Queen Latifah’s new album Trav’lin’ Light will be released by famed jazz label Verve Records in conjunction with Flavor Unit Entertainment on September 25. Produced by three-time Grammy® winner Tommy LiPuma and by Geffen Records chairman Ron Fair, the album is the long-awaited follow-up to Latifah’s critically-acclaimed and Grammy® nominated release The Dana Owens Album (2004).Trav'lin' Light is Latifah's second foray into the realm of jazz, soul, and blues. Once again, she embraces a sultry and saucy mix of fabled female vocalists who've inspired her. Exploring the songbooks of PeggyLee, Etta James, Sarah Vaughn, Nina Simone, Shirley Horn, Carmen McRae, Roberta Flack, Mary Wells, Phoebe Snow, and more, Latifah adds her warm vocals and playful personality to a hand-picked mix of familiar classics and forgotten jewels.Like its predecessor, the album features contributions by a number of stellar artists. On Trav’lin’ Light, Latifah is joined by neo-soul singers Jill Scott and Erykah Badu, piano and keyboard pioneers George Duke and Joe Sample and bass virtuoso Christian McBride. Engineered by 15-time Grammy® winner Al Schmitt, the album also features Jeff Hamilton (drums), Anthony Wilson (guitar) and John Clayton (arrangements). Furthermore, Latifah realized a lifelong dream of recording with Stevie Wonder, who contributes harmonica on one track.
LiPuma, who has worked with Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, George Benson and Barbra Streisand, produced the first six tracks on Trav’lin’ Light. Fair, who produced half of The Dana Owens Album and has lent his considerable talents to Black Eyed Peas, Christina Aguilera and Mary J. Blige, returns to produce the second half of Trav’lin’ Light.
The album was recorded at the legendary Studio A at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, host to notable recordings by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Peggy Lee, among others.
Though Queen Latifah displayed promising glimpses of her emerging vocal ability with performances in Chicago and Living Out Loud, The Dana Owens Album cemented her reputation as an extraordinary vocal talent.
With songs spanning every decade from the 1920s through the 1970s, The Dana Owens Album paid homage to those who influenced Latifah’s singing.
Featuring guest appearances by Al Green and Herbie Hancock, the album opened with an interpretation of Dinah Washington’s 1949 hit Baby Get Lost,and included versions of songs by Nina Simone, Bill Withers and Cannonball Adderley.
This summer, opening July 20, audiences will see Latifah in the most highly anticipated film of the summer Hairspray as Motormouth Maybelle with John Travolta and Michelle Pfeifer.
An acclaimed television and film actress, Grammy® Award-winning rapper and now a critically lauded singer, Queen Latifah highlighted her multitude of talents in the recent film adaptation of Chicago.
As Mama Morton, she emerged as a formidable singer and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe® nomination and a SAG Award nomination.
Latifah has also starred in such films as Life Support, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, the box-office hit Bringing Down the House and Living Out Loud, in which she sang the Billy Strayhorn classic Lush Life (produced by Mervyn Warren of Take 6).