(vocal jazz, soul) [WEB] M'balia - Halfway There - 2015, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Singer/Songwriter M’Balia Releases Her Fearless Debut CD
Produced by Orrin Evans, Halfway There introduces a Philadelphia singer with a stirring voice and a sharp wit
Pursuing your dream can mean following a long and arduous road. Philadelphia-based vocalist M’Balia marks a significant landmark along that route with the release of her debut CD, Halfway There. Produced by pianist Orrin Evans, the album introduces a bold and fearless new voice, a singer willing to approach familiar standards from an adventurous perspective, and a songwriter with a caustic wit and piquant attitude born of lived experience.
The title Halfway There stems from M’Balia’s frank realization that encouraging words don’t always reflect stark realities. When chasing after an elusive goal – a life in jazz, for instance – one is often urged to carry on by being told that they’re “almost there.” That’s not always the case, according to the singer.
“This song is really about folk in my life, like Orrin, who believe when I don’t, who see when I can’t,” she says. “At the halfway point when you can almost see where you going, you have the choice to just throw in the towel and turn around. A lot of times you’re not even close to being there but you make the choice to keep walking, keep moving forward.”
While she’s taken a number of detours along the way, M’Balia Singley has never stopped moving forward. She grew up in Philadelphia as “the youngest daughter of two hard working Black folk from the South,” singing four-part harmony around the kitchen table while her father strummed the guitar. His tastes ran the gamut from anything from Don McLean’s “American Pie” to the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” to Solomon Linda’s “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Piano, voice and guitar lessons were simply facts of life in the Singley household.
M’Balia studied history at Yale and law at Temple University, but never completely turned away from music. She sang in rock and a cappella groups by night while studying during the day, writing and performing on the singer-songwriter scene during a brief stint in New York City at places like the Nuyorican Poet Café. She played in wedding and party bands and recorded demos with a pre-fame John Legend – one of which, “Stay With Me,” made it onto his debut album and garnered a Grammy nomination.
Jobs and family briefly derailed M’Balia’s pursuit of a career in music, but it was also her two children that inspired her to rededicate herself to her first love in recent years. “Telling your children to go after their dreams is a cliché; I thought they should see me going after my dreams. They’ve seen that it’s not easy and there have been sacrifices, but it’s been honest. And that’s who I want to be.”
“Honest” is as good a one-word summation as one could come up with for the music on Halfway There. The album boasts a gritty looseness and a daring spontaneity, with M’Balia’s soaring, potent, dauntless voice leading the way. The band features an all-star line-up of Philly stalwarts, including Evans, bassists Mike Boone and Madison Rast, drummers Gene Jackson and Byron Landham, organist Luke Carlos O’Reilly, and guitarist Tim Motzer.
Working closely with Evans, M’Balia successfully sought to capture a nervy, live sound. “I wanted it to sound alive,” she says. “I wanted it to sound like you’re standing in the studio with us. I wanted it to leap out of your speakers.” Pausing for a moment, she adds, “I wanted it to be a little imperfect.”
She succeeds in that as well, capturing impromptu moments that a less confident artist might wave off as “mistakes.” Take her coy, vividly swinging take on “If I Were a Bell.” Boone had been taking the first solo but on the fourth take, Evans accidentally launched into his own. He stops himself, but Boone tauntingly echoes the pianist’s opening statement before breaking out into his own, typically concise but eloquent solo. That’s the take that made the album, immortalizing a charming glimpse into the two men’s 20-year friendship on and off the bandstand.
The album kicks off with a disorienting moment of free improvisation that ultimately coheres into M’Balia’s “You Don’t Need & I Don’t Have,” a tart commentary on financial hardship that blends blues with what the composer calls a “creepy clown, Tom Waits-ish thing.” She continues, “That about sums up how I think. It’s also a real nice peek into where Orrin and I meet, which is a really weird place.”
Actually, they met in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia, where they were neighbors for a year in the early ‘00s. They’ve remained friends, with Evans encouraging her to stick with jazz. With Halfway There, she joins a roster of singers whose recordings Evans has helmed that includes Denise King, JD Walter, Joanna Pascale, and Michelle Lordi.
The two pair up for an intimate ballad rendition of “There Is No Greater Love,” which is later reprised in a brisk, uptempo version with the full band. M’Balia draws inspiration from Abbey Lincoln for her stealthy, grooving take on “Softly, As In a Morning Sunrise,” and recollects her early days in West Philly’s Greater St. Matthew Independent Church for Duke Ellington’s classic “Come Sunday.”
One of the album’s highlights comes with M’Balia’s stirring gospel-soul original, the moving and inspirational “Don’t Bet Against Me.” The album concludes with a deeply personal performance of the Songbook chestnut “That’s All,” which draws upon struggles that M’Balia has endured with her family.
Whatever the struggles and obstacles she’s faced, M’Balia Singley has emerged with an evocative voice and a strong personal vision. Halfway There may reveal a horizon far closer than it appears.

M'Balia Singley - vocals
Orrin Evans - piano, background vocals
Mike Boone - bass (tracks 2, 5, 6, 7, 9)
Gene Jackson - drums (tracks 2, 5, 6, 7, 9)
Madison Rast - bass (tracks 1, 3, 8)
Byron Landham - drums (tracks 1, 3, 8)
Luke Carlos O'Reilly - organ
Tim Motzer - guitar
Produced by Orrin Evans for 88 Keys Productions
Recorded at Tedesco Studios, Paramus NJ, & Forge Recording, Oreland, PA
Engineered by Tom Tedesco & Brendan McGeehan
Mixed by Anthony Tidd