The Soul Vendor: Mica Paris

Friday 31 July 2009

Mica Paris - Stay 1998

Cooltempo Records 12COOLDJ 334

I have written much of Mica Paris elsewhere on this blog. Seek & ye shall find? Basically, I love her voice and believe her to be one of the worlds finest vocalists. For me, she was the standard by which all others were measured during the early 90's. With regard to her material, she lost her cutting edge during the mid 90's but her voice was still in fine fettle.

Written by Sylvester Stewart, Stay was a Sly & The Family Stone classic from their 1973 album Fresh. Originally entitled If You Want Me To Stay, I recall hearing it opening an episode of ER (sorry, I love it) a few years back and being surprised at how good it still sounds.

Mica covered the song on her 1998 Black Angel album, the Radio Edit of that version is on here. She works the vocals into her own groove, staying with the original song but making it her own and doing a fine job as expected. Of course, The Soul Vendor requires a little more to make the shelves look impressive and on this promo release we have Blacksmith back in the house again. The Brooklyn Funk Mix puts some bounce into the song giving it a whole new lease of life while the Blacksmith Club Rub takes us into head nodding territory but letting Mica's vocal smoulder. Summer Funk for the Bar-B-Que, you just know this is bad!