New York, NY (Top40 Charts) One of the most iconic and instantly recognizable voices in music history is back in a way you've never heard before. Multi-platinum artist
Macy Gray makes her Chesky Records debut with her new jazz-infused album Stripped, an intimate offering recorded live on high resolution audio in a decommissioned Brooklyn church around one binaural microphone. Out on
September 9th, Stripped features new original songs, intriguing covers, and stunning new arrangements of her classic hits. Today, she released the brand new original song "Annabelle".
CLICK below to listen to "Annabelle":
"'Annabelle' is one of my favorite songs on the album," Gray told Billboard who premiered the track earlier today. "It speaks to all the suffering you go through when you're trying to quit a habit. At the same time the mood of the song inspires a craving for a big fat joint."
Paired with an awe inspiring jazz ensemble and recorded over the course of just two days with no overdubs, Stripped gives Macy's voice the space and freedom to truly shine. It features drummer Ari Hoenig (Joshua Redman), trumpeter Wallace Roney (Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis), guitarist Russell Malone (Diana Krall), and bassist Daryl Johns who met Gray just one day before recording began. Together, they even wrote one of the album's new tunes, "Lucy," on the spot during the recording sessions.
Though Gray is a multi-platinum pop artist, she thinks of herself as a jazz singer. She brings that intimate, late-night feel to Stripped with the subtly searing new tune "Annabelle" and "The Heart," while turning "
I Try" into a glimmering study in muted guitar, anchored by an authoritative upright bass. It's one of five previously recorded songs that Gray and her ace band reinterpret. "
Sweet Baby" becomes taut and urgent, "
Slowly" unfolds into a slow-burner, "
The First Time" has a torchy elegance, and "She Ain't Right for You" bobs along on an airy reggae backbeat. She sings with an aching sensitivity on a cover of Bob Marley's "
Redemption Song" and draws from a very different sensibility for the other cover: Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters."
With the premiere of Gray's reimagined version of "
I Try", ELLE Magazine noted "The iconic R&B singer sounds just as sultry as ever."
Macy Gray was born and raised in Ohio, and moved to California for college. She began singing in her 20s and released her multi-platinum debut On How Life Is in 1999, winning a Grammy for �I Try.� Gray is also a skilled actresss and has had small roles on several TV shows as well as movies, including Training Day with Denzel Washington and Shadowboxer with Cuba Gooding Jr. Additionally, she's made cameo appearances as herself in films like Spider-Man (2002) and television shows like Ally McBeal. In 2012, she appeared in the film The Paperboy with Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, John Cusack, and
Nicole Kidman which was released at the Cannes Film Festival. Gray was also a contestant on the ninth season of Dancing with the Stars in 2009.
Track List:
1) Annabelle
2) Sweet Baby
3) I Try
4) Slowly
5) She Ain't Right For You
6) First Time
7) Nothing Else Matters
8) Redemption Song
9) The Heart
10) Lucy.
