| Barikada
- World Of Music - Svastara - 2008 |
|
L O L A
Atlanta, Alabama, USA
|
|
L o l a
Atlanta, Alabama, USA |
|
Lola (just Lola) is a dynamic blues and R&B singer / keyboard
player who has been igniting stages in the Atlanta area and is just beginning
to break
out as a national artist. Blessed with a deep soul voice, a funkified keyboard
style and an intense, high energy stage presence, Lola combines traditional
blues with hard-edged R&B to create her own brand of contemporary, tough
music.
Lola was born in New York and grew up as a "military brat" in Oceanside,
CA before her parents moved to Mobile, AL. It was there that she began sitting
in with her father's funk band, playing trumpet and drums before switching
to keyboards. Stevie Wonder, Donnie Hathaway, Jimmy Smith and Joe Sample were
her key piano influences, along with her father's favorite, bluesman Amos Milburn.
She worked her way through college playing in three different Mobile churches,
absorbing a huge dose of gospel influence that you can hear every time she
sings. Her other vocal inspirations include Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt,
B. B. King and Stevie Wonder.
Finishing college, Lola won a berth as a keyboard player with the late soul
great Johnnie Taylor, touring across the country and learning first hand how
to work a crowd into a frenzy.
In 1996, after winning a nationwide talent contest on BET television contest,
she was signed by Andre Harrell to a Motown recording contract, but the album
remains unreleased since Harrell's departure from the company.
Since striking out on her own as a band leader, Lola has shared the stage
with The Pointer Sisters, Bobby Womack, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Betty
Wright and Chubby Checker. Now she's ready for the spotlight herself. With
her firebrand stage presence, a heap of original songs, high powered keyboards,
a tight band and, most of all, her deeply soulful, rich and powerful voice,
Lola is a major new figure stepping on to the national blues scene.
Presently she is signed with Wilbe Records. August 2007 Wilbe Records released
her new CD, Lola, "Giver He What She Wants" (Wil2012-2).
| 
