Jesse Boykins III: Sophisticated Mood Music

Jesse Boykins III is a new jack with old soul.

In listening to Boykins's work, it's easy to marvel over what's in it: A natural voice--used with restraint--over laidback tracks, augmented with an increasingly rare device--a horn section. It's just as simple to take comfort in what is--for the most part--not there: Premature, unneeded vocal runs and the excessive hip-hop slang ubiquitous in the work of younger singers and the down home signifiers often found in songs recorded by their older counterparts. 

The artist providing this sound was born in Chicago, spent a few years in Jamaica and was raised in Miami. While growing up, he was exposed to artists as disparate as Jimmy Cliff, Jodeci, and Stevie Wonder. 

This upbringing created an artist who brings depth to genre conventions. On "Itis," he makes what could have been an extended, hackneyed analogy a smooth statement of infatuation. (“Girl, you give me the ‘itis, and I cannot hide it. They're so many flavors, I just wanna savor. ) Another attribute is frequently repeating the chorus several times (as on "Tabloids"), but instead of sounding as if he's run out of ideas, his sentiments get more sincere with each go around. Boykins, who earned raves for his 2008 LP "The Beauty Created," provides layered textures perfect for rendezvous or introspection, which led him to become the first unsigned artist to be nominated for a Soul Train Award. 

Jesse Boykins III has sparked a soul revolution, bringing tradition into the future.



Byron Lee, contributor