua wraps up the album with what is my favourite track of the album, a cover of the classic That’s All. Jua shows he can sing jazz as well as soul; a truly amazing song. Overall a good debut album from an independent artist, and I believe with the right backing and slicker production Jua can go really far.
Radio Interview with Gary Spence of Solar Radio!!!
It’s a warm autumn night, and locked away in a penthouse in North London is Jua, the amazing singer from Upper Marlboro, Washington DC, who has just released his debut album Anticipation. Born in Chicago Illinois, one score and nine years ago, Jua, which means ‘the sun’ in Swahili, has been making his mark in music singing in all state choirs, gaining music scholarships, and singing with the legendary group the Blackbyrds; not bad for the guy who until recently was ready to leave the music world behind. Jua invited JustSoul for an exclusive tête-à-tête about his past, present and what it really means to push it further.
Ricardito: So what are you doing in London?
Jua: Well I’m in London mainly for a vacation, I haven’t been here for 7 years and I had been promising to come back every year. London is a good platform for music; the artists I am into are pretty popular here more than so in America even though they started there like Alexander O’Neil. The level of appreciation is deeper here than in America. Lots of DJ’s here are playing my music here far more here like on Jazz Syndicate Radio, Solar and Star Point Radio. As I am here, I thought it was a good idea to physically present myself to people that enjoy my music.
Ricardito: How long have you been singing?
Jua: I’ve been singing all my life from about 5 or 6 years old. I am sure my grandfather still has some really embarrassing videos of me singing and dancing. I have done everything from school plays, school choirs, all state choirs, to high school productions.
Interview
Ricardito: Cool do you play any instruments?
Jua: I play a little trumpet and euphonium/baritone. I've taken several piano lessons, but I honestly cannot play a lick; oh I did play in the marching band too.
Ricardito: Tell me a little about your musical journey.
Jua: I won a music scholarship from my school choir to go to college, and from that I was also able to audition and join the All Atlanta Choir. Every Christmas they’d have a joint concert with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, so I got to do that for a couple of years in a row. My mum also joined the choir so we would drive from Alabama to Atlanta for rehearsals. I also did weddings, pageants, whatever was happening I would be there, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do, I wanted to be a cardiologist for a long time. After a while I thought about lawyer and being an entertainment attorney for a record label because at least then I’d still be in the industry. I got to college and got the singing bug again and started singing at sporting events; you know singing the national anthem. The more feedback I received and the more I thought about it I decided the more I really wanted to do this. So I did some open mic events when I was in London in 2000 which went really, really well, but then I’d go back to saying “I don’t know”.
Ricardito: Really? Why was that?
Jua: Well after college I had a bad situation with the choir I performed with, which led me to not sing for a while. I got down on myself because there was a lot of jealousy and negatively within the choir which I don’t deal with. I felt that if this is where my gift is going to bring me to then I don’t want to do it, I don’t see the point I’ll do something else.
Ricardito: Wow, sorry to hear that. So what did you do next?
Jua: Well I went to Chicago after graduating in a degree in English from Emory University and put off going to law school for two years in a row by working in a law firm in Chicago for some really crappy people instead. Then Bilal came out with his debut album, and I went crazy. I remember listening to his album and thinking I miss music, and it really inspired me. So I found a vocal coach in Chicago (Sandra Davis), she really focussed me and pulled it out of me even when I didn’t want to practice that much. She helped me find my voice from not singing at all. We only did about an hour to 90 minutes a week. She introduced me to new songs like That’s All, to see if I like it, but I never thought of that music for my voice. Sandra helped me strengthen my voice and find my voice as at that point when I was in a state of limbo about what to do. You know a lot of people said I should do gospel music, but I did not want to do it because although I love to listen to it I don’t think my voice fits that.
Ricardito: So when did you decide to start the album?
Jua: Well last year it really hit me that I wanted to do music, and that I should undertake it on my own not wait for a label to come for me. I thought to myself “I’m not singing anywhere so who the heck knows who you are?” The album took over a year to complete; I started in July 2006, but due to travelling, illness, and just getting myself back together it took a while.
Ricardito: Tell me about some of the themes on the album.
Jua: Well some of songs were about me and how I was feeling at the time, there are some that were dealing with friends, there are some about stuff I saw on tv and I thought were cool.
Ricardito: Well there are lots of songs about love and the different aspects of love…
Jua: Yes I talk about different themes. Well I know you like the song Push it Further but I was uneasy about that song at first. Everything else on my album wasn’t as sexual, and it’s not explicit or anything but it wasn’t till I read the lyrics alongside the music that I thought yes “this fits its cool”. I was going for a sensual tone, but at first I was like “errrrr I don’t know about this, and all that stuff about the hips”. Invisible really appealed to me, its one of my favourite tracks in just the way it made me feel. I just picked the topic I knew it would be relatable to some people. It’s like Sade 2007, when I heard the saxophone, the beat and everything. I mean my whole thing was that I wanted to make a quality album and be relatable to people. I didn’t want everything to sound the same because that would be boring, but I didn’t want to make something that is not me just to be commercial; it had to fit my voice.
Ricardito: How do you feel about your album?
Jua: I am very proud of my album, I feel like I have achieved. I like the mix of the songs, I like that a lot of people have commented on the writing. My perfect trio or formula is excellent lyrics, excellent music then excellent vocals. People have different taste on vocals, some people may not like my voice, but then lyrical content is very important to me as it is a representation of who you are as an artist. [The album] is a journey from when you meet someone to the in between phase when you are into a person but you are not sure, to when you are in love to when it’s all over and literally that’s all.
And before I knew it that was literally all the time we had with Jua. Check out Jua’s debut CD Anticipation available on itunes and many other musical outlets, and be entranced by this talented young man.