Angie Stone
@ Pigeon Island, St. Lucia Jazz Festival
11 May 2008

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Biography

South Carolina native, Angie Stone began singing at First Nazareth Baptist Church as a child, and attended local gospel performances by her father’s quartet and by the Singing Angels and the Gospel Keynotes. She had a well grounded if uneventful childhood, enjoyed sports and was offered several basketball scholarships upon graduation. Her love of poetry was the only indication of the songwriter she would someday become.

Stone saved every penny she could from a variety of go-nowhere jobs to record some demos, and at age sixteen formed the rap trio, The Sequence, with Gwendolyn Chisholm and Cheryl Cook…step one on Angie’s climb to the top. Their hits for Sugarhill Records, “Funk You Up,” “Funky Sound,” and “I Don’t Need Your Love,” showcased Angie’s vocal chops to the world beyond her Carolina home, and by the mid ‘80s she had worked with Mantronix and Lenny Kravitz and formed the neo-soul trio Vertical Hold, who signed with A&M Records. The Vertical Hold CD included the singles “Seems You’re Much Too Busy,” and “ASAP,” and Stone had climbed another rung on the music business ladder.

By the mid-‘90s Stone was working with Lenny’s cousin Gerry Deveaux in Devox, recording one album, Devox Featuring Angie B. Stone, released by Toshiba/EMI in Japan, AND she met her new recording mentor, Clive Davis.

In 1999 Angie Stone released her much-heralded debut solo album, Black Diamond, on Arista Records. For the hard-working singer/musician it felt like she was nearing the top rung of the ladder.

The word on Stone’s Arista launch was that she was a modern day-Aretha Franklin providing an exuberant return to classic soul in the tradition of her heroes, Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield. She brought a whole new energy and sensibility to the material and a whole new spectrum of fans joined the Angie Stone fan club when they heard her Top 10 R&B hit “No More Rain (In This Cloud).” “Black Diamond” was followed by the J Records’ release “Mahogany Soul,” “Stone Love,” and, a live recording of her greatest hits, “Stone Hits”: The Very Best of Angie Stone. The Arista/J Records CDs made Angie Stone a certified-gold CD artist, a national and international star, and a much-in-demand guest on the albums of her peers and friends. But Stone remained unfulfilled, stuck on a plateau. She still had not reached the top of the ladder, and felt like she was never going to get there. And then last year (2007) Stone had a bout with congestive heart failure.

Enter Stanback and Stax Records, bringing with him a whole new creative family for Angie Stone to call her own. The reactivated Stax imprint, acquired by the Concord Music Group, is committed to the power and legacy of its forbearers, and poised to be a dynamic new force in contemporary R&B music. Stax holds a critical place in American music history as one of the most popular soul music record labels of all time — second only to Motown in sales and influence, but first in gritty, raw, Southern-steeped soul music.

As one of the first major signings to the new Stax Records, Angie Stone has found a home, and is diva-ready.
When Stax Records’ Collin Stanback entered Stone’s life, she was feeling stalled in her career -- stuck at a plateau. The opportunity he presented to her to be one of the debut artists on the newly activated Stax label offered a challenge that she was more than ready to take on. “The art of love and war” was released in 2007.

“Collin made me stretch,” Angie Stones smiles. “Well enough was definitely not good enough. He encouraged me to go where he knew I could go. And even good enough was not acceptable.”

“I’m happy and I’m blessed. To me, this album and this opportunity, is a rebirth. Everything in life is a journey, and “The Art of Love and War” defines this time and this place in my life.”