This past October, I had the pleasure of meeting one of Philadelphia’s most exciting performers on the come up. I had heard Al Zamora’s music a few weeks before during meeting preparation and as soon as I heard the main riff on Dance to Deny I knew that Al’s music was special. Every single piece of Al’s recorded catalogue takes intimacy and emotion to places that R&B has never gone before.
NoSpace Productions is always on the lookout for promising new artists to work with, so when we heard that Al was interested in playing shows and recording new music we jumped at the chance to get him in the studio and talk shop. We had no idea that Al would perform a solo set of a few released as well as unreleased songs that truly knocked us on our asses.
With the amount of homogeneity among singer/guitarists writing and performing in the R&B genre, discovering an artist that does things their own way is a refreshing departure from the monotony. What is most striking about Al’s music is its transparency and honesty. Whether Al is delivering one of his sauntering verses that gradually develops into infectious hooks sung with the full power of his vocal cords or absolutely shredding a distorted guitar solo that you would more likely expect from a rock musician, it's clear that the pain in Al’s music is unmistakably real.
In a time when machismo seems to be one of the favorite go-to ingredients for any chart topping R&B act, Al is a shining light at the end of the tunnel; a promising beginning of what is to come for the genre.
Al will be performing and explaining a selection of his songs Friday 1/10 at Win/Win Coffee Bar in Philadelphia. You can click HERE for tickets.
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