Not yet recognized as the Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas had gone some time without a hit by the time she signed with Atlantic’s Cotillion subsidiary in the early 1970s. She’d last charted a pop hit in 1966, and had only gotten to No. 42 with her mostRead More

Drummer Zigaboo Modeliste, the grease-popping soul stylist of Meters fame, settles into a creamy seasonal groove here — sounding in no small way like chitlin-circuit crooner Tyrone Davis. Appearing on this year’s New Life, a genre-busting triumph, “Holiday Kiss” turns the typical Christmas-time theme on its ear — following theRead More