Let Me Take You There
Published/distributed: Los Angeles: Keycan Records, © 2008
Publisher number: 88450104256
Performer: Cheryl Keyes
Archive Call Number: ARCD 7175
SEE ALSO EARcast no. 1: An Interview with Cheryl Keyes
In 1975, Smokey Robinson released an elegiac album and song entitled “A Quiet Storm” that became the basis for a new radio format by that name and which in turn influenced the development of a number of later styles of African American music such as smooth jazz and neo-soul. Targeted to a largely black, urban and adult audience, Quiet Storm music tends towards lush orchestrations, slower tempos, intimate themes, and impassioned yet restrained performances from instrumentalists and vocal stylists who draw from rhythm and blues, gospel, soul and jazz. Typically programmed in late-night time slots, these formats still thrive at a number of local and college-oriented radio stations in urban pockets across the country. The music appeals as much to lovers as to quiet evenings of personal reflection and welcome solitude, tends to be more sensual than sexual and is often as spiritual as it is soothing.