Ledisi, ‘Turn Me Loose’ ** (out of four)
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No musician forgets his or her first Grammy nomination. But Ledisi, an earthy R&B singer from Oakland, Calif., probably remembers hers for a unique reason: Announcing the nominees for last year’s prize for best new artist, Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters admitted that he didn’t know how to pronounce Ledisi’s name, presumably because he had never come across it. (Needless to say, Grohl had no trouble with Taylor Swift and Amy Winehouse.) For the record, the name rhymes with “legacy” — appropriate for an artist whose breakthrough album, 2007’s “Lost & Found,” reflected a proudly conservative neo-soul sensibility.
Ledisi’s new set, “Turn Me Loose” (Verve Forecast), feels like the work of someone determined to make a deeper impact; it’s glossier and more youth-oriented than “Lost & Found,” with beat-wise production by rap-friendly veterans such as Raphael Saadiq, Chucky Thompson and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. In the album’s opener, “Runnin’,” Ledisi yowls like a punk-rock Tina Turner over a hard-knocking groove by Chief Xcel, half of the hip-hop duo Blackalicious.
The singer sounds perfectly comfortable with her sonic makeover on “Turn Me Loose,” particularly in the pair of cuts produced by the crafty Saadiq.
Yet for all the sleek settings and the vocal firepower Ledisi deploys, “Turn Me Loose” doesn’t really present an artistic persona any more memorable than the earnest traditionalist from “Lost & Found.”