The unexpected death of Prince has shook the musical world, not only because of dying at an early age, but mostly, because we have lost one of the greatest talents of pop culture of the last 50 years. The Many Faces Of Prince is a heartfelt tribute to his work, and shows the lesser known facets of his career, like his beginnings as part of the funk group 94 East. You will also find his songs in versions performed by pop stars like The Art Of Noise, Ice T, Gary Numan and Sheila E. Finally, The Many Faces also takes a tour through his influences. The Many Faces Of Prince is a compendium of fantastic music that will delight not only fans of the artist but also anyone who wants to dive into the legacy of one of the greatest artists of our time.
CD 1-The first professional music steps of Prince are related to Pepé Willie, his cousin's husband. Guitarist, singer and big fan of funk music. Willie formed in his native Minneapolis the project 94 East along with Prince and bassist André Cymone. The group was active between December 1975 and February 1979. In The Many Faces we present the brief and almost unknown legacy of the band, which includes a song written by the Prince himself (Just Another Sucker), where he already shows sparks of what later would become his signature style. Since 1979 (with the release of their second self-titled solo album) Prince gradually becomes a superstar, with impressive sales and praise from both critics and fellow musicians. CD 2 is a tribute to some of his biggest songs featuring 12 fantastic versions performed not only by some his closest collaborators (like Sheila E), and funk royalty (like drummer Buddy Miles, formerly of Jimi Hendrix's band) but also by some of tecno-pop biggest music stars that were big fans of Prince such as Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Gary Numan, Heaven 17 and Dead or Alive. in addition, we include the revamped version of Kiss by Art of Noise with Tom Jones which became a hit in its own right (# 5 in the UK, # 18 in the US). To complete the CD, we included two songs by fDeluxe, the project led by the singer and keyboardist Susannah Melvoin (twin sister of Wendy Melvoin which was The Revolution's guitarist). Along with Lisa Coleman, Wendy would go and form the duo Wendy & Lisa, and they are part of the fDeluxe project as instrumentalists and songwriters in the two tracks we present here (The Vigil and Lover). CD 3 is a fascinating journey through the influences of Prince, from the torn lament of James Brown in Please Please Please (which influenced him greatly with his grand -and sometimes overacted- gestures), to his exploration of new sounds clearly inspired by the psychedelic funk of Sly and the Family Stone and Papa Was A Rolling Stone by The Temptations. Now we are ready to dress up in purple, sit in our favorite chair and enjoy this fascinating journey through the unknown world of Prince.
