Amoy
Amoy Levy cites Tina Turner, Patty Labelle and Whitney Houston as influences. She'll be giving us a bit of everything - gospel, R&B, rock, jazz and, of course, blues, when she performs at the 17th Annual Women's Blues Revue on Saturday, November 22 at the Music Hall on Danforth. She will be joined by six other phenomenal female vocalists: Toya Alexis, Cindy Church, Elaine Overholt, Roxanne Potvin, Shakura S'Aida and Almeta Speaks. The 2003 WBR Band is Lily Sazz, Band Leader/Keys; Margaret Stowe, Guitar; Suzie Vinnick, Bass; Michelle Josef, Drums; Colleen Allen, Sarah McElcheran & Pat Wheeler, Horns. Avril Benoit of CBC Radio will be the emcee for the evening.
Gospel songbird Amoy Levy, a soloist with the Juno Award-winning winning Toronto Mass Choir, has sung her way into the hearts of some members of the blues community.
Amoy and her sister Cecille are the sweet-throated backup singers on Danny Brooks and the Rockin' Revelators' 2000 gospel recording, the critically acclaimed Righteous. They can also be heard on another critical favourite, the Juno-nominated Saved! by the NorthernBlues Gospel Allstars. Amoy, who is a compelling singer, is featured on two tracks of the 2002 NorthernBlues Music release.
MapleBlues reviewer John Valenteyn called Amoy's vocal on the Brooks' original, "24/7/365," on Saved!, "jaw-dropping." To-Nite's Gary Tate, in his review of Saved!, was impressed with Levy's "beautiful solo" on "Higher Ground" (arranged by Levy's husband, Chris Brown) and added that she "weaved another spell on '24/7/365' with her silken vocals." Gordon Baxter of Blues On Stage said "'24/7/365' is driven along by pumping piano and Hammond B3 from Michael Fonfara, and Levy's gritty vocals are a more than equal match…both songs suggest that given the right support, Levy could go a long way."
Levy, who sings at this year's Women's Blues Revue, on November 22 at The Music Hall, says the praise she receives from the critics and her audiences reconfirms to her that she really wants to continue her pursuit of a career in music. "It brings me joy that I can touch someone in that way."
Born in Toronto to music-loving Jamaican parents, Levy, who's now 33, is one of four children -- all girls. Lorraine Amoy Levy was given the middle name Amoy, which means "Little Sister," after her Chinese cousin.
Growing up, Levy sang at church and at home with her sisters. "Being in the black church, there was a lot of music going on," she says. "My parents were always playing music. Every Saturday morning, we'd all sing and clean."
One of Levy's older sisters, Pauline, went on to form the Youth Outreach Mass Choir in 1989 and handed the reins to Amoy in 1990. The now-disbanded choir was nominated for a Juno Award in 1997 for the recording Just Look and in its time accompanied Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Rita McNeil, Amanda Marshall and Puff Daddy (now P. Diddy).
A soloist with the Toronto Mass Choir since 1985, Levy is featured on two tracks -- "How Sweet The Name" and "Victory In Jesus" -- of the choir's Juno Award-winning CD, Instrument Of Praise. Coincidentally, Instrument Of Praise competed for the Juno with Saved!, also nominated in the contemporary Christian/gospel category for 2002. "I was happy either way," Levy says. "It was a double joy."
Brooks says that when he first met Levy in September 2000, while working on Righteous at Doug Romano's Fire Escape Studio, he thought he had encountered a combination of Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin.
The gritty-voiced Brooks says that when he walked into the studio Levy was "surprised to see a little white boy. She had been working on the tracks before she met me and said I sounded like some big black guy."
He says that Levy has amazing control of her voice, "to hold it in and caress you and then fire it up and electrify you." She's got more than technique, though, Brooks adds. "This lady knows what she's singing about, and her understanding and compassion for people and life make it real, which in my way of thinking makes her a soul singer."
Vocally, Amoy brings the Rockin' Revelators, a powerhouse band with a lineup of veteran musicians, to another place, Brooks says. "Sometimes when we are really going for it, I think of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends meets The Blind Boys with Tina Franklin."
Although gospel music is her foundation, Levy says that Tina Turner, Patty Labelle and Whitney Houston are among her influences and she's sung genres other than gospel, including R&B, rock and jazz.
At the Women's Blues Revue, Levy plans to do a gospel/rock tune and possibly a rock number as well. "I love rock 'n' roll, I really do," she says, "but you can't do it in church."
She's recorded a Christmas single, an R&B tune called "Christmas Groove" that got some airplay on FLOW 93.5, and she's at work on another R&B single, "Shock."
Brooks, the Rockin' Revelators and the Fabulous Levy Sisters can be heard on the soon-to-be-available limited release, Soulsville, Souled Out 'n' Sanctified. Three great tracks from the recording can be heard on Brooks' Web site, www.dannybrooksmusic.com.
Soulsville, Souled Out 'n' Sanctified will be released in conjunction with the group's appearance on the television show 100 Huntley Street this New Year's Eve.
And the rafters of Toronto's Stone Church should be rockin' in January, when a DVD of a performance by Brooks, the Revelators and the Fabulous Levy Sisters is shot there.
- Ruth Schweitzer