She is the embodiment of what it is to be soulful. Her voice, rich,
commanding, passionate used as an instrument of truth. She is for real,
blessed with the ability to reach out and touch with her God-given gift. As
the lead vocalist with the Grammy winning, much acclaimed Sounds of
Blackness, Ann Nesby's powerful vocal presence has legitimately earned her
the oftentimes over-used tag, "diva".
Whatever musical medium she tackles - be it gospel, R&B, dance or pop, Ann Nesby will move you with her no-holds-barred musical honesty. As a result of the success of The Sounds of Blackness, Ann has achieved international recognition since 1990, when the group first signed with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis' Perspective Records. Ann's distinctive vocals have been heard on all three albums by the group. Ann's emotive singing style has been featured on U.S. and European hit singles by the Sounds including "Optimistic", "The Pressure", "Testify", "I Believe", and "I'm Going All the Way".
With the Sounds of Blackness, Ann has had the opportunity to perform at the Grammys, The NAACP Image Awards, The Soul Train Music Awards, The Essence Awards, The World Music Awards and gospel music's The Stellar Awards. She's performed at the Clinton White House and during the 1994 celebrations for the World Cup she performed before packed venues around the globe. She's thrilled audiences from concert halls in London to churches in Los Angeles with her powerhouse singing style, touring the U.S. in 1991 and 1992 with superstar Luther Vandross and winning rave reviews from critics and fans for her soulful sound.
nn's musical beginnings were firmly rooted in gospel. She recalls her early
years growing up in Joilet, Illinois: "Both my parents sang, my father had
his own quartet while my mother had her own gospel group. They would
rehearse with both groups at home, there was always a piano close by so
music was always right there in the household."
By the tender age of three, Ann had begun sharing her special innate vocal talent at Mount Zion Baptist Church. Two years later, she had her first appearance before a large audience, when as the youngest president of the church Sunshine band, she traveled to Chicago to perform at a Baptist Convention. "My mother - who was a big fan of Mahalia Jackson's - used to teach me about performance, vocal inflexions, and how to express what a song was about, " says Ann. "I'll never forget the first couple of songs I did in church. I got scared when the peopled started shouting "sing, baby, sing!" Don't forget I was only five and I thought they were mad at me so I started crying and stopped singing. My mother took me aside and explained that the people were not screaming at me but just feeling the Spirit. She said that God was going to use me to bless people with my voice..."
Traveling to different events with her music teacher Ida Mae Richardson and her father, Ann was recognized as a truly gifted vocal prodigy. A performance in Chicago on a show with the Edwin Hawkins singers proved to be a turning point: "I adored their music and when I saw them sing live, I knew then, that one day it would be me standing in front of an audience.
While gospel favorites like Andrae Crouch, the Reverend James Cleveland and Shirley Caesar were constant influences, Ann was also exposed to R&B. "My mother was a big Aretha Franklin fan and I would hear all of her music. I got together with two other girls in school: I'd mimic Aretha, someone would be Gladys Knight, and someone else would be Mavis Staples. We won a local talent contest with Aretha's "Chains Of Fools." One day a friend of the family snuck us over to Chicago. We were just kids...but we won another contest at the High Chapperel night club and that led to another performance for the National Elks Convention in Peoria."
n 1984, Ann attended James Cleveland's Gospel Music of America Workshop for
the first time and her obvious talent resulted in three recordings
associated with the workshop. One of those recordings featured Donald
Lawrence (musical director for Stephanie Mills and others) who had invited
Ann to participate in the musical entitled "Sing Hallelujah," which
initially premiered in Cincinnati in 1986. The critically-acclaimed show
moved to the Village Gate in New York, with veteran industry executive Jerry
Wexler as one of its producers. "That was my first experience in theater and
I really loved it," says Ann. "We spent six months in New York and during
that time I was really inspired to consider a recording career."
Returning to Rockford, Illinois (which became her home in 1974 when her father became the pastor of the Macedonian Baptist Church) in 1987, Ann began working with longtime friend (and now manager) Tim Lee on her first demo. "We sent this one song I'd written called "Lord, I need You" to Nashville for this contest... and it won second place!" Ann smiles.
Although she had been planning a move to Atlanta, a trip to Minneapolis to see her sister Shirley Marie Graham literally changed Ann's life. Graham had been singing with the Sounds of Blackness for several years, performing with the group (first founded in 1971 by musical director Gary Hines) in their annual productions.
hen Ann came to visit, the Sounds were rehearsing "The Night Before
Christmas" and, unbeknownst to Ann, her sister and Hines had been 'plotting'
to have her rehearse. She recalls, "Gary asked me if I would mind reading a
few lines since one of the characters in the play wasn't there. Then he
asked me to sing 30 seconds of any song of my choice", an offered was
immediately extended to Ann to assume the role in the play she had read for.
After giving it due though, Ann accepted that role and a month later, found herself back on stage with The Sounds in "Music for Martin," a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King. Moving to Minneapolis in1988, Ann became a full member of the Sounds of Blackness. That same year superhitmakers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, accompanied by superstar Janet Jackson, came to see the group perform "The Evolution of Gospel." It was at that performance that Jam & Lewis began conversations with Gary Hines to record the group.
In 1991, the great critically-acclaimed, "The Evolution of Gospel" was released as the first album on the label, spawning Top 10 hits on the R&B, Dance and Gospel charts with "Optimistic", "Testify", and "The Pressure", all of which featured Ann on lead vocals. The set also garnered a 1991 Grammy Award for the Best Gospel Album by a choir.
Since that time, Ann's life has been full of activity. With members of "The Sounds, she participated in the 1992 recording of the Grammy award-winning "A Soulful Celebration", a gospel-styled version of Handel's Messiah, produced by the legendary Quincy Jones. In between constant touring both in the U.S. and Europe, Ann began nurturing her skills as a songwriter, working with fellow Sounds Keyboardist Jimmy Wright, as well as with producers Jam & Lewis.
wo of Ann's collaborations ("Soul Holiday", and "It's Christmas Time," both
co-written with, among others, her talented daughter Jamecia) appeared on
The Sounds 1992 release, "The Night Before Christmas", while she co-penned
"I'm Going All The Way", "He Took Away All My Pain", and "A Place In My
Heart" for the 1994 best selling album "Africa To America: The Journey Of
The Drum", singing lead on all three tunes.
In 1994, Ann also began writing for other artists: Patti Labelle cut her tune "The Right Kind of Lover", which reached the #1 position on the R&B charts and went gold, while Gladys Knight recorded "Home Alone" from her certified gold "Just For You" album, also released in 1994. Says Ann, "Just having the opportunity to write songs for two of my all-time musical mentors was incredible, I feel so blessed."
Now in 1996, Ann is embarking on a new chapter in her musical journey: she's recording her much anticipated first solo project. What can eager music lovers expect? "A true album, some real singing, the kind of music I learned to sing when I was growing up!" With Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis masterminding the project and the lady herself contributing her own tunes, the release of Ann Nesby's solo debut is sure to be a major musical event, firmly establishing Ann as a real'n'righteous, honest-to-goodness, one-of-a-kind talent.