Track Listing

1. Moon Bossa - Julie Dexter, Simmons, Khari
2. My Baby Don't Love Me - Julie Dexter, Watt, Ben
3. Salt Sea - Julie Dexter, Mendes, Sergio
4. Venusian - Julie Dexter, Simmons, Khari
5. The Dove - Julie Dexter, Johnson, Dana
6. Sea and Sky - Julie Dexter, Simmons, Khari
7. Fooled by a Smile - Julie Dexter, Jackson, Martin
8. Promises - Julie Dexter, Basia
9. What Do I Do - Julie Dexter, Dexter, Julie
10. Wave - Julie Dexter, Jobim, Antonio Carl
11. Fooled by a Smile - Julie Dexter, Jackson, Martin
12. Venusian - Julie Dexter, Simmons, Khari
13. The Dove - Julie Dexter, Johnson, Dana
14. Moon Bossa - Julie Dexter, Simmons, Khari

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #231731 in Music
• Released on: 2006-07-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Album Description
Julie Dexter - born and brought up in Birmingham, England is now living in Atlanta is one-time featured vocalist with Courtney Pine's group, and received three well solo independent albums to her name. Khari Simmons - bass player with India Arie since 2001 still tours and records with Dexter. Simmons is the leader of his own acclaimed soul/jazz group Jiva, and also a resident of Atlanta. They are working together for the first time on a very special album "Moon Bossa." An album very much in Khari's preferred musical style - Soul Bossa - a style featured on classic albums by the likes of the Soul Bossa Trio, Sergio Mendes and George Duke, to which he adds a personal touch by mixing it with modern soul and dance music. He describes it as "a homage to various styles of bossa nova" from the simplicity of vocal and guitar to a mix of soul and hip-hop.

Customer Reviews

Oustanding CD that needs to be heard.
Julie Dexter has such a unique "Quiet Storm" flava in her music. This CD has some great musical elements throughout it. An on point, multi-cultural treat with all the Bossa Nova and Neo Soul mixed with some Acid Jazz. I love the vocal arrangements. The layering and blending of Julie's voice is beautifully presented. Glad the price dropped a bit so I could finally afford this import. It is on my current playlist. Given the lack of imaginative music these days, this CD will remain on my playlist indefinitely.

It keeps getting betta
She always keep me affected. Her energy portrayed in this project is illuminating and I dig it. You know only listen, tap, but think.

Very Good!
This is the domestic release of Julie Dexter & Khari Simmon's "Moon Bossa" cd. The feature was actually out in September or August of 2006 in Europe and Japan, which is something else considering that I believe both of them currently consider Atlanta home! Khari Simmons is a member of the nu-soul group "Jiva", while Julie Dexter's a very talented soul singer herself having released a few albums on her own. She's also featured with quite a few different DJ's and producers, like Thomas Naim (of French duo Tom & Joy and Limbo Experience) and various London producers. Khari seemed to be focused on this sound, as Jiva's album "Sun & Moon" had several elements of bossa influences to it.

I think this is a great cd. Mind you, it's not Brazilian... there's a tribute song to Antonio Carlos Jobim, and there is bossa but it's interpreted with a more US soul vibe. That's nothing particularly new - bossa's not just limited to Brasil, some may even argue of it being so influential in Italy as well. Anyways, after owning it for quite a while, I can honestly say that it's one that really blew me away initially. The CD starts out with the title track and Julie's voice and the arrangement give you a great sense of what to expect throughout the album. Her voice is so soft and so feminine... lovely. That's followed up with "My Baby Don't Love Me", which seems to be more contemporary than most of the other songs on the album... almost like a 'safe song'. It's nice, but not quite as impressive as the more daring works. Another good track is "Dove", although that song tends to actually wan just a bit. But I think the real gems on this album are "Sea & Sky", "Venusian" and a nice rendition to the classic 'Wave'. What's neat about Sea & Sky to me is the cool vibraphone and gentle-ness in the bossa. It has a really innocent feel in a dark yet free sort of way. Venusian's a great song wit ha good build to it, and "Wave" features Alex Lattimore, who's no stranger to Khari Simmons as he's featured in loads of works of his and with Jiva. There are a few remixes towards the end of the album, one of which is done by Incognito, but the highlight there was the remake to "Venusian". Finally, the piano reprise of "Moon Bossa" is fantastic, albeit sad, somehow.

I like this album and certainly recommend it. When I first picked it up, I gave it five stars, so why the four stars now? Perhaps I played it out (odd for me), but I found myself skipping a few of the tracks in the album, and some of the tracks seemed, as strange as this will sound, syrupy, like "Salt Sea" and "Promises", which I didn't really care for. Also, while Sea & Sky was one of the highlights to me, the recording of it was a little suspect in the beginning of the song. But overall this was a terrific effort with some sweet tracks to it. If you do like this, you'll also want to check out Jiva's feature album, Donnie's album and Khari Simmons "Soul Com Bossa" cd, although that one, at least I think, was a Japanese import release. It was very much in the mold of this album and has a near identical approach and sound - Julie Dexter even features on one of the tracks there. You might also love "The Rebirth" as well, and you may like Sergio Mendes album which he did with The Black Eyed Peas.