Soul singer and songwriter Angela Johnson has begun to recognize her place in the musical scheme of things. “I’ve played some very amazing places like Baltimore’s African-American Festival, Rams Head Live and Blues Alley many years ago,” she said. “I’m glad to be a part of such history, but I’m out to make my own history as well.”
Sunday night she is one step closer to her goal with a return appearance at Blues Alley. She will be singing and performing on acoustic piano accompanied by her bass player, Trevor Allen, and drummer Leslie Cleveland. She will also be using local backup singers Deborah Bond and Kenny Wesley. She calls them all “fantastic singers and artists in their own right.”
| Onstage |
| Angela Johnson |
| Where: Blues Alley Jazz Supper Club, 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW |
| When: 8 and 10 p.m. Sunday |
| Info: $25; bluesalley.com |
Most of her tunes will come from her own catalog of music, which consists of the recently released solo albums “They Don’t Know” and its intimate follow-up “Got to Let It Go,” both recorded on the Purpose label. Johnson teases she will also perform a few covers by Teena Marie and Stevie Wonder, one of which is “All I Do.”
“This is the kind of music that lasts forever, and this is the kind I want to make — music that will live long past my years on this Earth,” she continued. “These [songs] make me feel the soul music; the expression that touches every corner of your soul, the kind we need to continue to exist on this Earth.”
Years later, as a frontwoman for the rock band Cooly’s Hot Box, which began at the State University of New York at Purchase, she recorded on the Polygram and Virgin labels before deciding to make a go of it on her own, a decision she has never regretted, as it brought her to Russell Johnson, her manager and husband.
Angela Johnson says she will start her Blues Alley set in a mellow mood at the keyboard with her vocalists, drawing the audience in, she says, “rather than hitting them with something loud” at the show’s beginning.
“I love interacting with the crowd, and my artists will each have their own moment to shine,” she said.
