Air Waves

U.S. Proves More Receptive To Heavenly Hybrid Of Soul, Club From Britain's Jai
TENDER CHOPS: Up-and-coming English export Jai knows not only how to dress for dinner, he knows how to cook.
On his debut album, 'Heaven,' on RCA, the dashing 24-year-old singer/songwriter serves up a sampler of inviting styles, at times weepy and trippy, at others breezy or trance-like. His influences vary broadly, from the soul solutions suggested by Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Motown, even the blues, to tasty tidbits of '80s hip-hop, Chris Isaak, and the blue-eyed soul of George Michael.
It's a project in which the sum is greater than its parts. Easing from a bold, fluid tenor into an angelic, periodically androgynous falsetto, Jai (aka Jason Rowe) originally meant for the collection to serve as nothing more than a practice run--to represent an experimental quest for a distinctive sound in the studio.
'We made a record because we liked the music we came up with. I never intended for it to be a big record,' Jai says. 'We considered this a development thing, planning to begin things on a small level.'
Oh well. A year ago, Jai took a three-song sampler to U.K.-based M&G Records, which signed him immediately. In October 1997, label chief Lord Michael Levy sold the company to RCA (and BMG Entertainment International for the U.K. and Ireland), which released the album in all territories last fall. So much for a modest beginning.
To date, Jai has failed to gain much acclaim in his homeland, where the project has garnered acidic reviews and little airplay. In the U.S., while the first single, 'I Believe,' failed to conquer mass-appeal audiences, reviewers have fawned over his blend of styles, old and new.
'I'm stunned by the fact that so many people get the record,' says Jai. 'I always expected a certain percentage to get it, but every single (U.S.) article has been on my side. I'm a working-class kid from a small town; it's so stunning to have any sort of press in the first place.'
RCA is now giving Jai a second push in the U.S., with the release of the album's title track, an easy-flowing midtempo slice of pop pep. However, underneath the happy-go-lucky melody of the track--co-written by Jai, album producer/business partner/guitarist Joel Bogen, and programmer/keyboardist Christopher Bemand--is quite a political punch.
'During the recession of 1991-1992, I had a lot of friends working as repossessors,' says Jai. 'A lot of people were thrown out of their houses and lost their mortgages, and I had a problem with the government. It's a conscience song based around the idea that my friends seemed to have no qualms about doing this.'
Jai stresses that political mantras aren't usually his thing--'I don't like people ramming something down my throat'--but he deliberately set up the track to be spiked with a lashing alongside its sprightly melody. 'The idea was for this simple, pop track to be a bit of light relief on the album, but I wanted the lyrics to be dark amid the sweet melody,' he says.
Ideas steeped in idyllic individuality appear to be the standard for Jai, who was raised by his free-thinking, divorced mom from the age of 11.
'My mum was a real big fan of music and used to sit me down and say, 'I really love this,' and then I'd really get into it,' he says. 'Music was around me every day. I was listening to Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, the Beatles. It was a little different from what my peers were listening to.'
As he grew up, Jai became entranced with the club scene, where he was influenced by early hip-hop. Meanwhile, he played in and out of bands but never hooked into the right vibe. 'They were small and not really doing anything,' he says.
In 1994, Jai packed up and moved to London in search of serious musicians to bounce ideas off. 'I felt like I needed to get out, because I was quite stagnated. I wasn't really developing my own sound.'
Then one night, he met Bogen in a club, where the two bonded over a bitch session on how bad music in the '90s was. Bogen owned a recording studio, and in short order, the two were developing the sound that would become Jai.
With that, Jai already had a built-in image. As a fan of the mod generation, the artist has dressed in pinstripe or tastefully patterned suits since he was a teen. His hair is cropped short, his lips curl slightly with mischief, and his blue eyes penetrate as if your life is his to read.
'I've always loved the suits and all that,' he says. 'It all really fits into what I would consider the traditional mod movement of the very early '60s. It's all about soul.'
Another intriguing element: In its original concept, the 'Heaven' album was to be released with no photos, leaving people guessing 'Who is this, what is this?' he says, a man, woman, or a group? 'Then we had this really great photo session, and everybody seemed to want to go with the pictures (of which there are 18 in the CD jacket).
'It still works, because the best thing is doing a live show. There's no studio trickery here, and then you've got the shock tactic of the suit, the short hair. I wanted it to be very masculine.'
Further employing his savvy, Jai theorizes on his degrees of success: why he's shunned in his home country, why Americans are noticing, and how far he has to go.
'Things have gone horribly wrong in the U.K.,' he says. 'Maybe it's a combination of the roots of the music and the whole look of the thing'--factors that in the U.S. have likely fortified his development.
'This is Marvin and Stevie country. In the U.S., this is what people grew up loving. It's really nice that people are getting off on it,' Jai says.
He also has a theory as to why his singles have yet to click with radio programmers, despite the critical favor: ' 'Heaven' doesn't sound like anybody. You can't put me into a category. It takes time for people to get things musically when there's a bit of culture shock.
'There are so many female vocalists and so few males (on radio). I'll tell you, though, if there were a hundred male vocalists with high voices and short hair out there now, I believe this would be a big hit, because I think the song is good enough.'
To support his belief, Jai says he is primed to 'promote the hell out of the album.' He's currently doing club dates through the first week of March, then takes a quick break at home in London. From there, it's all about hope.
'There are two ways this thing could go,' Jai says. 'Because there's a certain amount of originality in this music, it could be absolutely massive or it could flop tomorrow. I prefer to think the first will happen.'

(c) BPI Communications, 1998 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED