USA: Pop star Christina Aguilera gets "Back to Basics" for her jazz-inspired new album

Get ready for a new Christina Aguilera - especially on her new double album, "Back to Basics". The 25 year old songstress is very much in love with her music executive Jewish husband Jordan Bratman and it shows. "I am newlywed as of almost a year now and it's just a beautiful time so I wanted it to definitely reflect itself on the record. But there are other things, aside from love, that I talk about on the album but predominately that is a huge part of my life," Aguilera told Reuters in Los Angeles, California. While recording her upcoming album, a project inspired by music and images from the '20s, '30s and '40s, Aguilera came up with so many songs she decided to put it out as a double disc. Aguilera solicited producers for the album via a letter explaining her vision. Also enclosed was a compilation of more than 30 songs spanning the '20s through the '60s that had influenced her, including contributions from Otis Redding, Millie Jackson, Ray Charles, Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt and even Screamin' Jay Hawkins. "I always have know that I wanted to kind of dive into the music that has inspired me the most and that is the elements of blues, jazz, and soul music regarding specifically the eras of the 20s, 30s and 40s and beyond. But, visually and cinematically all the Hollywood glam-sters and screen sirens involved in those eras it is just a fun, feelgood time for music and the look of everything. So, I completely just dove in head first and kind of put my own interpretation on to what that would be today in a modern day twist," Aguilera said who has sold more then 25 million records world wide. With the new two-CD, 22-song set, executive-produced and co-written by Aguilera, her aim is no less ambitious than to pay homage to her musical heroes while inventing something new. The first disc, primarily produced by DJ Premier, combines old-song sensibilities with hip-hop elements, samples and modern technology. "I definitely never like to go straight for the obvious choice the hit maker of the moment and what not that doesn't challenge me in any way and I find it pretty boring and you then you start sounding the same as every one else cause everyone has their particular style and way of doing things. So I wanted to think a little more left field and I have always been a huge fan of DJ Premier for what he does for a lot of the hip - hop genre," Aguilera said. Disc two, produced by Linda Perry, who worked on her 2002 album "Stripped", features all live instrumentation with no samples. On her new album Aguilera feels she is breaking down her personal walls with a cycle of songs that actually deal with childhood abuse ("Oh Mother"), lacking a father figure ("The Right Man"), and how true love can heal all wounds in the end. "With DJ Premier using you know a strong hard hitting beat of today, with elements of old, using horn blares soundbites, etc. from old but over here went I went to work with Linda Perry I was getting such an different interesting sound with that same throwback appeal using all that instrumentation, musicians. Getting old vintage microphones, putting old ratty cloths on them, covering it up and kind of singing through it to get that old muffled, gritty sound. So, we really went there to try and create it organically and authentically," she said. Since her debut seven years ago, the singer has talked about her love for such torch and blues singers as Etta James. As she prepared for the album, due for release Tuesday (August 15), photos accompanied her into the studio, as did tear sheets and pictures of Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane and Miles Davis. While she may seem eager to distance herself stylistically from her 1999 self-titled debut now, the album did sell 12.5 million copies worldwide and launched the teenager into instant stardom via such songs as "Genie in a Bottle," "What a Girl Wants" and she followed with "Mi Reflejo," primarily a Spanish remake of her debut album, which sold 2.2 million copies worldwide. Breaking away from the restraints she felt on her first album formed into, English album number two, 2002's "Stripped". She stripped away the young girl and revealed a sexed up version of herself on "Dirrty," and the smash hit ballad "Beautiful". Aguilera plans to kick-start the album by playing a limited number of intimate U.S. jazz clubs, followed by a European tour that will include private showcases in London and Paris. A full-scale U.S. tour will start next year.

ITN Source | August 17, 2006

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