After more than five decades as one of Canada’s leading voices in jazz, R&B and soul, John Finley is celebrating the release of his first solo album.
Finley teamed up with award-winning producer and arranger Lou Pomanti for Soul Singer, the debut solo recording for the 75-year-old vocalist.
“I’ve worked with a lot of singers, but never a trapeze artist like John Finley,” Pomanti says. He flies solo without a net, way out on a limb where there is no safety zone. He rarely sings the same thing twice, and I wouldn’t want him to. I’ve seen John in tears after a vocal take, and I’ve seen him laughing out loud after the next one. You never know what you’re gonna get, but you know it’s gonna be great. He is a rare breed.”
While being widely recognized as a dynamic performer with Canadian band Jon and Lee & the Checkmates, Los Angeles supergroup Rhinoceros and on his own, Finley has also evolved into a formidable songwriting talent. He has written songs for Ben Vereen, Ivan Neville and Melissa Manchester, and his composition Let Me Serenade You by Three Dog Night brought his songwriting to music charts around the world.
Finley wrote or co-wrote eight of the 11 songs on Soul Singer.