Charles Bradley - Black Velvet out 9 November

“Bradley was a relentlessly transfixing presence onstage, able to quiet an entire audience with a ballad before turning a crowd frenzied with full-stage dancing and a deep, full-throated roar.” – Rolling Stone

"The way Charles Bradley sang, the way he commanded a stage, his weathered yet powerful scream — every bit of his essence was imbued with the gratitude, love and absolute urgency of a man who waited until his 60s to realize his dream." – NPR Music

November 5, 2018 would have been Charles Bradley’s 70th birthday. In celebration of his extraordinary life, Daptone imprint Dunham Records will release his fourth and final album on November 9. Black Velvet will feature ten studio recordings never before included on any album including lead single “I Feel A Change.” Watch the video for the track, directed by Living On Soul’s Jeff Broadway & Cory Bailey,

Black Velvet is a celebration of Charles Bradley, lovingly assembled by his friends and family at Dunham/Daptone Records. Though chronologically the material spans Charles' entire career, this is no anthology, greatest hits or other shallow rehashing of the songs that already made him famous. Rather, this album is a profound exploration through the less-travelled corners of the soulful universe that Charles and his longtime producer, co-writer and friend Tommy "TNT" Brenneck created in the studio together over their decade-long partnership.

It features new songs recorded during the sessions from each of his three albums, heard here for the very first time in all their scorching glory: "Can't Fight the Feeling," "Fly Little Girl" and the heart-wrenching single "I Feel a Change"; hard core rarities like his funk-bomb duet with LaRose Jackson, "Luv Jones," the psychedelic groover, "(I Hope You Find) The Good Life" and the ever-illusive alternate full band electric version of "Victim of Love"; sought-after covers of Nirvana's "Stay Away," Neal Young's "Heart of Gold" and Rodriguez's "Slip Away"; and the title track "Black Velvet," a stirring Menahan Street Band instrumental to which Charles was never able to cut a vocal.

Brenneck notes of “I Feel A Change,” recorded during the Victim of Love sessions, “Horns and organ were recorded later adding a haunting beauty to the otherwise a cappella intro. The lyrics are 100% Charles. Personal yet abstract. Directly from the heart. He truly loved the expression ‘going through changes’ and this was a few years before we would record our rendition of Sabbath’s ‘Changes’ with the Budos. Sadly Charles never got to hear the finished version of this beautiful song.”