Alisa Randolph – Alisa Randolph (1990)

Now here was a CD I found used and almost stopped breathing for! It is Alisa Randolph, one third of my fave female funk group ever, Madame X. Anyway, Madame X was the brainchild of one of my fave ladies and producers, Bernadette Cooper. In case you were unaware, Miss Cooper was part of another of my fave female funk acts, Klymaxx. She brought the funk and sexy sensibility from Klymaxx and upped it ten notches for Madame X. Unfortunately Madame X disbanded after limited success. I thought that was the end of it all, but then I found this CD randomly one day. Not only does it feature the (arguably) best singer of Madame X, but it is produced by Bernadette! I almost died on the spot. It was rumoured that the album was actually supposed to be Madame X's follow-up, but the group was disbanded and the songs went to Alisa solo. Alas, the result wasn’t quite as Madame X-y as I’d hoped. It’s still good pop-funk, and Alisa’s in fine form, but it just wasn’t as visceral and naughty as I’d hoped. And obviously it didn’t pick up much steam in the charts. But one interesting note is that Alisa’s only single from the album, "The Entity", was recorded by actress Nia Peeples a year later for her second album, with Bernadette also at the helm. Very sadly (and thanks to consolecharlie for informing me of this), Alisa passed away in December, 2005. Her husband has created a very beautiful tribute site (I e-mailed him to confirm this was indeed the same Alisa and he seemed very happy to hear from a fan). Check it out, as in the future he plans to add audio and visual, as well as photos and a biography. It's terribly sad to know such promising talent was taken from us far too soon. She did manage to record and release some more material before she passed, however, which can be bought off of Amazon.com should you wish to bask in her wonderful voice some more.

UPDATE: Alisa's sister wrote this wonderful comment here and I'd thought I'd share it for all to see. Thanks so much, Judy.

"Alisa was my beautiful sister, here it is early Mothers Day morning and I still grieve her passing as if it just happened yesterday. It makes my heart flutter to know she had such a great fan base. I wish you all could have met her. She has always been an Angel, always generous, understanding, and gave LOVE unconditionally. Thank you all for the nice comments, I will send her your regards via ballooon delivery to HEAVEN.

Judy Harris "

Download Alisa Randolph

1		The Entity
2		How Can A Girl Get To Know You Better?
3		Put That Thang On Me
4		Guilty Of Loving You
5		Pretty Face
6		Man Stealer
7		Through My Eyes
8		He's The Kind Of Man (You Want To Come Home To)
9		What A Woman Won't Do (For Her Man)